If I Asked You Not To Leave, Would You Stay?
Jacob hated school. And he hated the alarm that woke him up for it even more. It haunted his dreams, awakening him at exactly 7:00 am every weekday.
He aggressively smashed the button on the phone to silence the alarm. In the sweet quiet afterwards he laid for a few minutes before convincing himself to roll out of bed.
He slipped on a jumper and trudged out of his room and down the hall.
In the kitchen he came across a note on the bench. It read “got called into work. See you after school. Love you, Dad.”
Lately his dad was constantly being called into work. Unfortunately due to the nature of his job he was unable to simply refuse. The villains and monsters of the city weren’t going to wait for him to have breakfast with his son.
He poured himself a bowl of cereal, lazily eating it while scrolling through his phone. He half registered what posts he saw, dog, dance, meme, hero’s, dad, stand up, llama, draw-.
Suddenly he registered that he had seen his dad and quickly scrolled back. It was a video posted an hour ago titled; Electric Phoenix pummelled by city’s villains. It was of his father fighting a horde of the most infamous villains in the city. All by himself.
Quickly Jacob searched up the fight and found a livestream.
“Ooo. That looked like it hurt,” came the voice of the person recording.
His dad was surrounded, attacks coming with ferocity from all sides.
He looked on the verge of collapsing. Barely holding himself against his enemies.
Electricity thrummed visibly around him, close to losing control and attacking everything nearby.
As quick as he could he changed into black pants and a tight shirt that wouldn’t snag on anything. Next he needed to find a mask.
Running to his Dad’s room he punched the code into the pad hidden in the back of his Dad’s wardrobe. A door slid open and Jacob stepped into the elevator. The doors closed and the elevator dropped. The doors opened to the sight of his Dad’s secret base.
Without thinking he headed to the drawers and started searching through for a spare mask. There had to be one somewhere!
Just as he was giving up hope and debating whether or not to just go he spotted a black mask lined with a bright red peeking out from under a pile of documents. He grabbed it and ran to the elevator.
In seconds he was out of the house running down the street. He pulled up the livestream again, looking for a sign or something to tell where his Dad was.
He didn’t recognise anything.
Keeping it open he kept running.
Suddenly a burst of fire exploded over the buildings in front of Jacob. He was close but he needed to hurry.
Jacob quickly skidded around the corner and came face to face with a sight that would haunt him for forever.
His Dad was kneeled on the ground, a protective shield of electricity wavering over his huddled form. He was covered in wounds and looked like death was trying to coerce him out of the world.
The city’s villains sent attack after attack at the shield, yelling taunts and laughing maniacally.
Jacob steeled himself and ran at the nearest one. He didn’t know what he was going to do but he’d be damned if he didn’t try.
He jumped on the back of the villain, bringing them down out of pure surprise.
As soon as they recovered they grabbed him and chucked him to the ground. They went to stomp on him but he quickly rolled and stood.
When looking into the face of someone who he knew wasn’t going to hesitate to hurt him he wavered. In a split second decision he turned and ran. To the middle of the fight.
He slipped in and out between villains and beams and levitations bricks. He went unnoticed until the villain from earlier called out.
And in a blink of an eye every villain had turned to Jacob.
Despite the city’s strongest villains staring him down and slowly turning their powers on him he kept running.
He saw his Dad look up when he realised he wasn’t being attacked anymore. He saw as his Dad’s eyes widened at the sight of him. Saw his mouth open as he yelled at him to leave. But he didn’t stop. He needed to save his Dad. He couldn’t let him die.
And then the first hit struck him. A beam to the back sent him sprawling into the concrete. He quickly recovered and kept running. He was so close. More attacks came, some grazing him and some hitting him head on.
He kept running for as long as he could but eventually the attacks became too much and he collapsed.
He heard the sizzle of electricity and looked up to find his father standing over him, electricity running through his every cell, spilling over the edges.
And with renewed energy his Dad began to fight again. Beating back any villain who dared get too close.
Electricity shocked every Villain that dared get near. Dared to get near his son. Deep exhaustion was nothing compared with the intrinsic need to protect.
Jacob rose unsteadily to his feet. He needed to figure out how to help.
“You need to leave when I give you the chance,” came his Dad’s serious voice, gruff from the exertion of pushing himself.
“This isn’t up for debate!”
“Well it’s not happening. I will not leave you to die! I can’t lose you as well as Mum!”
“And I can’t let you die like I let her,” his Dad said loudly over the sizzle of electricity, but soft with pain.
Jacob stared at his Dad, watching as bolts of electricity fizzled out too quickly. He was slowly faltering. Knees buckling and arms shaking.
Before he could help everything was over.
