Loose Grip
‘They’re on the edge, Hero. You might want to step up your game.’
Civilian. Civilian was so close- just three, maybe two steps, and they would plummet. Hero knew it, but…but he couldn’t stop it. Not with Villain taunting him, breaking his focus, making it impossible to channel all his power into Civilian’s mind, impossible to make them take even a single step back.
‘Villain, please. You can’t do-’
Hero’s breath caught as they lost grip on Civilian. He watched them take a step forward. Saying something to Villain was stupid, he thought. Averting his focus to anyone or anything other than Civilian would result in that loose grip.
‘That was a close one. I almost thought I was going to see a flash of cameras for a second. A pity that you regained your senses.’
Stifling the need to rebut, Hero blinked, maintaining all thought for keeping Civilian’s body still at the edge of the edge of the dock.
Maybe he would be able to keep Civilian’s body afloat even if they were to fall in the water…No. No, that wouldn’t work. Making Civilian stay still would be easier than trying to make them swim, to move all those limbs- and with just the right timing…it would be impossible.
For Villain, the actions would be easy; she was accustomed to using these powers, this mind-control. Hero, on the other hand, was much less adapted, as he’d never had any need for mind-control. There was no use for it, except to cheat at school. To stick around after class while the teachers were grading papers. Instead of writing a ‘D’ Hero could have made them write an ‘A.’ But that wasn’t who Hero was. He wasn’t a cheat, wasn’t a liar. Villain, though…she was a different story.
‘Aw, come on. Don’t you have some quippy response?’
The way Villain laughed- all high-pitched and…and loud- in Hero’s head made him groan and squeeze his eyes shut, causing him to lose his connection with Civilian once again. Thankfully, they didn’t move. Was Civilian even aware that they were being controlled by two different people at once?
‘I’m not even pushing all the way, but’ -Villain laughed in Hero’s mind for a second squealy time- ‘I can tell that you are. How sad it is that you’re not capable of saving just one person.’ A sigh. ‘I expected more from you. You know that? I actually had high expectations for you of all people.’
‘Stop,’ Hero sent back, quick and easy.
‘Oo. Very good grip that time. How about you try to send more than one word at me this time?’
An image of Villain smiling flashed across Hero’s mind and he flinched, stumbled back a step, yet somehow still managing to maintain balance. He didn’t respond to Villain this time.
‘I’m being easy on you, Hero,’ Villain said, voice all sing-song. ‘I could end this little miserable wretch’s life any second. Wouldn’t be fun that way. I need you to try harder, make them take a step backwards, yeah?’
‘This isn’t a game!’
‘Isn’t it?’
Hero hated that girlish giggle, that maniacal one that had no mind. How could someone like Villain possess such a powerful ability? It wasn’t fair, not to anyone.
‘Come on, push. Make them move.’
What was this? Why this encouragement to act? Villain wasn’t helping Hero; he knew that much. It just didn’t make sense for Villain to be helping when she was so clearly hell-bent on destroying innocent lives for the fun of it. She knew as much as Hero that he would never ‘join the dark side.’ So why was she doing this? A sense of false hope, maybe? Whatever it was, Hero hated it.
Villain said, ‘If you don’t push, I will. Only a single step further and your little civilian will fall right through the water.’ She gave a hum. ‘Say, they look rather built, huh? I heard fat floats better than muscle. Unfortunate for them; they might drown, and those little teenage magazines say you never learned how to swim. Think I can kill two birds with one stone?’
‘Stop. It.’
Another sickening laugh. Hero was getting sick of this whole ordeal, but he couldn’t say that. Couldn’t say more than he already had. If what Villain said was true- that she wasn’t pushing as hard as she was capable of- then Hero was in trouble because…because he was pushing as hard as he could, putting absolutely all of himself into this one person.
‘Back to one word responses.’
‘Actually, that was two.’
‘And that was four. Did you see Civilian’s shoulder twitch?’
Now, another image appeared in Hero’s head, a moving one of Civilian’s feet touching the water first, and then their head. It happened so quickly, so shockingly fast, Hero put a hand to his mouth. He would have taken a step back, but he couldn’t.
Hero thought, It’s just an image. It’s- it’s fake. Villain’s doing this to me, making me see something that isn’t real. But then…why couldn’t he move? Why was he staring at an empty dock?
A hand dragged across Hero’s shoulder, then another, and before Hero knew it, Villain was sliding into his vision, replacing the dock.
“Such a shame,” Villain said, and…and it wasn’t in Hero’s head this time. This was real. The dock, Civilian stepping in- it was all real. “I’m disappointed in you Hero. I expected so”- her voice dropped- “so much more from you.” A pause. “You watched them die, Hero, and yet I’m the one they call a villain.”
