Super•Villainous

Act 2: XXI

"Sorry, Dad," I said hoarsely when he thrust open the light blue, inoffensively dull curtain encircling my hospital bed hours later, trailed by Adrian and Alexia. "I survived, so you're going to have to return whatever life insurance you took out on me."

"That's not funny." In a flash, arms stretched out and snatched me into a suffocating embrace. I allowed myself to sink into it, to accept feeling safe for the first time in I didn't know how long, and let my eyelids rest for just a moment.

"I'm not trying to be funny."

It was true. I'd been poked and prodded at like a pin cushion for what felt like an eternity, leaving me in an understandably foul mood. Every time I thought my trials were over, something else reared it's ugly head. Get away from the villain that kidnapped you? Congratulations, you are now stranded in the woods. Finally find a water source? Lucky you, you have been found again by the very villain you just escaped. Make it to the city and think you're finally safe and sound? Nope, your reward for survival is a full medical work up where hospital staff draw more blood than Shade ever did.

Not a dream.

Not a dream.

"Lily?"

I clenched my fist into his checkered, navy blue t-shirt, steadying myself with the physical proof of his presence before me. My eyes could lie, as could my ears, but the feel of his rough hewn clothes and the smell of musky after shave couldn't be faked. Not a dream.

"Lily! Answer me, are you alright?" My dad pulled back to catch a glimpse of my face, incorrectly assuming I could carry my own weight. "How are you here?"

"I'm fine." I managed a quivering smile that I hoped looked more reassuring than it felt, followed by a half hearted shrug. "Hard to kill, I guess."

"I bet you annoyed Nightshade into releasing you." Adrian's obvious attempt at humor fell flat, largely because he looked and sounded slightly shell-shocked by my sudden return.

"That's actually not a terrible theory." After a shared look of concern between my parents, I said more forcefully, "Really! I'm fine!"

"You need a shower," my step-sister said, coming up to the side of my hospital bed and wrinkling her nose. "You smell worse than Moose does after a day at the park."

"We'll see how good you smell if you get dropped into a forest without access to running water for a couple days," I retorted in the tone reserved solely for older siblings to bully their younger counterparts. "I'm sure I could arrange that."

"How long do you believe you've been gone?" my father asked, brows pinched in mild puzzlement.

"Long enough that I think a coma would make for a fantastic nap," I said, smothering a yawn.

"Lily-" Dad started, and faltered, conflicted. Finally, he finished, "Lily, it's already July."

The math resolved in itself easily in my head. I graduated on the sixteenth, of the previous month, so if we had indeed passed into July, at least fifteen days had been swallowed by those woods.

I pressed my palms into my closed eyes, letting the pressure and reinforced darkness do it's best to provide a shred of comfort. "Please tell me it's the first of the month."

"The third, actually," Alexia said in her chipper tone.

I didn't know whether to be relieved or devastated. When he said July, I feared the worst, yet the mere fact that over two weeks had passed seemed impossible. "How is that possible?"

No one answered, because no one had answers. What could they say? They couldn't begin to understand what I'd gone through. Maybe nobody could. Eventually, I would be forced to share my experience, to relive it, and then they'd have an idea, but I didn't want that. They'd suffered enough from worry, so to make them suffer twice from knowledge seemed cruel.