Damsel

Ella Bee

Ella Bee swiped a finger over the tabletop, allowing the voice affront her to thin behind the sound of her buzzing mind focusing in on the particular odor in the air. Dust. That was the smell that knotted her head and tickled her nose, the reason she'd sneezed four times since the date began, and the reason she had to sneeze again, now. Ella stifled a breath and directed her attention away from the countless allergy triggers and back to her date. This was her second time out with Mark -who she met last semester while studying for a group project in the quad with Cassie - and while the date moved uncommonly smoother than she had anticipated, Ella was certain this would be the last time she went out with Mark.

It wasn't his looks. Mark was a safe handsome, with speckled blonde-brown hair and neat, glowing features that fit together seamlessly and his eyes had a sweetness to them when he talked about something that interested him. He was smart too. Smart enough to attend Danaby University. Smart enough to convince Ella to let him cook her dinner. And there were a few times when she even allowed herself to laugh -an unrestricted, throw-back-your-hair laugh that made her head dizzy with joy. No. What ruined the date's fluency was Mark and what he said with infuriating casualness. "I've heard they're an alien race, an extinct species from another world. What do you think of the Heroes?" The way he said it, with such subtle annotation, as if he was ignorant of the implications it drew within Ella, made her want to reach across the table and slap the mellow veneer from his handsome face. Instead, she resorted to silence. It was petty, but it beat participating in Marks subject of choice, which happened to be alternate energy.

"...so what are your thoughts on natural gas?" Mark was saying, clearly grappling for a safer subject, one that might interest Ella. Problem was that all Ella could think about was getting out of his apartment, away from him.

"I don't know...I guess I think it's contradictory to call anything involving drilling into the earth with unknown chemicals -clean or natural." Ella pinched the bridge of her nose and evaded a nearing sneeze.

Mark laughed like a hog chocking on feed, or at least that was what it sounded like to her. "Some people think it's the energy of the future." He said. It was obvious by his intonation that Mark considered himself one of those people.

Ella put an elbow on the table, resting her head on her fist, allowing two pristine blonde curls to fall over her shoulder. "It's all about liquid fuel now-a-days. There is no energy of the future...there is petroleum, then petroleum and there will always be...petroleum. Past, present, future, all neatly packaged and held together with..."

"petroleum...?" Mark supplied, abruptly aware the date wasn't going quite as smoothly as he had hoped.

What did he expect? Everyone knew Ella Bee's illustrious past with the Villains and in turn, her multiple run in's with the Heroes. It wasn't like she could keep that a secret; appearing on T.V. tied to a bridge, strapped to a bomb, hanging above a burning pot, slowly falling into the head of a volcano. In a world with Heroes and Villains running rampant, somebody had to be the damsel. And due to a series of uncontrollable events and terrible coincidences, that damsel had become Ella. Asking her for answers about the Heroes was like asking a 16th century peasant what color the Kings curtains were. It was stupid, unreasonable and never...ever...answerable. Ella felt more like a speck under the Heroes shoes, shuffled around, desperately trying not to be stepped on, yet simultaneously knowing its inevitability. Mark stirred a finger through his wine, staring vaguely at the far wall, face cloudy and out of focus.