Aspen: Hiding Behind a Mask (Book 1)

By Sarah Day

 Aspen; otherwise known as David Lee has to take on the responsibility of protecting his city from the superhuman group "Sazaro" with the powers he had been gifted. However, he is not alone in this battle, accompanied by his partner "Luna" and Jaison, an FBI agent assigned to assist them. While only being known

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rose Reads Books
• Release date: Dec 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088251720

Sarah Day

Sarah Day is the author of the "Selestria" series, a young adult fantasy series published in March of 2022. Sarah grew up in Manchester, Maryland and graduated from Manchester Valley High School in 2021. You can learn more about Sarah and upcoming books at RoseReadsBooks.com

Book preview

Chapter 1

I watched her fall off the 20-story building, reaching out to grab her but knowing better than to try.

She chuckled; her smile gleaming as she outstretched her arms to catch the wind beating behind her. As terrifying as the scene was, she was not a bit scared, like any normal person would be. Because she knew she would not be hurt.

I watched her near the busy street and the death-promising payment. People stopped their cars, jumping out to see the sight while causing a small traffic jam. Everyone watched her closely. They all knew who she was. It was uncommon to not know of Luna.

As soon as she got too close for comfort, she flipped her body, flying up into the sky like a graceful bird back up to the rooftop to hover in front of me. Please stop doing that, I pleaded as I crossed my arms, fully aware that my words would have no effect on her.

Luna smirked. You know that's not going to happen. She was always such a risk-taker, not caring much about safety or logic, which I always told her would someday be her downfall.

I looked up at the stars in the night sky. I know, I muttered as I let out a breath, questioning why I even tried with her anymore.

She laughed at my humorless comment and sat down on the ledge of the roof. So, have you talked to Jay recently?

I looked down at her. Her eyes were gleaming from the adrenaline rush. I've studied Luna's eyes quite well since it was one of her only facial features that I could see. I've recognized that adrenaline junky look in her eyes very well.

I sat next to her, facing the opposite direction so my feet were not leaning off the ledge of the roof like hers. Yeah, I replied, I know the plan.

She nodded and looked out into the distance. Do you think they'll show up?

I shrugged. They didn't last time. Why should they now?

You never know, they might. But I think Jay did have a good plan, though. This could be it. This could be how we catch them.

Jay was a lot smarter than both of us were. He planned everything out for us, he was our strategist. I wasn’t sure what we would do without him. We'd probably both be dead, for starters.

Or it could be the cause of another useless fight that we end up losing, once again, I told her.

She smiled. Since when did you become the cynical one?

I smiled a little in return. I've been around you too much. I looked down at my feet as I finished what I was saying. But as I said, I'm sick of never winning. I feel like we're going in circles chasing something that may never even be a reality.

A few seconds passed by in silence as she processed my words. I looked to her, wondering why she hadn’t said anything, maybe something hopeful that would lift our spirits that we both would know wouldn't be true. She was smiling, gleaming with joy. It's her... that's her…

I spun around to see a blonde girl with sunglasses going into the general store. She checked behind her before entering the store. YES! Luna exclaimed excitedly.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her down in front of the roof’s ledge with me. Listen, we can't go in without a plan. How should we do this?

She pursed her lips. I'll fly in and attack her from behind.

I closed my eyes and sighed. Luna never did think too rationally when it came to these kinds of situations. We can't do that. That's too obvious. What if I teleport us both inside the store and we hide somewhere, then we trap her?

She nodded. Okay.

Let's do this, I said as I grabbed her hand to teleport us into the store. In a matter of seconds, I found myself in the pitch dark behind an empty shelf. I looked to Luna as she stared up at me with wide eyes. This... isn't right... she whispered.

As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I realized that she was right, something was wrong here. The store was dark and abandoned. Aspen... we have to get out of here.

I nodded and reached my hand out to her to grab her and teleport us out, but as soon as I put my hand out the room had lit up as a wall of flame formed around and between of us, breaking my grasp. I couldn't reach through the fire to get her, so she was stuck here. I couldn't just leave her here. Damn it.

The fire was closing in on us. Luna flew up to the ceiling and hovered there, bringing her legs close to her chest, but the flames still crawled upwards towards her. They were close enough to nearly burn us but not inching any closer. As if not to injure or to kill us, but purely just to intimidate.

