a snippet | and you call me the villain | hero & villain [part 2]
trigger warnings: knives, implications of abuse
"Stand with your feet wider—just a bit." The villain coaxed Jessie to change her stance, the newly-built practice and training wing of his house ringing loudly with the thwack of Finley's solid knife-throwing. The kid had picked it up only recently, but was already hitting the target every time without fail.
It had been five months since the villain had kidnapped (rescued) the four of them—Finley, Alex, Jessie, and Jennie. When the villain had returned home that night, he had immediately ushered Finley to the on-hand medical staff, while entrusting the care of Alex, Jessie, and Jennie to his most trustworthy maid, Lina. While Finley's wounds healed the villain searched for a governess, as well as targets, dulled-down practice throwing knives, a variety of other weapons, and furniture to outfit four new rooms.
In the time that the villain had had the children in his custody, the hero had gone on an absolute rampage, claiming that his 'four dearest, and most beloved children,' had gone missing and had been kidnapped. The citywide manhunt for the villain had begun, and was still technically ongoing. Tucked away in the country backwoods, though, he doubted he would be found anytime soon.
Jessie's arm moved, her weight shifting, and the knife thunked against the well-worn wood. She jumped up and down delightedly.
The villain beamed, and patted her on the head, handing her the two others. These, too, were solid throws and hit the outer edges of the target. Finley grinned.
"I wanna try!" Another voice, identical to Jessie's, interrupted the steady beat of Finley's throwing. Jennie bounced up and down as the villain, one knee on the dirt, instructed her the same way he'd instructed Jessie.
"Your arm moves forward, like this." He moved her arm for her in demonstration. "No flicking your wrist, okay?"
Jennie nodded very seriously. The villain encouraged her to take a throw with a smile.
During the first few weeks, the villain had been most worried about Jennie. She had not been eating enough, she was frequently sickly, and was plagued by a constant cough and fever. Frequently tended to by Lina, and fed properly, the little girl had gotten better, and had returned to good enough health that she could participate fully in Anna, the governess' lessons, and in training lessons.
The villain eyed Alex's set with a sigh. He was probably off reading, in his room. Finley had told the villain Alex took time to adjust to change. The villain hoped that that was true.
The others had all adjusted in a blink. Finley's back had healed as best as it would, and his aim was improving daily. Jessie and Jennie were as inseparable as always, twin menaces—a fact that the villain had found out the hard way when he'd discovered that they had worked very hard to stack a table, a chair and a stool on top of each other so they could put a bucket of water on a partially open door. The villain had also fallen prey to motorized toy mice running across the floors and what had looked like ants in the sugar bowl.
What the villain had found about Finley was that they were surprisingly like he was—gearing up to right old wrongs. The kid had taken to training like a person obsessed, and the villain reckoned he might be able to transform Finley into a right little villain soon.
Alex poked his head out from the door. "Can I join?"
The villain nodded, handing the set to its owner's outstretched hands.
Surveying the room—the four kids, their progress thus far, their jokes, their laughter, their joy at their freedom—the villain smiled.
These were his kids now, and nobody would hurt them. Never again.
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