Prompt #10
It should have been obvious, really.
The late nights, the cold dinners, bringing work home with them because there was too much to possibly finish at headquarters…
The signs had been there for a while.
They should have been better.
They should have tried harder.
They should have done more!
But that didn’t matter now did it?
Not after the betrayal cut through their heart like a searing knife and left them frozen to the ground.
They should move.
Really, there was no point in sticking around.
What were they going to do? Yell? Punch the wall? No, they couldn’t even move let alone summon the energy to…to…scream?
No, not even that.
Why weren’t they moving?
They really needed to get out of this doorway before they were noticed…
“Oh, my god!”
Too late.
“Oh shit!”
“Hero!”
“Hero!”
“Shit, fuck, Hero…hey it’s not…”
“Hero, baby, I can explain!”
“You’re early! You weren’t supposed to see this!”
“I know what you must be thinking…”
“Oh god, we were going to tell you, just not like this…”
“Never the right time…”
“Surely, you…”
Hero let the two voices clamor over each other without the energy to form two words in response.
In the end they finally did move, staggering, without purpose, without supplies, without any clear thought save for the mantra of move, move, MOVE pounding in their overwhelmed skull.
They don’t remember ending up in the 24 hour diner just off K Street.
But they do remember a hand gripping their hair, pulling their head from over their cold cup of coffee, cold eyes meeting their own red-rimmed ones and a voice teasingly speaking,
“Hey, now. Looks like our little hero is a bit worse for wear tonight…tell me, what’s a good boy/girl like you doing in a dingy place like this? Surely you realize, a hero out in the middle of the night, looking like this? Well, that’s just asking for trouble.”
