Dragoln's and KZ's Short Stories

Super-Villain

There was something not quite right about the window. I could not put a finger on it. Was the size wrong? Is the window too foggy?

No matter how much I inspected it, the window looked fine, except for how it was emanating a sense of unappealing. The feeling was scratching at my brain like a thorn; causing me to obsess about it further.

The only thing that could be described as odd was its unusual size - the exact length and width of a normal door.

Stepping closer to the glassy window, I stretched out my finger, expecting to feel a slightly cold sensation on the tip. Instead, I was met with a force - pulling me into the window as my finger miraculously dipped into it. First the hand, then my arm was tugged through the surface of the window.

It pulled me in entirely with great force, as if there was no solid barrier between. Blinding my vision, my eyes were filled with shades of the dark like I was sleeping. My body stopped responding as if I were falling through a bed. Thinking became sluggish and my consciousness ground to a halt. This set of events was way too bizarre.

However, I knew I wasn't dreaming. That was the first thought that came to my mind as my body was wrenched awake through the blazing pain that penetrated deep into my head and heart.

Blood. Splattered across the concrete floor were horrid splotches of red that really wanted to make me vomit out all of my stomach.

Two men laid down unconscious on the floor as if they were taking a nap; guns were nested in their gloves and wore sketchy dark colours. I was no longer in a furniture shop but somewhere completely different; there was a massive gap in my memories of how I got here.

Suddenly tied up in a creepy warehouse, injured in some way and terribly confused? One thing for certain was that panicking would not help any better.

One thing for certain was that panicking would not help any better. The sight of fresh blood and still, unmoving men had unnerved me quite a bit. Being queasy now was not going to cut it - in fact, I felt I was calmer than usual despite the recent events.

Life or death situation, I reminded myself. There was no time to spare on how I got here.

Inspecting my clothes, I saw a trimmed, expensive suit drenched in crimson where my heart should be. By all means, I should have been dead - or at least have bled out minutes ago. There were several holes through the clothes, indicating where the bullets would have torn through my skin. Yet here I was perfectly fine apart from that initial burst of pain from waking up.
Maybe 'perfect' was a little subjective. Waves of dim aches lingered in my body, it was not a particularly nice feeling: it was at least bearable.

Still, the flare of my nerves as it alerted my brain to the impending hurt - it was not something I wanted to get used to. On the wall in front of me was a television. Not one of those sleek modern ones but more like those boxy thicker ones that occasionally went static and grey like clouds.

Instead, I turned my attention to the two ropes that held my wrists down onto the chair. Perhaps they weren't as tightly bound as I thought they were. With a simple flick of the wrists, the ropes fell limp onto the floor, exposing colourful bruises where it was tied. The rope was already significantly weakened when I tugged on it... what in the world must have happened before?

I searched through unfamiliar pockets and found a sleek design of a phone, looking nothing like the usual brand ones I owned. It was only when I saw that face reflected in the black screen of the device, shocked, confused and staring right into my eyes.

This- this isn't my face. What gazed back were soulful eyes of emerald green, hair was ebony black and a face of a handsome man with a chiselled jaw. Impossible. Last I checked, I was a relatively average-looking university student.

Suddenly, a weird pressure on my mind increased tenfold. Images, pictures, names and ideas were messily inserted into my head.

These are memories, I realised as I quickly gained control to focus concentrating on the real world. I would have to deal with this later.

I used my now freed hands to untie my legs from the chair, standing up and making sure that the two men were still unconscious. Although, there was no way I was going near that mountainous pool of blood; the sight of it sickened me.

Closing my eyes, I took a moment to take a deep breath. In. Out. With my mind more cleared, I felt that now would be the time to gather my thoughts. All the clues seemed to point to me somehow hijacking this man's body, like a ghost. After passing through that weird mirror, I found myself in his kidnapping situation where he must have been murdered. Like a barrier between universes. The man whose body I was inhabiting must have been some rich big shot, judging by these clothes I would never wear in my own time.

Crackling, the TV let out some gnarled hellish sounds before switching on without warning.

Bzzt.
"Last month, famous superheroes around the world managed to stop-"

Wait, what? Superheroes? No way...

"- the villains at the World Centre bank."

Villains too? What universe did I fall into exactly?

Bzzt.
"BREAKING NEWS: One of the well-known supervillains has once again disappeared..."

The TV showed an image, now horribly familiar. Terrifying, gut-wrenching realisation settled nicely within my stomach.

I just took the body of a supervillain.