Instantaneously everything in his Dad collapsed and he dropped to the ground.
“NO,” Jacob distantly heard himself scream.
The villains converged on them. Someone grabbed his arm, pulling him away.
“You need to get away,” the someone whispered to him.
Looking up he realised it was his Dad’s nemesis. He wrenched his arm away and sprinted back to his dad.
He pulled and pushed at the villains, trying to get them away from the only person he had left. He wouldn’t let this stupid job take another if his parents.
The villains shoved him back but he refused to let them take his Dad. Eventually one grabbed him and shoved him to the ground.
He rose and went to punch them.
They caught his wrist mid swing and swiftly stabbed him in the side, leaving the dagger and him to crumble to the ground.
He dazedly looked around. Through the villain’s legs he could see his Dad. He needed to get up but his body was slowly losing its ability to move, his wounds and exhaustion taking control. He saw his Dad roll. Their eyes locked and all his Dad did was look at him fondly. In this moment full of terror and pain his Dad just looked like he wanted to hug him. His Dad mouthed something at him. Jacob scrunched his face up in confusion. His Dad did it again and again until finally Jacob realised what he was trying to say.
“I love you too,” Jacob whispered almost silently.
And with that the whole world exploded.
A wave of electricity sent him and the villains back and away from his Dad. He felt himself flying into a wall and saw other Villains flying away.
His Dad had sacrificed himself for him.
His head felt hazy and he couldn't keep his eyes open.
When Jacob came to, he discovered he had been thrown by the blast into a dark alleyway. He was covered in scrapes, cuts and burns from the blast and onslaught of attacks from however long ago. The dagger from however long ago was still embedded in his left side. He clutched into it hoping to keep it in and prevent blood loss. Pain seared through him anytime he moved so he stayed still.
His hands were slowly being drenched in blood from where he clutched to the wound.
His cries of pain slowly turned into small sobs. All the energy and adrenaline drained out of him, leaving him with puffy eyes and a dull throb from his side.
He sat with his head leaned against the alley wall and legs splayed out across the cold concrete floor. His legs and limbs were starting to go numb with the cold and lack of blood.
He couldn’t believe that his dad was gone. Actually gone. Not coming back. Never able to say goodnight to him again. Never able to make fun of stupid shows with him. Never able to make his super secret recipes. Never able to smile or laugh again.
Pushing down the new welling of tears he turned his attention back to his situation. He had no idea what to do other than to not pull the knife out. And that was just because of books and movies. He had no way to stitch himself up and he thought he might actually die if he had to do that. Not that he’s not going to die anyway. Walking wasn’t an option as he felt close to passing out and his legs didn’t seem to work.
With a groan he shifted slightly. His lower back was starting to hurt from the odd and rigid position. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.
Just as he was beginning to fall into the darkness he felt someone grip his shoulder.
Jacob begrudgingly opened his eyes to see a shadowy figure crouched in front of him.
“You’re going to be okay,” a voice he recognised from somewhere assured him.
He just sleepily looked at the person.
“I’ll get you to the hospital,” they said as they moved closer to Jacob.
He struggled to remember where he had heard that voice before. It was familiar.
Jacob was slowly embracing the dark once more as he distantly registered being lifted in the air.
“Come on,” abruptly he realised it was the villain that had tried to drag him away from the fight earlier, his Dad’s nemesis.
His head lolled back onto a shoulder and his eyes slowly slipped closed despite the presence of the enemy holding him.
On the 21st of May at Mount Tamunnal Cemetery there was a total of two funerals.
One funeral seemed to have the whole city attending it. Everyone wanted to mourn and say goodbye to their hero. Thousands of people filled one end of the cemetery. Thousands of flowers laid on a closed casket that stood next to the grave amongst those of other fallen heroes.
The other gave host to two people.
A son who mourned his father with a stoic expression and suppressed tears.
And a nemesis who mourned the loss of an old friend.
Both caskets were lowered into their graves at exactly 12:30 pm. Simultaneously burying the idea of the hero and the man behind the facade.
As the crowd slowly dispersed two were left standing a little apart in front of a pair of graves. Graves marked with the real names of hero’s that everyone else knew only by mask.
“You’re dad was my oldest friend,” the taller man swathed in black said softly.
“You weren’t his friend. He hated you,” Jacob said with a glare at the ground, unable to look at the man who let his father die, “you murdered, burned and destroyed everything you could find and he had to abandon everything everytime you got a new idea in your twisted head on how to ruin everyone’s day.”
“And yet despite all of that I was never his enemy.”
With that the man turned away and left Jacob to his grief.
Left him to pick up the pieces of his destroyed life. To take up the mantle of the hero.
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