Super?

But I Won't Fall

Annoying chimes erupt from my phone. The beat-up smartphone is clasped in the hands of my captive, who doesn't look at all bothered with the vase of spiky maces he's sitting next to as we wait for Reggie. Probably because he's a six year-old, and the promise of Candy Crush will trump all thoughts of say... becoming the the victim of a kidnapping at the hands of Birchwood City's most sociopathic villain.
"What are you wearing?" He wrinkles his nose at me when he takes a brief pause from swiping virtual candy. I had almost forgotten that I shifted my civilian clothes to my costume. My most common illusions become like second nature to me and take little concentration to uphold. This illusion fits like a glove and sometimes I almost forget to change out of it on the rare occasions that I must use my civilian identity. Unlike most ridiculous outfits that villains and heroes alike wear, (*cough* Crimson *cough*) mine is actually practical. A good friend of mine (also a psychopath) makes his clothes from scratch, and he designed this for me on the house when I first decided to wear a costume.
"What? You don't like it?" I smirk a little, giving a little twirl. The six year-old just shakes his head and looks back down at the phone.
"My mommy hates you," he says conversationally, still nonchalantly tapping the squares on the screen. "You're that one weird super-villain. Erica or whatever?" Ouch.
"The name's Eris," I snap. "And your mom doesn't sound so nice after all," I add childishly. Might as well do something to entertain myself while Reggie finishes watching Netflix or decapitating one of his employees or whatever it is he does in his down time.
"Says the villain kidnapping me," he retorts.
"Touché." I turn expecting to see Reggie or one of his worker bees when I hear footsteps coming down the hallway towards us. "Oh, hey, Sebastian." He raises an eyebrow as he glances at the kid.
"Is he... playing Candy Crush?" He stuffs his hands into his cargo shorts pockets, eyeing the little boy distrustfully.
"Welcome to the twenty-first century, Seb," I reply dryly. Dominic barely even gives the geeky hacker a glance.
"Did you just call me 'Seb?'" He sounds amused. I'm about to open my mouth to reply when Reggie's office door swings open. The both of us look expectantly toward the door. Even Dominic raises his head from my phone.
"What do you two idiots want- Oh!" Reggie's eyes light with a maniacal glee as he discovers the freckled first grader sitting by his 'decorative' vase of weapons. "Look what we have here," he coos, blowing past me and rushing up to Dominic, who shrinks backwards in repulsion. I can't blame the poor boy. "Yes. Yes!" I've never seen Reggie so excited. I swear he's about to cackle maliciously like a stereotypical villain.
"Um. What do you want me to do with him?" I ask, and my psychopathic boss finally spares me a glance like he had forgotten I was standing right next to him. "I brought some duct tape-"
"Oh, good. You're already in your costume. Then let's get started." He grabs my wrist and he grins once more. His smile makes my stomach flip, and not in a good way.
"With what?" I dare to ask as he takes Dominic's hand also and starts to drag us down the hallway. Sebastian watches petulantly, probably all sulky because he didn't receive any credit for the kid's capture. As a new guy, he's at the bottom of the totem pole here, and some recognition from Big Boss himself would really give him a boost. He mouths me a quick 'good luck' anyway as I'm pulled away, and I allow myself to roll my eyes after we've safely turned a corner.
"I can't play one-handed," Dominic complains, still staring at his screen, his other hand still captured in Reggie's tight grip.
"You won't be needing that." Reggie stops before a door just like every other door we've passed along the way- just plain metal, nothing special. Without further ado, he kicks the door open to reveal-
"A chair?" I ask in suspicion. Reggie lets go of both of our hands... only to pluck my phone from Dominic's grasp (much to the boy's dismay) and literally toss it over his shoulder. I wince as I hear it shatter and splinter behind me once it lands, but I'm too afraid to look back both in fear of what I might find and fear of Reggie's sensitive temper.
