TikTok Is Pumping Sad Videos Into My Brain - Tumblr Posts
Someone stepped into her bedroom, and she woke up.
One beat.
She grabbed a knife.
Two beats.
Her power flared.
Three beats.
A hand tightened over her wrist until the knife went clattering from her fingers, and she struck out and found no purchase.
They grabbed her leg, and there was the horrible sensation of being moved against her will, and she slammed into the ground.
Not her bedroom floor.
She blinked, and a boot came to rest on her sternum.
“Done fighting?”
The ceiling was the kind of bright, shiny metal that gave her headaches.
“Hadn’t started, really.”
The boot lifted, and she sat up, rolling to her feet.
She sighed.
“You?”
The villain blinked.
Behind them, the hero stirred.
“Oh. Them?”
The villain gave her the kind of smooth look she reserved for psychiatrists.
“I have a deal for you.”
Despite herself, she laughed.
“When do you not?”
“Would you rather I just kill you?”
“You could, if you wanted. But you don’t want to.”
The villain’s jaw clenched. “And why would you think that?”
She jerked her head towards the hero, bound in glowing cuffs.
“You just kidnapped me, and yet all you can look at is them.”
At this, the villain hummed. “I don’t care about them.”
“I know. You want them dead.”
The villain eyed her.
“You know an awful lot, don’t you,” they said, and it was a question and a demand all in one.
“Yeah well. You’re looking at them the way I did, for a while. And the way you looked at me, for a bit.”
“You were a hero.”
“I still am. I just don’t work with them.”
The villain cocked their head at the hero. “Now why wouldn’t you tell me such a pretty little detail. Have you been holding out on me?”
The hero shrugged, but their jaw was tense. The villain clucked at them.
“They gave me your name, you know. When I asked for one.”
She stared at the hero. “Asked for one?”
“Someone who would make the choice the hero isn’t strong enough to make.”
She tore her eyes from the hero, looking at the villain.
“I’m a hero too, you know.”
They smiled, just a bit.
“They didn’t give me your name because of that, though.”
“The choice involves them dying, doesn’t it.”
“So astute. Are you sure you work with them.”
“Worked.”
“Sorry?”
She was back to staring at the hero. They wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I used to work with them. I don’t anymore.”
The villain gave something akin to a sympathetic coo.
“Aww, lovers quarrel?”
Her power cracked through the air.
“What’s the deal,” she snapped.
The villain went quiet.
“They die, or you come with me.”
For a moment, she just stood there.
“That’s a stupid deal,” she swallowed. “Who would pick them dying?”
The villain tilted their head. “I don’t know. Who would.”
The hero looked at her with such a scorching and silent ‘please’ that she looked away.
“You’re such an idiot,” she hissed, and she wasn’t sure which of them she was saying it to.
“Something to say?”
It took her a moment to slide her electricity back into her skin.
“Well, I know why they picked me.”
The villain didn’t have to ask before she answered.
“They want me to choose for them to die.”
Silence, the kind that hovers over cemeteries, slid between them.
A moment later, the villain laughed.
They looked at the hero, and they wouldn’t meet their eyes.
“You think she’d pick for you to die?”
The hero’s eyes said they knew she would.
“I told you I was done,” she said quietly, and the villain and hero’s gaze snapped to her. “I told you that you hurt me, and I was tired of fixing it. I told you I wouldn’t say sorry for your messes anymore. I told you that you had burned what we had, and that I would never come back.”
She had to stop to breathe.
“You were my best friend, you idiot. And I love you, and you broke it. And I still hate you for it, and I wanted you to die so I wouldn’t have to grieve someone who was still alive, but I won’t let you do it like this.”
The villain opened their mouth, but she cut them off.
“You don’t get to use me as a way out,” she seethed. “I stopped being your answer when you stopped being my problem. And believe it or not, I don’t really want to look at you right now, either.”
The hero was crying, but they didn’t say anything. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Me. Take me. Let them go.”
The villain didn’t move.
“They truly thought you would—“
“Yeah,” she said quietly, and this time it sounded like a sob. They both ignored it. “They really thought I would pick for them to die.”
“God, still a hero,” the hero croaked, and she stared at them. “Your power still crackles when you’re mad.”
“Stop it—“
“Just let me go,” they whispered. “Let me go, please.”
“No.”
“It hurts, and I’m tired, and I’m done,” the hero murmured. “Just pick yourself, and leave.”
She wanted to be angry. She wanted to be scathing and screaming and unleash everything contained in her bones.
But she didn’t.
“It hurts,” she said gently. “But you broke it. And I moved on. And you have to live with that.”
A tear ran down the hero’s cheek.
“I don’t want you dead,” she admitted, and they looked like she had gut punched them. “But I haven’t forgiven you, either.”
She turned to the villain.
“Let them go.”
For a moment, they simply stared at her, as if they couldn’t process what had just happened.
“Alright, I- yeah, got it.”
She gave one last glance to the hero.
“Get some help, please,” she studied their face. “And maybe we can talk someday. Not soon, but. Close. Alright?”
“You’ll forgive me?”
She gave a one shoulder shrug, like this wasn’t crushing her. “We’ll see.”
The villain gestured for her to follow them, and the hero coughed.
“You’ll be okay?”
At this, she smiled.
“Still a hero, darling. I’ll be out in a day.”
Thanks @hojo76 for the writing prompt you gave me like a month ago