Villains in Training

Twenty-Three: Someone Else Entirely

"Jade, stop!" Bella screamed as if speaking louder might get through to Jade.  "This isn't you."

"This is exactly me," Jade responded, not stopping or even giving Bella much attention.

"No, I know you.  This isn't you. You're a hero. You're so sweet and caring and selfless it makes me sick sometimes. You value life over everything. You wouldn't even let me kill that bat that flew into your room, remember? Even though your afraid of them? You promised yourself and your parents, your real parents, that you'd only use your powers to help people."

"I am helping! I'm getting rid of him!" Jade screamed through her tears.

"No, Jade. You know that's not what you or your parents meant."

"Who cares what they meant? They've probably lied to me my whole life. How stupid could I be, huh? Believing that someone from a family with absolutely no superpowered humans in their bloodline could have someone with powers as strong as mine... I might as well still believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy too."

"Jade, if you kill him, you'll be giving him what he wants. You'll help him make you into a villain. You'll help him darken your heart."

"Darken my heart?" Jade scoffed. "Please, it's been dark from the beginning. Or have you forgotten?"

"We were kids..."

"I was a terror."

"All kids are selfish and cruel to some extent.  Remember? Children are heartless. They're innocent, heartless creatures.  But I know you now and right now you aren't this killer you're trying to be."

"Maybe you don't know me, then.  Maybe I'm not who either of us thought I was.  Maybe I'm someone else entirely."  Tears we're streaming down Jade's face but her voice didn't crack in the slightest.  Bella could see how much Morris had broken her.  He'd broken her best friend.

"Maybe, but I'm exactly who I always knew I was," Bella responded.  Without a moment's hesitation, Bella used her powers to reach into Morris' skull.  Moments later, Morris stopped breathing and Jade knew it wasn't her doing.  She wanted Morris to die slowly, painfully.  This was quick.  He didn't feel her pain.

"What'd you do?!" Jade yelled.  "He was mine to kill!"

"You'd have hated yourself afterwards and I wasn't going to let that happen.  You wanted to be a hero, remember.  Heroes don't kill just because they want to.  They kill because they have to or they don't kill at all.  It's us, it's villains who kill just to do it."

Jade stared at Bella, seemingly lost for words as her eyes filled with tears.  After what felt like several minutes but were only moments, Jade wiped her tears away and took a calming breath.  "Then I guess I should become a villain."

With that, Jade walked past Bella and exited the room.

Bella stared at the body of the man she just killed.  An aneurysm was the first thing she could think to make happen.  She hoped he didn't feel too much pain.  She hoped it was quick.  She hoped because it was all that she could do to stop herself from feeling completely empty inside.

Bella fell to her knees and cried.  Hades wasn't exaggerating.  It felt like a piece of her very soul had died with him, this person who was relatively a stranger to her.

She just killed a person and felt an indescribable feeling.  Sadness?  Regret?  She didn't know.  What she did know was that she probably wasn't who she thought she was either.  Maybe, like Jade, she was someone else entirely.

***

Hades knocked on Bella's door then let himself in, not even waiting for the answer he knew wouldn't come.  She hadn't left her bedroom in four days.  Neither had Jade.