Villainous Us

All In Good Time

The Hauntress

I looked myself up and down in the mirror for a minute. It had been a while since I wore my costume. I missed it.

I wore tight, shredded black jeans, black combat boots, and a black crop top under a black jacket. I think it's a little more than obvious what my favorite color is.

I didn't wear a mask like the others. Instead I would paint my neck and face to look like a skeleton. It never took long, usually an easy ten minutes. I didn't care for how sloppy it was as long as I was unrecognizable and still scary enough that nobody would want to mess with me.

My blonde hair was up in a high ponytail. I put my sigil on the ring finger of my right hand. Finally, I stuck my throwing knives in the inside compartments of my jacket and hid my dagger in my right boot, and I was ready.

I left my room and passed through the cramped kitchen of my apartment. I lived with an old, sarcastic, blind lady. Her name was Mary Jensen. She lost her vision in an accident when she was young, and I saw her ad in the paper saying she was looking for a roommate. Yes, she knew I was the Hauntress, but she didn't care. She was never really the hero type either.

"Where are you going?" she asked me, flipping through the channels of our stone-age television.

I was surprised the old bat heard me over the TV. She must've had the volume almost at max. "I'm thinking about getting some ice cream," I said plainly.

"Can I come?"

"Nope."

She muted the volume on the TV then and turned toward me. Sometimes I wondered if she really could see me and she had made up the whole blind thing. I knew better than that though.

"I heard your old boss was killed," she said. "You gonna go figure out how?"

"He wasn't my boss," I said first, "and no, I couldn't give less of a shit about that team."

Mary laughed. "Yeah. Okay," she said with a sly grin.

I scowled. "What's with the attitude?"

She shrugged. "Eh, it's not like you talk about them enough."

I rolled my eyes. "I never realized you actually listened to anything I said."

"It's all you can do when you're blind."

"Good to know." I made my way across the living room to the window. I pulled it open, and a cool breeze washed in.

"God, you're going to let all the heat out," Mary complained. "Get out of here and close that behind you. And next time, use the front door like a civilized person."

"I don't qualify," I said, already halfway out the window.

"As what? A person?"

I smirked. "No. As civilized."

I ducked the rest of the way out. I closed the window before straightening myself and looking out over the fire escape at the city.

My apartment was on the sixth floor of a crumbling building. The majority of the building was unoccupied due to hazard, but that really cheapened the rent. I had enough money to last me at least a decade on my own.