Every year, Hero becomes someone new. His powers change, as does his face and voice, and he tailors a new suit for each new identity.
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“You remind me of someone.” Villain confessed. “She uh—used to talk like you.”
“She probably grew up around the same area then.” Hero shrugged, squeezing the ledge to disguise the nervous twitch of his hands. “You know I come from out west.”
“No, it’s not the accent.” Villain leaned forward to gaze at Hero. They’d both tugged up their masks halfway to eat and now Hero’s bare skin felt ablaze beneath the supervision. “You just say similar things, you know. A lot of odd observations and comparisons I’ve never heard from anyone else.”
Hero shifted back and swung his legs into the open air, the shadows of his ankles and shoes occluding the streetlights below.
“What are you getting at?” He asked. “You think I’d know the girl or something?”
“I don’t know.” Villain’s hands curled in his lap. “Maybe. I just keeping on getting this strange sense of Déjà vu when I’m with you.”
“Are you trying a new pick up line on me?”
“No,” Villain slapped Hero’s knee, “I’m being serious. I just—well, I miss her, that’s all. We used to be close in school, but she left at the end of the year and went no contact. And I’m sorry if this is weird. It was supposed to be a compliment.”
“No, no, you’re fine.” Hero swallowed, and turned toward the skyline.
From far away, the scattered city lights and faint stars appeared perfect reflections of each other, and the sky and ground slipped together without seam. The world could turn on its end and Hero wouldn’t know up from down until he started to fall.
“It’s nice to be compared to a friend.” Hero coughed around his tight throat. That comparison would grow truer soon, once Hero left like she did.
Villain rifled around his pocket and brought out a small bracelet. He offered it to Hero and the single, teardrop shaped pearl rolled around his palm.
“She gave this to me before she left.”
The pearl gleamed like a ripped tooth. Hero whipped toward Villain, but found no tension in his jaw nor a knowing smirk on his lip. Only a thin, somber line remained on his face, though the edges pulled tighter at Hero’s reaction.
“You know this?” Villain asked, leaning toward Hero, bringing the bracelet further into the light. “Do you know her?”
“I—uh…no.” Hero curled in on himself. “Sorry, it just looked familiar for a second.”
Villain frowned and slumped forward. He slipped the bracelet back into his pocket.
“Fuck man, that almost got me.” Villain shoved his knuckle against his lip to mask the quiver of his mouth. “Why would you even react to something like that?”
“It wasn’t on purpose.” Hero whispered, glad that the upper half of his mask was still on.
His eyes burned as Villain climbed back off the ledge and landed on the rooftop.
“Whatever dude, I’ll see you around.” Villain yanked his mask back over his face, and then leapt into the night.
His silhouette cut over the nearby rooftops, suddenly stark and achingly familiar, and Hero curled his knees to his chest. The city lights crawled below—a million shining specks that Hero now likened to pearls instead of stars.
