Shujaa Safara

Safia was ready to cry when she ran up the stairs to the secret room where her most-trusted friends awaited her. They stood to their feet with anticipation when she entered the room and Safia could hold her tears back no more. “Saf, what’s wrong?” Sam asked as she hurried to embrace her friend. “Hey, hey, shh,” she whispered. “It’s okay.” Kenji and David looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Safia cried for a few moments more on Sam’s shoulder before she was able to get herself settled down. Sam wiped Safia’s tears with her hands and said, “Shhhh. Why don’t you calm down and tell us what happened?” Safia finally got herself under control and began, “I got the book, but… I saw something.” “Okay. What did you see?” encouraged Kenji. “Another book… a book about how to kill people with superhuman powers… how to kill people like me.” “Whoa!” whispered David. Samantha took a step back in shock, making sure to keep her hand on Safia’s shoulder for emotional support. “That’s not all,” Safia continued. “When I opened that book, Commander A-Power’s chest emblem thingy fell out of the book. It marked the pages that tell how to kill Commander A-Power.” “No way!” whispered David in sad amazement. “You gotta be kidding me,” Sam added. “No… no, it’s… it’s true… and… there were more… trophies, I guess?... taken from the bodies of other superhumans. You guys…. I think Pop might be Shusk.” “No way! Nah hah!” declared David. “Who is Shusk?” asked Sam. “I’m serious, guys. I really think Pop is Shusk.” “That’s impossible, Safia!” exclaimed David. “There has to be another explanation.” “Who is Shusk?” Sam asked again. “No, it’s… it’s totally possible,” added Kenji. “What do you mean by that?” objected David. “GUYS!!!” screamed Sam. Everyone was suddenly silent in response as she quietly asked again, “Who is Shusk?” David explained, “Okay, Shusk is a legendary figure. He’s not real, just like superheroes are not real.” “I think after what has happened to me in the last twenty-four hours, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about who or what is or isn’t real,” Safia interjected. “Okay… that’s a valid point,” David conceded. He continued his explanation to Sam, “So… Shusk was a character in the A-Power comics who went around… killing superhumans, good and bad alike, didn’t make a difference. So, he was dubbed the SuperHUman Serial Killer… and they just took the first letters and named him Shusk. Until now, he has only been a fictional character, but now… I suppose anything is possible. But if Shusk IS real, it can’t be Safia’s Pop. I mean… it’s Pop, right?” “Yeah,” Sam agreed. “I don’t know, guys,” Kenji surprised everyone. Safia looked at Kenji and read his face. “What are you not telling us?” Kenji nervously paused for a moment before finally saying, “Look. When I was in my dad’s room… I saw something, too. It was a list of superhumans, all heroes or villains from the Commander A-Power comic books. Next to each name it told whether the person was a myth… I’m guessing that means that they weren’t real… or being tracked, or unknown, or…” After a long pause, David begged, “Or what?” Kenji finally responded, “Or dead.” The group was in shock. Comments were whispered back and forth, some to each other, some to themselves. Finally, Sam said, “Okay, so, what do we know about this… Shusk… from the comics?” “Well,” David began to answer, “we know that he stalks superhumans, regardless of whether they are superheroes or supervillains. He studies their weaknesses and devises a plan of attack. He often attacks when they are battling someone else, so… the victim never sees him coming.” As David spoke, Safia began to get a strange, terrified look on her face. “It’s even been said that most of his victims may have even encountered him several times in the weeks leading up to their deaths, but no one knows what he looks like, right? So, he comes out of nowhere and, in only a matter of seconds, BOOM!” Safia flinched. “It’s over! Never stood a chance.” Sam noticed Safia and intervened, “Okay, David. Thank you. That’s enough from you.” She put her arm around Safia for comfort and support. “What?” David asked, oblivious as always. “I’m just telling you what the comic books say. My point is: there is nothing in the comic books that describes Shusk that would lead anyone to believe that Shusk could be Pop.” Somberly, Kenji added, “Shusk was black.” Everyone fell absolutely silent and now hung on every word that Kenji spoke. “From the comics we know that Shusk was a black man. Shusk was about Pop’s height… and would be about Pop’s age. And it would make sense if Pop were in some kind of superhuman killing cult with my dad… and even your dad, David. Our grandparents were once the leaders of this comic book club. Maybe, inside of the comic book club, there is an inner circle… a secret circle, that tracks superhumans and then eliminates them. Back in the day, Pop could have been the official assassin for the group. His reward for risking his life to carry out their missions? He gets to keep souvenirs from his kills. They never found the bodies of any of Shusk’s victims. Perhaps because this secret society of superhuman serial killers did experiments on the bodies of their victims in order to become better hunters? I don’t know, but… it really fits together when we compare what Safia and I have both seen today. “Oh wow…” David whispered as he finally grasped the picture of how all the evidence came together. “It DOES add up. It makes perfect sense.” “Wait,” Sam interjected. “So, if Pop is… Shusk… what does that mean for Safia? I mean, wouldn’t he protect her from the rest of his group?” “Honestly, I don’t know,” Kenji answered with candor.