"We're going to record a ransom video," Reggie announces with glee. He runs an excited hand through his greying brown hair before casting his wild gaze upon a perturbed Dominic.
"Then what do you need me here for?" I ask, already bored. Doesn't Reggie have some other lackeys to run the camera for him?
"Oh, princess," he purrs, which I find extremely disturbing- but especially coming from someone as mentally unsound as he is. "This is a special ransom video. I need you to be in it." He speaks as if to a child, and I find myself a little insulted.
"But I don't even know who I'm going to be threatening," I state flatly. He grins and nods, then tilts his head sweetly.
"Is that going to be a problem? I never knew you to get cold feet when it came to threatening strangers," he says, with that warning in his voice. "I'm keeping this information from you for a good reason, Eris. Trust me on this one," he gives me an overly-done wink that contorts his face, with the dangerous smile still plastered on his face. Then he turns on the single exposed lightbulb that illuminates the chair below like in a horror flick.
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." As much as it kills me to keep my head down low, I have got to keep this job, and the only way to do that is to follow orders. And he's right. I shouldn't have any troubles being evil to people who's names I don't even know. I'm a super-villain. It's my job to threaten strangers.
He and I both know the drill, and we stay silent to each other as we go through the ropes. Literally.
"That hurts," Dominic whines as we plop him down on the chair and begin to tie him into place. "You don't need to use ropes, I'll stay put, I promise," he pleads.
"It's nothing personal. Just a part of the show, kid." I tell him, not looking at his face as I stretch out a length of duct tape and tear it with my razor-sharp nails. (Yes, I file them that way. So sue me.)
I look up as I apply the duct tape to Dominic's mouth, and I see Reggie giving me a thoughtful stare. Instantly a shiver runs down my cursed spine. Thoughtful is not a word one would ever use to describe Reggie. He acts only on impulse and occasionally plots out deep methods of revenge. There's no in-between. So when he's looking at me and those mentally disturbed cogs in his brain are turning... well... I don't exactly know what to think. And I don't know if I want to know.
"Mmmph! Mmfgh!" Dominic's cries are muffled by the duct tape as he shifts a bit in the chair.
"Let's get this show on the road," Reggie says, that same slow, chilling smile spreading across his face as he pulls a burner phone from the pocket of his suit pants.
"Um. What do you want me to say?" I've never actually done one of these. I know, I know. I'm a villain and all that, and I should've already done like a bajillion ransom videos, but Reggie's always handled the stuff behind the scenes. I'm just... the cover. The excitement. The action. Never the brains behind anything. I'm a mask.
"Oh!" He snaps his fingers. "I almost forgot. See," he can't help but smile and twitch, like he has some juicy gossip he just can't wait to spill, "we're going to make this woman expose her secret love affair with a certain super-villain out to the public." He makes his voice all low and voodoo-y. "And we have proof of her treachery right here." Here he dramatically gestures to Dominic, as if I hadn't already figured that out.
"Who's the super-villain?" I ask, absentmindedly fiddling with the black fingerless gloves of my Eris costume. He completely ignores my question.
"As for the threat," he continues, "say she has until three days or the boy dies."
I admit it. I feel my stomach drop a tiny bit when I hear those words.
"If she doesn't fess up? You're actually going to kill him?" I can't help but ask. His eyes narrow dangerously.
"Don't test me, Eris. I've had enough of your soft-heartedness. Lately I've been thinking that you don't have what it takes to be a true super-villain," he hisses. I feel shock crash through me like an unpleasantly icy wave.
"What do you mean?" I sputter. "I've jumped through so many hoops for you-"
"This is exactly what I mean!" He booms in turn. "You're always questioning me nowadays! You always used to do what was asked of you!"
"Yeah, well, maybe I decided to grow a spine for once," I say coldly. "I'm sorry if I made the mistake of thinking that super-villains were supposed to be independent and free of the strings of society."
