Starcrossed

have to tell him you’re here, he’s been looking for you all day,” Claire told Helen. The phone buzzed again.
    “It’s him.” She read the screen. “He wants me to keep you here. He’s on his way over.”
    “No! I’m not ready to talk to any of them yet!” Helen exclaimed, backing away.
    “Len, he’s really worried about you, they all are.”
    “I gotta get out of here,” Helen stammered. She ran a hand over her face and turned for the window.
    “Where are you going?” Claire asked, trying to block Helen’s path with an outstretched arm. “I’ll tell him to go away if you want, but you have to let me know that you’ll be okay.”
    “I’m just going home. Promise you won’t let him follow me, okay?”
    Claire promised and gave Helen a hug. Then Helen jumped out the window, transitioning states in midair. She heard Claire gasp as she flew away. A minute later Helen was landing in her front yard and heading right for the stairs to take a shower and warm up.
    He was waiting for her behind the front door. He swept her feet out from under her before he even bothered to slam the front door shut. Everything went completely dark, darker than any night, any blindfold, or any closed room that Helen had ever experienced. She was enveloped in a disorienting blackness that made her feel so dizzy and cut off from the rest of the world that she couldn’t even remember the layout of her own house anymore. Where were the stairs? The furniture? She didn’t know. It was as if she had fallen into a black hole.
    Helen was so shocked she didn’t have time to roll over before she felt a very large man cover her from behind. He took her head between his hands and wrenched it to the side, trying to break her neck. She grabbed on to his wrists and pulled them outward, trying to get him to release his grip, but he had leverage on his side. Her neck muscles strained dangerously, and she felt herself start to panic for the second time in an hour. But it was that recent brush with death that informed her as she kicked and struggled. The thought of using her lightning made her stomach turn, but she knew she had no choice.
    Helen felt the current start in her belly. It was naturally trying to arc out of her toward the ground, and all she had to do was release it. Untrained as she was, she let the bolt go, and it shot down her legs uselessly, causing her to convulse. In her desperation, she got the last few volts to run up to her hands and jump across her skin into the man’s wrists.
    For a brief moment the blue spark lit up the room with a flash, and she saw his eyes widen in surprise. Then she felt him shake with the current, and heard him scream as he was electrocuted.
    Helen smelled burnt hair and ozone like a calling card from her darkest childhood nightmare. She felt what must have been half her body’s energy empty out of her, leaving her as weak as a kitten. The burden of the large man on top of her grew intolerably heavy, and she knew she had to get out from under him before he recovered or she would be no better off than she was when he’d had her by the head. While her attacker was still shaking, she managed to kick some of his weight off of her, and as the barest amount of light was allowed to creep back into the room, she finally got a look at him.
    The gleaming blond curls and the thick body were Hector’s, and for a moment she feared she had killed him while he might have been trying to teach her a lesson. She leaned right over him to see if he was still breathing. Hanging inches away from his face in the regular darkness of night, she saw it was Creon, but it was too late. The moment she recognized him he opened his eyes and grabbed her to his chest in a deadly bear hug.
    Helen screamed and struggled. She reached down into her belly looking for the current, but all that was left was weak static. She had already discharged all the voltage stored up in her muscles. The release of all that energy had left her weak and vulnerable. Her arms and legs had no strength, and she crumpled under Creon’s renewed attack like a paper bag. He fell on top of her, pinning her to the ground as he pulled a bronze knife out of his belt.
    “Such a shame, preciosa . You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. Almost too perfect to cut,” he grunted into her ear. “But Atlantis . . .”
    She squirmed her neck away from his lips, shivers of disgust running across her skin. Then he pushed off of her, raising his