Trust

I don't remember when we first started fighting but I can't remember ever not fighting. I can't even remember why we started fighting in the first place. It may be the fact that we are the only two people who have superpowers though. I'd like to think of our relationship as something like a nicer version of Batman and The Joker. You know I, the good guy, always wins, and they, the villain, always lose and somehow miraculously get away. And it happens again and again.

For some reason, the people of Lifham have named the two of us. They call me Eroica. Which in Latin means heroic. And they call him Niekšas. It means villain in Lithuanian. I mean he really isn't that much of a villain like the joker is. He only really stirs up trouble then waits for me to come to fight him. He's actually pretty harmless when you think about it.

Maybe that was why I didn't expect much one Thursday night at 1 am. I really didn't expect anything at all. I was just grading papers that my students did the day before when I heard a rapid knock on the front door of my apartment. At first, I thought I was just the wind, so I just ignored it. But when I came again much harder and more urgently, I went to go answer the door. On my way over to the door the knock came three more times. I got so scared that I grabbed one of my daggers that I have laying around my apartment so that if I'm ever in trouble they are right there. As I looked through the peep hole in my door, the person there surprised me. It was Niekšas.

I took a second to ground myself from the shock before I opened the door. But when I did his hand was up like he was about to knock again. I opened the door all the way and positioned myself so that if he was going to attack my ii could defend myself.

His breathing was heavy, and he was wearing all black with a hoodie pulled up over his head so I couldn't see his face. But the moment I opened the door my powers went berserk. I can feel when people are hurt and heal the wounds those people might have. The only person who knew about my powers was Niekšas. He saw me use it on civilians and myself at one point when I got hurt. The moment I opened the door the pain I felt almost brought me to my knees.

"I'm sorry," he gasped out "But I didn't know where else to go"

As I looked over him trying to find out where he was hurt, I saw that his other hand was wrapped around his stomach. I don't know how he was still standing. I was barely standing, and I could only feel a little bit of the pain that he felt. Just as I was about to let him inside, he swayed slightly. I went to catch him before he fell over and when my hands contacted his back and his chest, I could feel the blood that was soaked in his hoodie. I picked him up like a princess and carried him into a room I had specifically made to be a makeshift hospital. I had to take his hoodie off to see the injuries that he had and when I did, I almost stopped moving. He looked like he had been tortured. I hurried to heal his wounds with my powers. By the time I was done healing his wounds it was well past 4 am and I knew that even if it had taken me a long time to help, had he come any later he would have died. He will have scars, but he'll live to see another day.

After I cleaned all the blood up and took a shower to get the blood off of me, I emailed my principal because I knew that I wouldn't be going into work that day. The only thing I had planned for today was a movie for my students, so the sub should have no problem. When I came back to the medic room, I saw that he was twitching slightly like he was trying to wake up. So, when he opened his eyes I wasn't surprised.

"Niekšas," I said quietly "Can you hear me?"

"Eroica?"

"Hey. You gave me quite a scare earlier. You want to tell me why you came to me looking like you just got tortured. Or how you know where I live. Or better yet how do you know where I live?"