"You'll never see me again" + packed bag + secrets revealed
day 8 of whumptember
1394 words
warnings: broken ribs, muzzled villain, captivity
part one
~
Villain blinks absently and stares at the door. He rolls over, his body feeling twice as heavy, and stares at the ceiling. His broken ribs settle into place as he exhales slowly. He can hear his neighbors shouting, announcing the arrival of someone. But Warden just left and Villain’s too tired to care.
Or he thinks he is until the keypad outside his door starts to beep.
The door unlocks and cracks open, letting in a sliver of light. Villain squeezes his eyes shut and waits for something to happen.
“Wow,” Superhero says, leaning against the wall. “A week was all it took for you to break?”
‘Keep dreaming. I’m not breaking anytime soon,’ Is what Villain wants to say. He doesn’t have it in him to lie right now.
The door closes and the light disappears, letting the room return to its dull, flickering light Villain had grown accustomed to.
Superhero sits on the cot and leans back until his head rests on on Villain’s chest.
Villain whimpers, but doesn’t fight him.
“So,” Superhero starts, “Hero’s been asking about you. She’s been doing really well but I think she thinks I had you killed and have been lying to her. She needs proof you’re still alive.”
He sighs heavily and sits back up, smiling when a tear slides down Villain’s temple into his hairline. “I thought about just telling her you’d died…but then I realized that would make her doubt me too much. So you can see her. I’ll be in the room, you’ll be restrained. And if you talk, I’ll tell Warden about it.”
He leans over next to Villain’s ear and whispers, “And you know how she feels about that.”
Villain nods and swallows thickly. He sobs silently and takes a deep breath to pull himself together.
Superhero stands up straight and smiles brightly, “Perfect! I’ll get Sidekick in here to make sure you can’t talk and Hero and I’ll be in right after that!”
The door slams behind Superhero and Villain closes his eyes tightly. He takes deep, shuddering breaths and tries to calm his beating heart. He thinks about what Superhero said, ‘make sure you can’t talk’ and wonders what he meant.
Sidekick punches in the code on the keypad and strides into the room. She drops something on the cot and sits on the edge of it.
“Sit up,” She snaps, “We don’t have a lot of time.”
Villain holds an arm around his chest and pushes himself up with the other arm. Grunting with the effort, Villain manages to sit up and lean against the wall. He looks at Sidekick and shakes his head when he sees what she brought.
“It’s the only way you’ll get to see her.” Sidekick says, untangling the spiky muzzle.
With a satisfied exhale, Sidekick leans Villain’s head forward enough for her to slide the strap of the muzzle over his head. She pulls it down on his face and situates it so the line of spikes is pressing on his chin.
“If you try to talk, the spikes will break skin and trust me, they hurt.” Sidekick says, locking the muzzle into place.
Villain looks at her and sees small, white scars on her chin. His brows knit together and he almost reaches out to touch them, but Sidekick glares at him and stands up. “I’ll wait in here until Superhero and Hero get here, then you’ll never see me again.”
With her arms crossed in front of her chest, Villain can see her erratic breathing clearly. With every extra second in the room, she gets more panicked. Villain crosses his legs in front of him and puts his hands in his lap.
The keypad beeps and Sidekick dips her head. She walks out of the room, pushing past Hero.
Hero rushes up to Villain and holds his hands in hers. She looks back at Superhero and asks, “Why does he have that on his face?”
Superhero fakes guilt, maybe even pity, and frowns. “He’s bitten. That’s there for everyone’s safety.”
Hero takes a deep breath and looks back at Villain. “Can we have a minute?”
“I’m sorry, Warden said nobody can be alone with him.”
“Sidekick was.” Hero retorts, tears welling in her eyes. She cups Villain’s cheek and he leans against it.
“Sidekick can handle herself.” Superhero snaps. “We can leave right now if you want to keep this up.”
“No!” she sniffles. “Can you just…stand by the door? I want a little bit of privacy.”
He nods and obliges.
Villain uses the pad of his thumb to swipe a tear off Hero’s cheek and exhales slowly. Hero squeezes his hand and sits next to him, her head leaning against his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers. “I swear I didn’t know about any of this. I thought-I don’t know. I guess I thought he would actually try to figure something out with you.”
He nods and pulls her hand into his lap.
“Have you really been biting?” She asks, voice lower than before.
Villain shakes his head.
“I didn’t think so,” It’s such an obvious response. Of course Hero didn’t think he’d bitten someone. How could he have changed so much in just a week? Did Superhero think she was stupid? Did he think that she would trust him after anything he’s done.
Villain squeezes her hand and she looks at him. Somehow, even with the muzzle covering half his face, she can understand what he’s telling her.
‘You need to get away from him. I’ll be fine.’
She shakes her head and lays her head against his. “I’m not going to leave you.”
He nods and digs his nails into her hand. ‘You have to.’
Superhero kicks off from the wall and pulls Hero to her feet. “That’s enough, he’s not dead. It’s time to go.”
Villain holds onto her hand until she lets go. She nods once, ‘Ok. I’ll go.’
Exhaling, Villain lets himself fall back onto the cot. Hero watches him, taking a mental picture of him one last time. Superhero waves to Warden to open the door and she follows him out of the room.
They’re silent all the way up the stairwell until Superhero sighs. “I told you I didn’t think it was a good idea to see him. I wanted you to keep the memory you had of him.”
‘Right.’ She tells herself. ‘You wanted to protect me. Not your precious deal with the Mayor.’
She nods, “I know. I just…had to see him.”
Superhero unlocks the door to the sixth floor and lets Hero in before him. “I know. That’s why I know you’ll behave until this deal is signed. You care about him so much.”
She clenches her jaw and nods, “I do. He helped me with a lot.” she inhales and feels a sob rising in her throat. She turns down the hallway to her room and holds a hand over her heart, “Excuse me.”
She runs down the hallway without waiting for Superhero to respond. After locking the door, she drags the dresser in front of it, then the bookshelf.
She digs through her closet and finds a duffel bag big enough for everything she wants to take with her.
Clothes go in first, then cash. She looks around and tries to find something-anything-else she wants to take with her. But all she sees are things from Superhero. The “Best Hero” trophy was given to her after her first battle. Like she wanted a reminder of that bloodbath. Trinkets Superhero gathered after fights for her were sitting on the bookshelf, haunting reminders of what she’d done. Shuddering, Hero zips the duffel bag and slings it across her.
She opens the window and looks down at the fire escape, two floors down. She takes a deep breath and throws the bag down.
She climbs over the windowsill and her legs dangle in the air.
Without giving herself enough time to chicken out, Hero pushes off of the windowsill and jumps down next to her bag. She falls onto her knees and rolls onto her side. She takes a few seconds to try and feel any injuries, but other than busted knees, she wasn’t hurt from the jump. She puts the bag back around herself and hurries down the stairs, not giving Superhero enough time to realize she was gone.