"I'm warning you, Eris. This is your last chance. You think I haven't noticed how pathetically soft you've gotten toward your target? Even going as far as to question my judgement? There's a reason I redacted most of the information in your files and gave it to Sebastian instead. He can handle being evil. It's you I'm not so sure about." After that speech, he crosses his thin arms across his chest and stares at me defiantly, begging me to defy him.
"I'm sorry, sir," I spit out the words. They're like acid on my tongue, and I hate myself for saying them. I'm not sorry. But I'm desperate.
He just snorts softly and opens the camera app on his phone, switching it to video mode. I take my cue and walk silently over to the boy, still fuming over his words. This isn't what I thought being a super-villain would be like at all. I guess I imagined more tossing trains around and less paperwork and annoying superiors.
As I stand beside Dominic, Reggie walks in front of me and holds up the phone to record. He gives me the count of three with his free hand and then I start my little speech. God, I hate myself right now.
"Good afternoon," I sneer to the camera, slipping easily into my alternate persona. I like how it feels to be Eris. She's tough and doesn't take crap from anybody. I just wish that the Eris everybody else sees, the one battling Crimson on the front page, was the same one that I see in myself every day. You can make anybody believe anything about you. It's just harder to fool yourself. Whenever I become Eris, I can't help but feel like I'm a little girl playing dress-up with her mommy's clothes. "Or, at least it was a good afternoon. It won't be anymore. Not for you. In case the black mask and the little outfit wasn't a tell, I'm Eris, Birchwood City's favorite super-villain. I named myself after the goddess of chaos. I suppose it's suiting. I like stirring up trouble. For you, especially." Dominic's muffled shrieks echo in the din of the room and make my head ache.
"What was that?" I arch my eyebrows and turn to look over my shoulder, acting surprised to see a kid there. "Oh, it's just Dominic. Your son," I smirk. "All tied up. Like a neat little present. You know, it's a funny thing, karma. I hate children, but here I am, babysitting this little brat here. Nah, I'm just kidding. He's ok. He's pretty smart, too. Smart enough to know that Mommy here better save his little freckled butt or he's going to end up paying. Isn't that right?" I coo at Dominic. His face is red from trying to yell around the duct tape.
"See, you're smart too. Dominic must get that from you. You're smart enough to probably figure out what it is I want from you. I mean, I have the little product of your mistake right here," I flash the camera my most devilish smile. "And boy, is he a talker." I reach over to Dominic and run my finger down his cheek slowly, making the boy squirm and shriek even more.
"A little bird told me that you're quite a talker too. Just, you know, not about the things that matter. Such as, oh, your secret affair with a super-villain?" I stop my finger on Dominic's cheek and raise an eyebrow. "Oops! I guess your secret's not so secret anymore," I giggle obnoxiously. Then my face darkens into a scowl. "It better not be by the time I'm done here today. I'm giving you three days to tell the public. I want to see the looks on their faces when you expose to them who you really are. I'm done with your lies, and everyone else should be too. And you know what will happen if you don't." My finger trails to Dominic's neck and I fix the camera with a long, cold glare. "I'd hate to see your beautiful son paying for your lies." I drop my hand back to my side and my face brightens back into a smile. "Have a nice day!"
Reggie taps the screen to stop the recording, and then lowers the phone. His eyebrows practically up into his hairline.
"There's a trace of that hopeful young villain I met so long ago! Let's see more of her, eh?" And with that he leaves the room, the door slamming shut behind him.
Dominic and I are left alone under the single patch of light in the otherwise pitch-black room.
"I'm sorry," I tell Dominic flatly as I rip the duct tape off of his face. He sputters and growls.
"Untie me! I can't feel my hands!" If he wasn't already annoyed, he definitely is now. "No amount of Candy Crush will make up for this!"
"I know," I murmur as I bend down to undo the knots we've tied around the back of the chair. "Believe me, I do."
He watches me over his shoulder as I untie him in silence before telling me quietly, "I think I know why you hurt yourself."