The Rumor Under the Overpass

His mother was asleep in the back room, breathing shallowly. Lately she spent more and more time asleep, each breath a faint mechanical tremor. Noah handed him a phone. "Look." It was a phone recording. The port warehouse chaos had been cut to frame Ethan like the attacker, but the last few seconds caught the accountant he had saved holding up his own phone and talking to police. A new comment sat at the top beneath the clip. "If he's the bad guy, why do people keep surviving long enough to testify for him?" Ethan stared at the line and felt the pain in his ears sharpen. Not because the ability was failing. Because he realized the city had begun listening for him too.