Entry #5: COWARDS AND CAPES

COWARDS AND CAPES
60,000 words
YA Sci-Fi

PITCH:

It's been twenty years since the last superheroes died and the power went out in Chicago. The city's dark remains have burdened fifteen-year-old Glenn with a broken mother and a battered best friend. They are both his greatest loves and his biggest burdens. With his late father's revolver and a heavy, cynical heart, Glenn protects them as best he can until the day the mysterious old man at the end of his delivery route shares a secret: he knows how to bring electricity back. What is more, he'll need Glenn to find the bodies of the dead superheroes to make it happen. It's a decision that will inevitably create the first and last supervillain. Moving back and forth through five decades and vividly exploring love, loss and hope, this story combines the depth and beauty of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY with the humor and adventure of GOONIES.

FIRST 250:

Chapter One

__________

1984

Glenn poked Charlie's body with the toe of his shoe. He was unconscious, shattered glass and milk strewn all around him on the pavement. There was blood, too, escaping from some unseen head wound and stretching its crimson fingers inside the white liquid.

Glenn bent down and shook his burly friend. "Charlie."

Staying in the middle of Malum Street left them incredibly exposed.

The sun had just broke behind the lone house at the end of the forgotten road, all the weeds and gnarled growth glistening with frost.  The two-story home looked as though it could be pushed over. Glenn had often thought of doing it himself, of putting the structure out of its misery. What little paint remained was no longer colored and the wood beneath it had given way to rot and ominous noises whenever the wind picked up. It was assumed that it had been abandoned and looted, the same as every house in the neighborhood, but the boys went by every morning regardless.

Because Charlie had begged and Glenn had relented. Someone at Training had said they'd seen lights on inside the house. Not candlelight, either. Light light. Electric light. It was the stuff of legend, buried with the last superheroes in '64.

It had been relatively easy for Glenn to work the lifeless street into their delivery route, to swing by the house in the dead of morning and let Charlie check for the lights. How quickly that simple choice had become a poor one.