For years, you have been taking medicine for your weak immune system. On your birthday, you overhear your parents conversation. “I think the tablets aren’t as effective as they were before. I don’t think they can suppress
their superpowers for much longer.”
“I don’t think the tablets are as effective as
they used to be. They won’t suppress his superpowers for much longer.”
My brother Henry and I stared at each other in
shock, unsure of how to react to this overheard conversation. We had just been
trying to sneak down to raid the fridge for a midnight snack. It was not our
plan to come across our parents discussing Henry’s medication.
He had always been sickly. They told us he had
a poor immune system and required medications to stay alive. Henry was always
weak and tired. I would have never suspected that he wasn’t actually sick.
We had always been different, despite being
fraternal twins. He was kept inside, away from potential infections, while I
ran around, playing in the dirt and scraping my knees. He was pale and thin,
with delicate, fragile features framing bright green eyes. I was tanned from
the sun, all rough edges and sharp angles. Most people who saw us together did
not realize we were related, much less twins. I didn’t care. I was his sister,
his protector, he was my best friend.
I held his hand in mine, nervous sweat making
our grip slip. His eyes were wide and nervous, a mirror of my own. He mouthed a
single word, afraid to make a sound.
Superpowers?
I shook my head, I was just as clueless as him.
Our mother started talking again. We listened further.
“Once he shows signs of his powers, even an
idiot will be able to tell whose child he is.”
Henry’s hand tightened on my own. It was just
too much to comprehend.
“It’s too late to regret it now, dear. When we
took him from them, it effectively crippled their heroic activities. It was the
best move we’ve ever made against them!”
No.
I shrunk back against the wall, holding the boy
I always thought was my brother tightly against me. He didn’t push me away, but
clung just as tightly to me.
He was the child of superheroes? He was
kidnapped? What about me?
My mother sighed, pulled out a cigarette, lit
it, and took a long drag on it. It struck me as odd. I didn’t even know she
smoked.
It was still dark out when my bedroom door opened.
“Sweetie?” My mom’s face was smiling, even as her eyes were coldly
searching the room. “Where’s your brother?”
I forced my face to keep calm, pretending to be sleepy and confused. “I
don’t know, I think he went to the bathroom?”
She disappeared briefly, I could hear her knocking on the bathroom
door. I stayed under my covers, trying to remember to breathe as my heart beat
loudly in my chest. Just this morning I had thought of them as nice, normal people.
Maybe a little more cold and distant than other children’s parents, but
definitely not villains.
Not the kind of people who kidnapped other people’s children.
Or the kind who casually talked about killing my brother Henry. Even if
he wasn’t really my brother.
It didn’t take long for my mother to return. This time she wasn’t
smiling. My father stood behind her, his arms crossed, casually leaning against
the door frame. Blocking the only escape route.
Click.
I felt the cold nuzzle of the gun in my mothers hand press against my
chest. Terrified, frozen into place, I stare up into her uncaring eyes.
“Let me ask you again, dear… Where. Is. Henry?
I woke up with a gasp, staring into the darkness with wide
panicked eyes. My hand had already grasped the gun that I kept under my pillow
and was pointing it with practiced ease.
But there were no enemies here to fight.
My heart beating, my face dripping with cold sweat, I
systematically searched the room, checking my small house’s defense system. Everything
was intact. I was alone.
I put my gun on the bedside table and sat down with a loud
sigh, the worn mattress sinking under my weight.
I was alone.
I was safe.
No one, not even the Captain, knew my address. I had spent years crafting the defenses, not
even Villain Suppression Unit Security experts could break something I wanted
to stay locked. And of course, I had never brought anyone back here. Never. I wouldn’t let
anyone even see this place, much less welcome them inside.
I didn’t trust anyone. It was safer that way.
I rested my head in my hands, shaking. Why this dream again? Why tonight of all nights?
But of course I knew why. Hearing that my parents had
escaped had been a bigger shock than I realized. So far it had been kept
secret, even the captain had been unaware of it, but we confirmed it with the
National Villain Prison.
They were loose again.
I rubbed my shoulder, the old wounds in my chest wall
throbbing with remembered pain. The morning my parents had discovered that
Henry had escaped was the day they discarded their masks, stopped pretending to
be decent people. It was the day my life had descended into Hell.
But losing my trust in people? That had taken years. It
wasn’t a single moment. There was no epiphany when I finally realized that my
“brother” was never going to keep his promise and come back for me. No bright
shining light bulb in my head saying that I could only depend on myself if I
wanted to survive.
It was a creeping, tortuous grinding down of that bright
shining trust, a slow decay, until even I couldn’t remember when I finally lost
hope.
And now he was back.
Smiling, laughing, acting like the past had never happened.
It made me want to hurt him.
All the more painful because I could see the boy I had loved
as the only family member on this earth looking out through his eyes. It would
have been easier if he had died. At least then I could have pretended that he
hadn’t forgotten about me, left me to rot and suffer at the hands of psychotic
killers who spent every waking moment trying to mold me into a perfect
successor of their insanity.
But now I needed him.
After I refused to join the Hero Assistance Unit, there was
no reason for me to be able to infiltrate their office and find the mole. Me
walking in alone would only raise suspicions. If I were partnered with Henry…
no he went by Jarrod now, I would have access to the traitor. Access to
information I needed to take down my parents.
This time I would kill them.
Henry’s face flashed through my mind and I groaned, hiding
my face once again. I knew why I was willing to put up with this partnership,
but what was he getting out of it? Why did he agree to partner up with me?
Pansexual Monster Girl 