Heroes | ✓

· of superheroes & super-villains ·

Hi everyone*! 

*my one friend who religiously reads my books and gives feedback on my writing (and as a friend duty, I have dedicated this Chapter to her).

It's been a while. I procrastinated big time regarding this story. There are only 2 more Chapters left (including this one) but I was being very very very lazy when it came to editing them. We're now at the end of 2019 (and at the end of this decade) and if there is one thing I have learned, it is this - Done is better than perfect. 

Craving perfectionism (albeit unintentionally, sometimes) has given me a lot of trouble, anxiety and 173857375 other things I didn't want. 

A few days ago, I came across "Google - Year in Search 2019" on Youtube and it talked about heroes; how searches for superheroes and everyday heroes soared around the world (video attached above). You can thank that video for pushing me to update and complete this story. 

Let's begin, shall we? 

There were costumes everywhere. It was cosplay week, Faith's favorite week of the whole school year. Even some of the younger teachers made an effort to dress up as their favorite characters, while the teachers nearing their 50s dressed up as characters nobody knew until then. There was school, of course, but at the end of the week, the school resembled a Comic-Con. 

 Faith was in the majority where she had so many favorite fictional characters, that she couldn't decide what to dress up as. She finally settled on dressing up as a different character each week. Sure, it would take a lot of effort, but she had faith in herself. 

On the first day of the week, it had been quite a simple choice. She had dressed up as Clary Fray, replete with all the tattoos she had drawn with the help of paint. The paint took her more than 2 hours in the shower to get off of her skin, but it had been worth it. The next day, she had dressed up as Bellatrix. She had always been fascinated by twisted and insane characters. Even during lectures, she had randomly laughed maniacally while pointing her wand at someone and shouting out Avada Kedavra! and nobody had judged her. In fact, totally in character, some had pretended to die from it. 

Two more days went by and it was the last day of cosplay week. She had chosen to dress up as Black Widow. She felt that while may never be able to match the Scarlett Johansson played character, she certainly had her own charm. Besides, she loved superheroes. 

According to Faith, the world needed superheroes. She liked to call them heroes personified.

As she looked around her, she could spot a couple dressed up as Hazel and Augustus and she hoped that it was not portentous (for them). The funny (or sick, call it whatever you like) thing was that they had been dressed up like that for the whole week. She could see multiple people dressed up as Katniss, Margo, Teresa, Hermione, Luna, Batman, Superman (it was not a pretty sight), Draco (complete with the platinum blonde hair), and then there was The Joker. She had always been as fascinated with The Joker as she had been with Bellatrix Lestrange. 

When her eyes stopped on The Joker,  he smiled and waved at her. She couldn't recognize him though. With all the makeup on, the exact hairstyle and the exact way of walking, she had a hard time figuring out which of her friends or acquaintances had dressed up as The Joker. Since there were so many voices around her, in all that chaos, she even had a hard time placing his voice as he said, "Black Widow, huh?"

Faith laughed, "Yes! Supervillain, huh? Or anti-hero, however you'd like to classify him." she gestured to his outfit. 

He gave her a small grin, "Yes." 

Faith mused, "I wish superheroes were real."

The Joker smiled that twisted half-smile, so unique that Faith instantly knew who the person behind the makeup was. Before she could say anything, he continued, "Superheroes can't exist in the real world for a reason. It's because the real world needs real heroes."