Val The Vessel

17 / Male Fantasies

A suffocating 7 AM alarm shrieks out from beneath my chin. I lift the corner of the deflated pillow and brace for my phone's earsplitting blare. I'm relieved that this 'training session' is only a one-time thing.

Andrea and I had stayed up for a late night marathon of 'The Vampire Diaries' and hardly got any sleep. Hopefully the training session will consist of nothing more than a light warm-up. It's strange getting myself ready for the day in a home that isn't mine. Anybody would feel uncomfortable interacting with fancy items that don't belong to them such as the velvet dresser, the marble bowl sink, the jacuzzi tub, the flat screen sony television—the entire house itself. Doron did a great job making us feel welcomed yesterday although his hug still makes my skin crawl whenever I think about it.

I seat myself at one of the kitchen stools downstairs, keeping clear of Doron's decorative living room furniture set. "Make yourself at home," is just translation for, "Be comfy, but don't fuck up my house."

"You're late."

Nicole marches down the stairs in a creamy tank top, athletic sweatpants, and dirty black combat boots. Diamond studs hang from her earlobes, in sync with the white decals on her duffle bag. "Come on," she orders, propping open the basement door.

I maintain three feet of distance behind her as we descend down the flight of creaking stairs. The last step leads to an enormous second garage with nothing but square training mats scattered about. Nicole throws down her duffle bag to dig for gear. "So," she begins, "Doron thinks that you have powers similar to his."

I give the smallest shrug. "I guess so."

Nicole pauses to pull her gloves from her bag. "Doron has super strength and flight. His body can also regenerate at an abnormal speed while he's asleep. His powers are strictly hormonal. When Doron doesn't sleep, he weakens. I know this because I helped him study his powers for years."

I watch as Nicole rises to her feet, making eye contact with me at last while she straps her gloves around her wrists. "If Doron's theory is true, then that means your powers must work in a similar way. They can only be brought out through violence. I hope you slept well last night, Val."

"Um—"

A fist busts into my face and my head ricochets from its neck. I land on my back and squeal silently, feeling blood trickle down my nostrils as I clasp my hand over my bent nose.

"It's okay," Nicole says, taking elegant strides towards me. "Your powers should allow you to heal. That is, if you managed to get enough sleep last night." She snatches me by my collar and hoists me up. I throw a jab at her perfect face but she foresees it, catching it with her other hand. "You call that a punch?" Nicole squeezes my fist. "This is a punch." She jerks my own knuckles towards my face and it knocks me back with her fingers still hooked onto my shirt.

"And this is a knee." A hard body part rams square into my stomach, causing saliva to project from my mouth. Nicole doesn't stop there. She follows her attack with a left hook that bashes my head against the floor's icy surface. I groan over small ringlets of my own blood, experiencing pain like never before.

"You're not special. There were people with lesser powers than you who contributed more to the world. Those people were called 'heroes'. Remember them, Val?"

Nicole sends a deadly kick into my abdomen as I squirm on the ground in agony. "You think you're special, and for what, exactly? What's so special about some slutty stripper with no friends and nothing but a sad apartment to dwell in? You think Doron's some protector who's gonna save your pretty little ass forever. You idiot. You're just another asset to him!"

She kicks me once more, in the chest this time, and I feel something inside me break.

"The difference between you and I is that I'm smart enough to see that. If Doron wants to use me, I'm okay with it, so long as I get to use him in return."

The way she enunciates her words rings a bell in my decaying memory. I remember sleeping in bed back at my dad's house and Hollow standing over me like the boogeyman. No, it can't be.

"H-Hollow—" I mouth out weakly.

Nicole grins maniacally. "You're so stupid. You really thought that you were Doron's first interest? You really thought that he loved you? He's avoiding you, sis. He thinks that you might be related to him."

My bruised eyelids struggle to open. "W-What? R-Related to... him?"

Nicole throws her leg back and propels her boot directly at my face. The harsh kick snaps whatever was holding my nose together all this time and speeds up the outflow of blood.

"He'll never be with you. As long as there's even a chance that you two share blood, he'll avoid you for the rest of his life. But you wanna know something else?" Nicole steps away to air out her top. "I can't die. My powers allow my body to repair itself at a factor higher than Doron's. That's why he keeps me around. I'm the only woman he can be with who doesn't shatter like glass from his touch. The only woman who can actually let him indulge in his male fantasies..."

I feel my blood cook beneath my skin.

"Even superman needs love, Val. I'm Doron's only source. He told me about your disease, ya know. One bruise, and you pop like a balloon."

My skin begins to bubble involuntarily.

"You'll never satisfy him like I do. You're just a walking blood bag to him—"

"SHUT UP!"

Nicole's left leg instantly explodes into chunks of blood. Red blobs splatter around her in slow motion and she slips on her own bodily fluids with the most surprised look on her face. I enjoy every second of it.

I want more of it.