I'm disappointed, a girl's voice said from the distance. I looked to my right to see a familiar face through the flames. The girl with blonde hair who we followed in here was standing there on the other side. I made eye contact with her between each gust of orange flame. She smirked at me knowingly. You really think we're that stupid? She pulled off the blonde wig, letting out her dark black hair with a touch of green streaks. I thought you'd be smarter than to fall for such an obvious ploy.

I didn't say anything. This was Jessica, otherwise known as Jex. She was a part of a lethal group called Sazaro. Something that made Sazaro special was that they all had some sort of superhuman power that made them extremely deadly in the wrong mindset. Which they were.

Nobody knew Sazaro's motives. They've never declared them officially. People had their speculations and theories, but nobody knew for sure. Was it world domination? Punishment? Genocide? Or were they just crazy and bored? All that we knew is that they've been quite a nuisance. They would flat out murder whoever they feel fit, all because they were given the powers to do so. Using their rare gift for destruction…

After finding out of our powers, the government had appointed Luna and I to fight them since we too were gifted with superhuman abilities, giving us a hefty paycheck along with it. They promised us complete anonymity along with an agent to supervise us and attend to our needs and any other help. That was Jay. His real name was Jaison, but that's just what Luna and I called him. The reason the government paired us with Jay and relocated him to work with us was that he too had superhuman abilities. Sadly, his powers weren’t useful enough to fight with us, but he is still very helpful to us nevertheless. His powers consist of being able to heal anyone just by making contact with the person, which is why Luna and I never came out with any wounds after a battle, even though we've been severely injured nearly every time.

I had the powers of ice and teleportation. I could freeze anything that I touched and teleport anywhere that I could imagine within a few mile radius. Luna had the power of flight and telekinesis while Jex also had the power of flight and telekinesis, but also flame and invisibility.

Along with the government's promised anonymity, we were given alias names and disguises. Mine was Aspen, and my partners was Luna. Part of the alias that the government gave us were masks that covered the space around our eyes. I thought it was cliché, but I guess they wanted to amuse the general public.

I didn't even know Luna's real name or her true identity. It's been such a mystery to me ever since I met her. I would always ask her to share our identities with just each other, but she would always demand that we don't.

Since Jay had his powers since he was born, he's gotten to know how they work pretty well and used that knowledge to his advantage. He's somehow made it so that we can change into our disguises whenever we want as if it were one of our powers. It's easy to control and quite helpful. I honestly didn’t quite fully understand how it all worked. However it did work, it definitely was an advantage to us.

I surveyed the area surrounding us. There had to be a way out. Would my powers work in this situation? I put my hand out in front of me, causing a line of ice to surround me, but it melted almost immediately.

Fire beats ice, dumb ass, Jex yelled over the sound of the scorching flames and falling building structure.

I looked to Luna, who looked back at me. She didn't seem as scared as she first did. Like this was becoming repetitive and tedious to her, even though neither of us had a plan out of this. Did she think I knew what to do? Or maybe she had a plan?

She looked from me to Jex. I see you disabled the sprinklers. I wonder how you did that? 

Jex squinted at her, trying to decipher where she was going with this. Whatever you're planning, Luna, isn't going to work, she said with a knowing smile. She seemed pretty confident in herself.

So, you wouldn't mind if I did this? Luna said as she pushed up a panel of the dry wall in the ceiling, looking inside.

Jex furrowed her eyebrows, raising her hand up along with the growing flames rising at Luna's feet. She didn't seem at all afraid, though, she just pulled her feet up to her chest and got closer to the inside of the ceiling. Luna flicked her hand from inside the ceiling, somehow causing the sprinkler to go off. She came out from the ceiling and pointed to me. Your turn now!

I gave her a quick smile and looked to Jex. I put my hand up, causing the falling water around me to freeze as if it were hail and stop midair, then making them fly towards Jex.

She put her hands up to protect herself, but she was still inevitably hit by the tiny pieces of flying ice. When the ice settled, she took her hands away from her face and wiped away a stream of blood from her cheek. Idiots... was all she could manage to say. She was too concentrated on deciding what her next tactic would be.

