Villain at Night *Third Book To Hero by Day

Chapter 17 - I get a pep talk

"You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."

~ Percy Jackson (Son of Poseidon)

:Oliver:

I woke up with a start. My dreams had been horrible visions of dark creatures and my friends all dying. I was glad to be awake and away from those dreams, but where was I?

The room was dark, and the only light was from the moon outside and a lamp by the couch I was lying down on. I went to move, but a sharp pain in my side stopped me. I looked down to see a white and red stained bandage over my stomach. It all came back to me in that moment. Midnight's shadow monsters were somehow able to become solid enough to bite me, I could no longer hold off her shadows with my electricity, all the shadows brought the worst visions yet. I remembered stumbling to this house before passing out on the front porch. And Mary . . .

My breathing grew thin and I groaned, both from the sudden pain from the wound on my side and from remembering Midnight's identity. Mary, the nicest girl I used to know, was out to destroy me, both in my mind and body.

It was terrifying to know that I actually had killed Mary a month ago. My lightning strike is what killed her. But when she came back from being "kidnapped," she told me that all I did was injure her and that Nicole healed her before she "escaped" from her. It was partly true, except Nicole knew a villain who could bring people back to life, and she did just that for Mary. I'd heard legends of a super called Thanatos who could bring the dead back to life, but I'd never believed them before. I mean – I know that I lived in a world where people could defy physics by flying at the speed of sound and lifting airplanes over their heads, but reversing death? It seemed intangible. No wonder Thanatos wasn't open with his ability, there must be so many people out there ready to use him to bring back loved ones or old world leaders.

But she hadn't been the same when she came back. We didn't notice the small differences because we were so happy to have our best friend back from a super villain. We attributed anything we found to the fact that she used to be controlled by Nicole. We didn't want to believe that our friend was anything less than okay, so we ignored the signs. But she wasn't the same girl we used to know. She had a bloodlust to kill me, a feeling I assume was in part because of the fact that I killed her and because of how she was brought back from the shadows of death.

I noticed a small pulsing pain in my head and reached up. There was another bandage over a cut on my forehead, probably from when Mid – Mary had hit me originally. My eyes widened as I realized what that meant,

My mask was gone.

"I see that you're finally awake," Detective Pearson noted from the doorway into his living room. "Don't worry about your mask," he assured me, "it's mostly still intact. I had to take it off to make sure that cut of yours wasn't infected. The same goes for your uniform, though the area around that bite wound was practically in shreds. I don't know what you'll be able to salvage from it."

"I have an extra suit at home." I replied, studying the Detective's facial expressions. He could see my face now, he may not have recognized me, but he now knew I was a mere teenager.

The Detective leaned against the doorframe, narrowing his eyes at me. "I told myself that I wouldn't look . . . at your face I mean. I told myself that I didn't need to know what you looked like or how old you were, but I guess a part of me wanted to see. A part of me wanted to know who the man behind the mask was. I told myself that it was just to check your cut out, but it wasn't.

"I know you, don't I?" He asked quietly.

I stayed silent.

"You go to my daughter's school. You're that junior that my daughter and her friends talk about all of the time, Oliver Storm. You and Ian Thompson were kidnapped a couple of months ago. I even interviewed you after the incident. How could I have not seen the similarities?"