Dummies' Guide to Being a Superhero (Editing)

{Bonus Chapter #2} The Girl Who Sees The Stars

[a/n: this is sort of weird/creepy but cool (at least to me, it might be really creepy for you I guess) bonus chapter. I'm not gonna say much so I don't spoil it. I hope you enjoy!]

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{BONUS CHAPTER #2: "The Girl Who Sees The Stars"

summary: Gretal Davidson looks back at the stars from her past. Or, in other words - a story about Gretal's dream.}

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SHE BLINKED, SITTING UP AS she rubbed her eyes. Gretal took a breath, not remembering where she was. One minute she was falling asleep in the couch at the warehouse and the next she was in a small purple room covered in flowers.

Then it clicked, hitting her on the head like a hammer. She eyes the stuff animals lining the walls and the small dollhouse that sat beside the twin-sized bed.

"Damn," she muttered, "I'm four again."

Gretal remembers this room like the back of her hand, every corner and every cobweb there ever was. She remembers talking to the spiders lining the corners of the ceilings and trying to give them tea in teacups that were way bigger than them.

That was a year after her dad left. Gretal sighed. Why did she have to be four, out of all the ages? She stood and took a deep breath.

A giggle filled the room and Gretal's head snapped to the left. She froze, a gasp shooting from her lips. A little girl with short brown hair to her shoulders sat in the corner, laughing as she tried to give another spider a cup of tea.

"C'mon!" She giggled. "Don't be shy! I won't bite."

Gretal almost snorted. You don't. But they do. The little girl looked back at her, almost like she heard exactly what she thought. Gretal wondered if she said it out loud. No, I didn't-

"Do you regret what happened to you?" Little Gretal murmured, barely a whisper.

Gretal stared down at her. "What?"

It surprised her. Four-year-old Gretal didn't even know how to say regret yet.

"Daddy leaving, I mean. Do you regret it?"

Gretal blinked. "Hah?"

Little Gretal looked up at her, eyes wide and at the brink of tears. She swallowed. She was really this intense as a child?

"Maybe if you tried being a better daughter, maybe if you tried to love him harder, maybe-"

Gretal stood there, frozen. What surprised was the fact that her younger self said "you" instead of we". You, like a slap in the face.

She shook her head as a reply. "No! Why would I-"

"Spiders aren't like daddy. They don't clink the teacups with you and don't do pinky promises before they go to work to always come back. They don't even smile. They just bite." Her younger self whispered, rubbing at her fingers.

Gretal looked at her younger hands, swallowing hard at the sight of all the little punctured marks on her fingers. She remembered crying every time a spider bit her. She's lucky she didn't die.

Her younger self looked back at her. "So. Do you regret it?"

Gretal's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know."

Her younger self nodded. "Okay." She grabbed Gretal's hand.

Gretal stared down at the small fingers wrapped around her wrist. Gretal's eyes widened for a moment.