Super•Villainous

III

"Ah. Hey, Adrian." I grimaced, rolling onto my side to look at him. "Do you mind patching me up a bit?"

He furrowed his brows and cocked his head, taking me in in all my torn up glory. "What happened?" he asked, kneeling to help me up.

Almost immediately, I began to sway. "Oh, you know." I waved my hand evasively, but by the look on his face I could tell he didn't know and expected me to elaborate. "You know how crazy this city can be."

It wasn't a complete lie. I crunched the numbers in my head, however, and they clearly showed that my best chance of leaving the apartment before I turned thirty was in keeping the dirtier details to myself.

His hand flew to my back to steady me as he called down the short hallway, "Alexia, help me get your sister to the couch!"

My younger sister promptly materialised from her room, a rare enough occurrence, mouth agape. Instead of running to me, like any self respecting sibling would, she darted towards the television remote and flipped on the news.

"Alexia, did you hear me?" Adrian demanded, quaking under my weight.

"Papa, look!" Alexia pointed insistently at the screen, practically bouncing in excitement.

It took me a moment to realise what I was seeing, which in retrospect was rather silly, since I was looking at myself. The camera shook wildly as it zoomed in on me clutching at the Nightshade's cloak from what must have been almost a hundred feet in the open air. Just seeing the height made me nauseous. Then, I stabbed him once. Twice. My stepfather actually gasped as Television-Me plummeted to the ground, my hands outstretched and reaching for a receding sky.

And then I was falling, not only onscreen, but in the present, because Adrian, so entranced at Tempest's dramatic dive after me, forgot he was holding me up and brought his hands up to scrub down his mouth in horror.

The sound of me thudding to the ground jarred him back to his senses.

Adrian fisted his hips, glancing between me and the flatscreen. "Was that you?"

"I reserve the right to not incriminate myself," I groaned, pushing up off the hardwood. "A little help here?"

Adrian tutted, irritated, but guided me to the couch, nonetheless. In the background, a reporter ran a running commentary on the footage, slowing down and zooming in as she saw fit. Over Adrian's shoulder, I watched a slow replay of my Swiss Army knife digging into Nightshade's shoulder, my hand circled in red to draw attention to the open blade.

"And you see there the thus far unnamed girl stabbing the Nightshade for the second time, which caused him to—"

"Would you mind turning that shit off?" I called to Alexia while Adrian probed my leg. I winced when he pressed on the tender flesh of my ankle.

"Don't speak to your sister that way," he muttered, giving me a sharp look, before resuming his analysis.

Alexia wasn't one to be dissuaded, however. My eight year old sister practically vibrated with excitement. Whereas Adrian was less than enthused to admit I'd had yet another brush with death, Alexia was positively thrilled, beaming like Christmas came six months early. "Did you really stab him?"

"Not on purpose!" I defended myself, only for Adrian to prod me in the side.

"Stop moving," he ordered, and then leaned back. "It doesn't seem to be broken. Let me get an ice pack to help with the swelling." When he returned, setting my ankle appropriately with a heap of bandages and a compress that made half my leg go uncomfortably numb, he pursed his lips. I knew that look. It was the "You're in trouble but not until your father gets home so he can do the dirty work" look.

But why was I in trouble? I didn't do anything wrong!

Alexia's dark eyes, a perfect match for Adrian's, peaked over the back of the couch. "What does Tempest smell like?" she asked in a too-loud whisper.

Reaching behind me, I grabbed hold of a cream throw pillow and brought it down atop my sister's head. "I had more important things to do than smell him, you goblin-child."

"It was just a question," she pouted, rubbing her head even though I knew for a fact the blow couldn't have hurt. "I wish I could have been there, then maybe he'd have saved me instead." Alexia sighed wistfully, caught in some delicious fantasy. "I can't believe you actually got to touch him. I can't wait until school starts up again so I can tell everyone in my class that my sister actually met Tempest!"

"If you tell a soul, I'm donating all your plushies to the hospital when the dads aren't looking," I threatened in a low voice, so Adrian wouldn't hear from over the kitchen counter.

My sister's mouth dropped open in horror. "Why?"

I didn't know how to explain it. She hadn't seen the look in the Nightshade's eye when he looked at me, she hadn't seen his utter madness. He wouldn't care that I'd only stabbed him on accident. I shuddered to think of what he could do if he knew my name. The last thing I wanted was trouble, even though trouble positively adored me.

"Because I said so."

~~~

Unfortunately, it wasn't the following evening when I next heard from my father, as had been my hope. Usually, I wouldn't be awake to greet him when he got back from work in the morning, so I would see him around four when he would get up again to go to his six pm shift.

When his caller ID popped up on my phone around nine pm, I considered going to bed. If he then called my step-father to check on me. I could just be lie, "Sorry dad, I couldn't pick up the phone because I was asleep. Me? Duck your call on purpose? Never. I don't know where you'd even get that idea! It's completely preposterous. Who's been feeding you lies and dragging my name through the dirt?"

Swallowing my dread, I brought the phone to my ear. "Hey, Dad. How's work?"

"It's a party. We have patients in every bed and a line out the door from this most recent attack," he said.

"There was another attack?" I inquired too innocently.

"Nice try, kid. Imagine my shock when the doc flipped on the news and I saw a little grey-haired koala clinging to Tempest like her life depended on it."

I continued to play dumb. "Wow, that poor girl. Who was she?"

"Lily," he said, trying and failing to sound stern. "How many gray haired teens do you think live in this city?"

"I'd like to think it's silver," I corrected, "and you'd be surprised.

"Yeah, okay," he replied, obviously not buying it. "How's the leg?"

"Adrian is such a tattletale," I muttered, looking out my door to make sure he wasn't listening.

He laughed. "I would have found out anyway in a few hours. Well, I need to be getting back. I just called to make sure you were alright."

"So I'm not in trouble?" I asked, perking up immediately.

A pause. "Why would you be in trouble? Did you ask the Nightshade to take you or something?"

"No," I said, shaking my head quickly, despite the fact that he couldn't see me over the phone. "I just— Adrian had that look."

"Oh." He knew the look I was talking about. "He's just worried about you. That's all, especially after everything with your mom and Charlie."

I couldn't fight off the bitter edge to my voice. "He didn't even know me when that happened."

I imagined my dad shrugging. "He worries about you. Think of it as a complement."

"Whatever you say, Dad. I know you're busy, so I'll talk to you later."

I abruptly ended the call before he had the chance to explicitly order me not to, tossing my phone onto my bed. It bounced once before clattering to the floor.