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stories-by-rie · 2 years

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124 Fwd: Re: Re: pls read your mails

Popping out of my temporary grave and dumping a quick thing here in a futile attempt to suppress impending doom. Might not be very coherent. Trigger warning for a bit of violence, mention of knife, blood and gunshot. ~800 words

The door bangs shut behind me and the hero swirls around to face me. In the absence of stars, the neon signs make the mist of fog and fumes shine like a piece of art--a sharp contrast to her silhouette. Perhaps, the city’s noise could be the matching music, but it hardly reaches us on the flat roof of the skyscraper. We’re still too far away from each other for her to recognize me.

One hand flies to her thigh where she keeps the knives for throwing, another to her ear-piece. There’s a beep in my ear, I push the button.

“Hero to sidekick, please respond. Unknown character at agreed meeting point?”

I push the button again. “Sidekick to hero, the character is known.”

I don’t have to be close enough to see the shock on her face, I can hear it in my ear. Many aborted you’s, even more broken I’s. A change in emotion.

“Hero demands to know what her sidekick is thinking.” Her voice is quieter, but the consonants sharper enunciated. The t’s and s’s are stabbing. She pulls a knife, but doesn’t hold it at the tip, ready to throw it. Somehow it looks more like moral support.

I take controlled steps toward her. She doesn’t get more defensive and it makes my blood boil. Not a single thought wasted about the potential threat that I could be. Wholly unaware of the knowledge I hold. It must show on my face because she raises an eyebrow in a way that clearly says what do you think you’re doing.

“You know, I was burning for the cause”, I start and try to at least pretend to be nonchalant about any of this when my whole presence is proof of the contrary.

“I cannot claim to have noticed”, the hero bites out.

“Oh, obviously not. For that you would have to notice anything. You would have to notice that the secretary whose offer you took donates money to the supervillain's corporation. I wanted to tell you but you weren’t in the base. So I wrote an email which you clearly haven’t bothered to read. You would have to notice that your other sidekick hasn’t been in the base for a whole week. I let you know after you told me to assign them a new mission, and to that email you also have not replied. And that was just last week.”

The hero laughs near-hysterically, the knife swinging between her fingers at the tip now.

“So what? You’re rebelling because I don’t check my emails enough? Who do you think you are? The hero of bureaucracy?”

I let a smile slip on my face.

“I am not rebelling.” I’m finally close enough. “I am avenging the people you failed because of your ignorance.” I aim at her chest. “Ignorance that has already cost lives, all for your own vanity.” I pull the trigger.

The bullet hits her right in the chest. Her armour can’t hold it because I rigged it. It’s not that she would ever check her gear herself, she simply expects me to do it. I can hear her surprised gasp as her fingers come away bloody red. She sinks down on her knees, right as I arrive next to her, my lips close enough to her ear that

“If the superhero offered you more fame and glory, you would not even hesitate to accept.” I dip a finger into her wound, make her wince. “Just so you know, the others aren’t in on this. I left the others in the dark about our get-together tonight. So if they’re not responding to your calls, you’ll know that I didn’t even have to convince them.”

Her breath comes out stuttered in pain, but her eyes are burning with fury. It unfurls something in me. Some ugly scraps are peeled off by my courage. The thing at its core is still hungry for more.

I clasp my hand around her face, force her to look at me. “Go on. Try it.”

She doesn’t move, but I will not be satisfied with her defiance. I press harder into her skin. “I said. Try it.”

She presses the button and calls for the others, one after the other. There are a few replies that let her know that it is my shift today, most of them say that they cannot aid in order to keep their identities safe. Most don’t even pick up.

I let go of her face, my fingers leaving faint red impressions on her skin, a bloody tear beneath her eye.

The neon lights of the surrounding buildings mirror in the blood that starts to pool around her. I find that it is not worthy to be called pretty.

#writeblr #heroes and villains #sidekick #short story #800 words #sidekicks demand their bosses to read their emails or get paid more #i was too lazy to name the characters but i think that's how you do it anyway in the superhero writing fandom or whatever so i hope it works #thanks to royal for enabling me #i will now disappear until august 24th or smth if i don't know when the exam is i won't have to study for it yet #stresswriting #124 #fwd: re: re: pls read your mails #cw violence

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