She flicked her hand carelessly, flinging a line of fire my way. I raised my hand again and the puddle of water on the ground reached upwards into a wall of ice. It immediately melted at the touch of her flame, but still saved me some time.

I didn't even realize Luna was laughing next to me until she said. We're the fools? Seriously? You just broke a pipe in the ceiling and didn't even have the brain cells to realize how easy it would be to figure that out and for me to fix it. You need to understand and be able to predict your enemy's next move. Which you tend to fail at, Jex.

The flames appeared to die down as the sprinkler's rained down upon us. I wasn't sure what our next move should be. Should we plan our next attack? Or should we scope out how we would escape?

My thoughts were soon interrupted by my body being suddenly shoved up against the wall in a man’s grasp.

I stared down at him in in fear as I realized who was before me.

The leader of Sazaro.

I was losing. It was obvious. I could feel the force around my neck as I was pushed further up the wall. I gazed down to see the leader of Sazaro as he smiled maliciously up at me.

Me, against a madman with a psychotic goal, and possibly enough power to do it. And we were the only ones that could stop him, no matter how unfit we were for the job. I watched Luna fly up behind him, pushing him to the ground while causing me to fall in the process as I coughed up blood. She stood up over him, running her fingers through her long dark brown hair to get it out of her face. She smiled down at him victoriously and looked to me. Need help? she asked before walking over and holding out her hand to me. I took it and stood up.

Thanks, I said weakly. She was obviously gorgeous with her long, dark brown hair and playful smile. She was always loved around the world. I'd say that the public even admired her more than me without any competition. Although Luna was hard to get along with or let alone even work with her sarcasm and spite, we made a good team. I couldn't think of anyone better to work with. We were good friends, although I knew she'd never admit that with how spiteful she was.

Before I could warn her, she was grabbed by her hair and thrown up against a wall as he stood back up behind her. The leader laughed hysterically as he put his hand on his forehead. That's cute. His childish smile faded into an angry frown as he slowly looked up at me. Your turn.

I ground my teeth as he stepped up in front of me and stared into my eyes. He tried to punch me in the face, but I caught his fist in my hand, slowly turning it to ice in my grip. He tried to pull himself free, but he was caught in my grasp. I finally let him go as the ice grew to his wrist.

He held his ice-covered hand in his other in pain. You little brat, you're going to pay for that! he yelled as he pointed at me. He swung again and again and time after time I dodged him until I dropped to the ground, teleported behind him, grabbed his feet, and pulled them out from beneath him so that he fell. I stood over top of him and put my hands on his wrists until his body was frozen to the ground.

I heard a grunt from behind me followed by a sharp pain in my shoulder. My fingertips touched my shoulder blade to be met by blood gushing from my body. I turned around to see Jex panting heavily as she backed away from me. I glanced down at the knife she had shoved into my shoulder.

I made eye contact with Luna from behind Jex. I watched the anger form in her eyes as she took in what had happened. I fell to the ground out of pain as I watched her. She immediately sprung into action, flying towards Jex just as she began to turn around. As soon as Jex had noticed her coming, herself and the rest of the group had vanished.

Luna stopped in her tracks, placing her feet on the ground as she ran over towards me, falling to her knees on the ground beside me. Oh, God… she muttered.

I could feel my vision begin to blur as I began to lose consciousness. I grunted as she placed her hands on the knife lodged in my shoulder.

Don’t take it out! I’ll bleed out before Jay can even get here! I exclaimed with all my energy.

Jay is here, idiot! she replied angrily.

I turned my head to see Jay beside me. That was quick. I was becoming less aware of my surroundings.

She’s right, take it out, he said.

I felt excruciating pain as Luna began to slowly pull the knife out. As soon as the knife was out, Jay placed his hands on my shoulder and I was met with immediate relief.

As soon as I felt the wound close completely, I stood back up on my feet. Jay began to casually walk back to his car as Luna and I followed him. This was such a natural occurrence to us at this point, it was as if I didn’t just have a knife lodged in my chest and was on the brink of death. Wounds were always temporary as long as Jay was nearby.

You guys did good today, Jay said emotionlessly as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

No better reason to celebrate then! Luna gleamed. After party at your place?

No, Jay responded flatly as he opened the door to his car. You guys are free to go home now.

Luna frowned as Jay