Chapter 1
Macey remembers when she first fell in love with the man who never notices her. Yes, he’s her best friend, yes she’s done everything short of shouting her love to the heavens so that someone up there would finally do something about it, but Jake just kept obliviously smiling at her with that other-worldly set of white teeth and ask if she’s been eating enough lately. “You’re too skinny Mace.” Why does he care? I’m not a twig and likely to snap, like his “girlfriend” Chelsea. Chelsea this, Chelsea that, of course he talks his head off about her. He had been crazy about Chelsea since high school, just like Macey had always been crazy about him. She enjoyed love triangles in movies like anyone else but for a love triangle to exist in her real life--well that just made her nauseous.
She really shouldn’t be mad, though. Jake always loved fragile women, and, well, she wasn’t fragile in any way. Not even close. Macey remembers overhearing him in high school years ago and the words he spoke to their mutual friend never quite left her: “Jo?! She’s a weightlifter, I’d never date her. I only date women who need me to be the man.” Psh, of all the close-minded... but Macey supposes he could afford to be so close-minded. He was, afterall, the hottest guy in school. She accepted this truth like a knife to her fragile young heart and sat there in the Williamsburg High auditorium for the rest of that day with her head on her knees and her hands on her wavy long dark hair, crying.
As for Macey herself? Well, she was only average. Scratch that, she was only average-looking but with a very bizarre above-average ability. You could call it strong genes. At least that was what her mother termed it as she tried to explain to her weeping ten-year old daughter why she managed to pry the monkey bars off the welded hinges at the Williamsburg Park playground. It was a bit of a mystery that seemed to plague—or bless depending on how she chose to feel about it on a given day—the women in her family. That’s right, this super strong “gene” had been something that was passed down by generations of only women in her matriarchal past. Where the bizarre DNA originated is hardly known, but it was to be kept as a secret of course. Everyone read about what happened when her great-grandmother Edna made a public spectacle of herself breaking chains and fighting lions—she became a circus act! Macey was horrified at the thought of anyone viewing her like a clown, just like her great grandmother. No, no, no. No one, especially and specifically Jake should ever know what a freak she was.
For such a reason Macey never played sports growing up. She tried to throw a ball to her Father once and the ordeal had sent him to the ER with a broken ankle. That was the end of ball-throwing of any sort. Her only true friend in the world, Cassandra, was the sister she never had growing up. She only knew about her strength because of a game of tag they had played around the house as grade schoolers. Macey had pushed her a little too hard and sent poor Cas out the back door and into the grass bank on the other side of the driveway. Luckily there were no ER trips involved in that accident, but it made Macey fear herself and her abilities even more. It’s not like she could control it, exactly. It seemed to be an emotional reaction. Whenever she felt excited or in danger, for example. The older she got, the more she hated it, and the more her emotions became harder to control. She remembered watching Frozen’s Elsa with Cas when they were seniors in high school. Cas called her Elsa occasionally ever since. She didn’t feel like the graceful princess of ice, however—Elsa was beautiful and her “secret power” was cool. It wasn’t something that would make her un-marriageable, like being able to crush your boyfriend to a pulp.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” Cas looked up from her early soup and salad dinner.
“I have a headache.” Macey muttered.
Cas groaned. “Are you freaking kidding me right now?” She paused “Not Jake again.”
“What? No.” Macey wasn’t lying this time.
“Mace.” Cas lowered her voice. “He has a girlfriend now.”
”I know!” Macey replied, feeling her irritation level rise. No! Stop it Mace! Why are you like this today again?
“I mean, I know.” She said in a calmer tone. “I’m not thinking about him, I promise.” Something else was bothering her, something she didn’t really know. But she knew she had to leave. And it was getting late. She had to be at her parents’ house and she’d already delayed meeting them for dinner for weeks.
“I have my dinner tonight.”
“Ohhh.”
Macey closed her eyes. She’d been dreading it for so long, as much as she’d been dodging her mother’s calls. To be 26 with no boyfriend and no job was an abomination to her Mother, who was the successful small business owner of Beantown Brew in Quincy.
“Why aren’t you finally dating someone already anyways? Tell your Mom you’ve been trying at least.”
“You know I’m a bad liar.”
“So? I wouldn’t want to be beaten to death.” Ah yes, the strength that she inherited from her mother. The woman would terrify Hitler—Macey thanked her lucky stars that she took after her Father, a gentle soul with a green thumb and a knack to somehow calm her mother’s rage. They completed each other. Just like how Jake completed.... Nevermind. Macey wanted to slap herself. It was a useless crush that should have ended with adolescence. Did she have to move away to fully separate herself from this twisted lovesick obsession?
She cursed herself on the long walk to her car in the parking garage. The late afternoon sun sank lower, indicating the New England Fall was in full motion. Soon it would be too cold for her one layer sweater and short tan boots. She had kept her hair long although not as long as she grew it out in highschool. She needed to look the part of a professional for her job interviews. But what was Macey really good at? She wasn’t passionate about school and dropped out of college before she had even spent a year there. Strength was her passion—but it was a passion she could never use. She dreamed of being a police officer, fighting to save lives and catch criminals by Jake’s side—Jake who was now a lead detective with the BPD. Another completely ridiculous dream.
Macey had many odd jobs since college. But the market was hard and competitive lately.
“Another thing for mom to use against me.” She had to refrain from kicking her car tire with her short boot. That would have immediately given her a flat. She couldn’t even release her anger in any way!
“Of all the stupid—”
“Stop, stop!” A voice rang loud in the near-empty garage.
Macey paused beside her car door. A man—a younger man—was running, breathing loudly, looking over his shoulder as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Who sent you here?!” He shouted angrily. Another man appeared from an upper level. He was walking and his face was covered in a black mask. His hands were gloved. Macey just stood there, a silent and stunned observer. Whatever was happening, she knew already that she couldn’t get involved. Just like with other petty crimes she observed in the past, she had to painfully hold herself back. If she interfered it could mean being discovered—just like her mother and grandmother warned strongly. It’s a lucky thing she hadn’t been close to seeing any serious crimes because she would have likely killed the criminal on the spot. Her mother had once interrupted a kidnapping and sent the perpetrator into a brick wall, breaking many body parts. No one had believed his testimony that he was attacked by a 5′2" woman with abnormally tiny hands.
Macey continued to hold herself back. The younger man seemed affluent by the look of his suit, as he crouched next to a new Mercedes SUV. The masked man must be trying to rob him... Rich people. Macey silently scoffed. Always getting themselves in trouble. She thought to climb into the driver’s side of her ford explorer, but something made her pause. Why would I help him? She shouldn’t, she didn’t even understand the situation. Why wasn’t this man trying to call the police?
A third man appeared, looking similarly masked and gloved. Two men verses one unarmed? That hardly seemed fair...
Author’s Note
It’s a pleasure getting to "meet" all of you amazing readers here on Inkitt! I hope that the description and 1st chapter has managed to draw you in and that you enjoy reading the rest of this story about a girl with an unusual gift of strength.
Update Schedule
The entire book is finished but as it is a first draft I’m sure there are a lot of fixes that need to be made. I am posting each chapter as I edit and plan on finishing a chapter a week! I will do my best to ensure that you all are receiving the new chapters regularly! :)
Thank you all again and I hope you enjoy!
