How To Be a Good Villain

Lesson 2: Let The Best People Change You

VILLAIN

When I was a kid, I never wanted to hurt anybody.

What happened to that innocent little boy you ask? What made him turn into one of the most powerful villains in the world? Hurting everyone and destroying everything.

Well, I was scared - scared of myself. I saw the potential of hurting everyone I care about with my powers. You see, my abilities manifested in me since I was in my mother's womb. And no, I wasn't cast out by my parents, and I wasn't seen as a monster by my peers either. In fact, everybody thought I'd turn out to be a hero someday, and I took pride in that.

Yet, I didn't do much with my powers. It thrived in pain, and I thought if I never used it, it would simply go away.

I was wrong.

For some reason, it just grew inside me, and soon enough, it began to hurt me.

Still, I never used it. During high school, I learned that it could also feed on my pain, so I began hurting myself and let others hurt me. High school was an easy place to get bullied, especially when you're so different.

I was a hero in my own eyes; I thought I was protecting everyone from myself, and I took pride in that.

I was a hero.

Then I met a villain. Or rather, she kidnapped me. And to be honest, it was one of the most interesting things that had ever happened in my life.

She glared at me through the bars of my cage, but I never wavered. I guess that was intriguing to her because she began talking to me after doing some villainy.

She talked about her past, and how everyone broke her. She wanted vengeance on all the horrible things the world has done to her.

'The satisfaction of letting out all those hurt is just a bonus, darling,' she said as she combed down my unruly hair, 'You see, being a hero means you have the whole world pressuring you and expecting you to do good, but doing bad is just telling the whole world not to fuck with 'cha.'

And those words echoed in my head.

They echoed loud and clear even after I killed the hero who tried to save me.

I didn't need saving anyway.

I had already been saved.

- - -

"We don't need an escape vehicle," I simply say as the Goliath rips another guard in half, "I just borrowed some of the Magician's powers when I used that Queen of Hearts card."

He turns to me, his face speckled with blood.

"What kind of powers?"

I let my mask dissolve then place a hand on one of the dead guards and I instantly see my skin turning into a handsome shade of tan, then I pose.

"Ta-dah!" I say with a deeper sounding voice, all the while doing some jazz-hands, "Now, go change and let's clean up this mess."

Seeing the Goliath in a normal body unnerves me, but it won't be long until the disguise wears off; short and pale doesn't really suit him, especially when he's shorter than my guy.

"You look like a dwarf," I scoff and he glares at me as I walk away with a laugh.

He drags the two bodies into an empty cell then follows me down the hall.

The higher we went, the more guards there were. Luckily for us, the spell doesn't end for another hour, but it's just an hour and there are other things that can end it.