Val The Vessel

3 / We Can Protect You

Doron leads me up and around the swirling carpeted stairs until we reach a softly lit hallway with heavily decorated walls. Dark photographs of all shapes and sizes are hung sporadically within intricate picture frames. My fathomless attraction to the unknown rivets my interest in the photos. I will definitely check them out in my free time.

"This is it," Doron chants, turning the knob of a closed white door and ushering me inside. The supersized room feels like it's swallowing us whole. There's a king bed against the left side of the wall, a plain velvet dresser far off beside what looks to be a closet, and a mounted flat screen television on the right. A pale ceiling looms high over our heads and curves near where the bed is. This room is undeniably renovated from whatever it used to be. No modern room is this big.

"This place is nice, right?" Doron asks, awkwardly raising his thumb.

"Y-Yeah it is," the words barely leave my lips. This room alone is larger than the entire top floor of my apartment.

"Everything you need is right in here. There's a closet back there filled with clothes, a bathroom in the corner over there, and a mini-fridge beneath the television. I don't have a cable box set up in this room just yet but I do have Netflix installed so you won't get bored."

Why is he so damn caring? Is this guy really the second-strongest villain in the world?

"Thank you!" is all I say in return.

Doron smiles. "Our house is your house. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything. I'll be in my room down the hall. This entire building used to be a church/youth hostel so renovations are constantly being done. You'll get used to the loud construction noises over time."

He breathes out, a light aroma of teriyaki scenting the room. "Okay, I guess that's all," he laughs. "Oh, be sure that you're up and ready by seven tomorrow morning, Valentina."

The hell?

"Tomorrow," he goes into the closet and hauls out a black duffle bag with worn boxing gloves falling out of it, "Tomorrow you're going to complete a training session with my good friend, Nikky. She's going to help you unlock your powers. She will explain the details in the morning."

I raise a brow. "Come again? I'm doing what, exactly?"

Doron steps forward, hovers over my lips, and caresses my shoulders with hands that are no longer comforting to me. "Look, I sense that you're afraid. I expected this. We can protect you here, Valentina. But we can only do that if you trust us first. You have powers and it won't be long before bad people begin to come after them. Superpowers make you a hershey's bar. Everybody wants a piece of you. You need to be able to protect yourself."

I watch Doron take my hands into his. "You're very special, Valentina. God brought you and I together for a reason, I just know it."

With a final, lasting grin, the gentle giant shuts the door behind him with his heavy footsteps trailing away. I glance back only to shoot him a crooked grin.

He believes in God? Holy shit. How stupid can this guy be? It's one thing for a human to believe in such nonsense, but a villain? What kind of moron is this?

I think of my parents all of a sudden. Cruel memories of Sunday school flood my thoughts. Mom and Dad were so strict on me as a kid. For years, they believed that I was the antichrist without a doubt. Little did they know that I was one of the trillions of people on this Earth who was born with powers—powers that kept Mom and Dad awake at night—powers that ultimately took their lives right from under them in their final hours. 

Doron promised to keep me safe from the world, but I worry that there is nothing to keep the world safe from me.