The Confidential Files of A Superhero

Onyx: Seven

Soundtrack: Sticks and Stones by X Ambassadors

“Well good evening there lover boy,” that cruel voice cooed as soon as I stepped through the doorway, calling me by that pet name she knew irritated me. A chill instinctively ran down my spine and I grimaced. Usually I’d let her playful little comments brush off of me like they were nothing. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she got under my skin. But today had already been long enough, I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. It had been a while since I’d come in here, and our usual visits didn’t last very long before she said something that made me snap and storm off. Truly, this was the very last place that I wanted to be, so why had I come here tonight of all nights?

I met her green eyes, immediately remembering how much I hated that they looked so much like Allison’s. Her’s were hallow though, shallowed by the pain the world had brought her when she was only a few years older than her daughter is now. I cringed at the thought, unable to imagine what I would do if Allison was forced to reach the same fate as her mother.

“Sabine,” I nodded my head to her, taking a seat at the rickety chair I’d moved in here at the beginning of the summer. Only a few months ago this room had been empty, used for nothing but a bullet proof and fire proof training room that me and my siblings had used when practicing our powers. Now though, it had become some sort of modernized holding cell for this woman. My mind flashed back to that night in June, the one where this woman had tried to kill me. I remembered the sound of her voice, the regret on her tongue the second she had realized what she had done, but that didn’t make forgiving her any easier. She may have claimed that she had caused the world so much harm just to protect her own daughter, but all she had ever done was bring her pain. This woman was the enemy then, and she was still the enemy now. Even in the fleeting moments that my mind found sympathy for her, I would hang on to the reminder of that night in June, the way the monazite had burned through my chest.

I took a glance around the room, noticing how she must have moved the furniture around once again. It seemed that every time I came in here, she had rearranged. Not that I could blame her though. She didn’t exactly get a lot of company considering no one really knew she was here, nor did she have any friends who would want to visit her. She had to find something to do to entertain herself, besides read the boring collection of books I’d dropped off once. Today the shelf with the books on it was right by the door, her bed jammed into the corner. The table and chairs was in the middle of the room while she lounged on the sofa in the other corner. She sat up to face me, folding her hands in her lap and smiling as if she knew a secret. She always smiled like that, and it irritated the hell out of me.

I had no idea how this woman somehow always knew what time of day it was, even though we kept her locked in this window less room. Nor did I have any idea how she always appeared so calm and kept that irritating smirk. If I were locked in a windowless box for an entire summer, I’d been losing my damn mind by now. I would have torn apart all of the furniture and certainly tried to smash my way out of this place, even though I knew that was impossible. Sabine however, was always one step ahead. So while it might not look like she was trying to escape, I knew I had to be extra careful around her always. One slip up and she might find a way out of here.

“How was your day today, hero?” She said, keeping that stupid smirk going strong. The way she said it made my spine turn rigid. It felt like she knew more than she was telling, as if she somehow knew what had happened today, but that was impossible.

“It was fine,” I quipped back, cutting the conversation abruptly short.

Sabine raised a curious eyebrow at me, as if she truly thought I was stupid enough to elaborate but I wasn’t giving her any more information than that. “And how was my daughter’s move?” She asked next and I rolled my eyes. I definitely hadn’t told her anything about today being Ali’s moving date, but it also wasn’t exactly easy to keep information from Sabine. When your mother was someone who could clearly see into the future, she tended to know everything about your life before it even happened. Or so she thought she did.

“It was fine,” I repeated the same brittle three words, once again keeping my information to myself as if it were valuable. Another roll of Sabine’s eyes told me she was getting irritated with me, and I wanted to tell her to join the club right about now. Why had I come here tonight? Really, did I hate myself or something? Today had been hard enough and now I wanted to what? Sit down and catch up with my girlfriend’s murderous mother? No, even as I sat here now face to face with her, that sounded like a terrible idea.

Deep down, I knew why I had come. I needed some answers for what had happened today, and I knew there was no one else out there who could possibly understand it. I wanted to brush it under the and pretend none of it had ever happened, but that nagging doubt in my mind kept asking; what if it happened again? Or maybe, I just needed to come face to face with this woman and remind myself that now I held the power over her. I was stronger than she was, and from this position now she couldn’t hurt me or Ali again. Maybe I liked having that power, and right now I wanted to embrace it.

“So, has it started yet?” Sabine asked, drawing me back into the conversation. That sly knowing smile creeping back up on her lips as she stared me down.

“Has what started?” I snapped, quickly losing my patience with her. She always wanted to play these mind games, like she was trying to purposefully piss me off.

“You fear,” her grin widened with those final words and my whole body suddenly felt alive. She’d hit a nerve there. Somehow she knew what had happened today, I could see it in her eyes. She’d been expecting this, waiting for it in fact. But there was no way she could have known, I’d been careful. There would be nothing about it on the news today. I could forget all about it and my little slip up would simply disappear in the morning, but this woman wouldn’t. The tension in the air right now as she hung on, waiting for my next word, told me only one thing.

“What did you see?” I demanded, knowing damn well this woman had a vision about me and had chosen to wait until it was too late to share it. She shrugged her shoulders, suddenly playing the same little game that I had been when I came in here. She knew the rules, all information here came at a cost, one I certainly wasn’t willing to pay to a woman like this. The only thing Sabine ever wanted was information about Allison, and that was something I would rather take to my grave than give up to this woman. She was evil and manipulative, and she had no right to try and access more of her daughters life than she already had.

I abruptly stood from my chair, allowing it to make a terrible noise as it scratched against the laminate floor beneath our feet. My father’s instructions from earlier this year were echoing in my ears, reminding me of the real reason that Sabine was down here in this holding cell. I had learned something important in June, realizing that my powers could work on one of my own kind. Sabine specifically, my father had asked me to fix. He saw it that way, as if taking away a woman’s memories was somehow a good way to make her a better person. I wasn’t so sure I had agreed with him, but right now I found myself tempted to try. I wanted to make her tell me what she saw, but I couldn’t allow myself to do that. My father had tried to manipulate this woman’s mind once, and it ended badly for all of us. I refused to repeat his mistakes, so just like I had so many times before this summer, I turned and stormed out of the training room without another word. I reminded myself that she was just playing a game with me right now, it was what this woman was best at. I wouldn’t let her win.