RADIATING VIOLET| t. stark ✔️

TWENTY-ONE: Sidekick pt.1

"I'm a mess.

I'm a loser.

I'm a hater.

I'm a user."

Alyssa squeezed her pillow harder into her ears. She couldn't take it anymore. The sounds, the people. What the heck was Tony thinking?

He knows I have a problem.

Does he even care?

The birthday party she had planned for Tony was going to trash. She had drawn him a birthday card and everything. It was a picture of Tony in the Iron Man suit with him holding hands with a little girl who had her own miniature suit. Except, her's was purple. She was making such and effort. For a while, Alyssa was even thinking about starting to call him dad.

Would he even like it?

Well, not anymore.

The loud screams from the people downstairs were only growing stronger. The dj was playing a song with really loud beats. She tried to block it out, but then, Iron Monger came.

His large metal booted feet where running after Alyssa and all she could do was scream. It was so vivid. A flash back, no. It couldn't have been. Shrill electricity sounds filled her ears. There was an electric guitar solo which sounded so similar to the cracking of the whip.

His fake gold tooth shimmered  as he quickly approached the young girl. The sharp whips came down upon her like serpents pouncing on their prey. Alyssa wasn't sure if her loud shriek was audible or if it was all in her head.

Whiplash.

His large white arc reactor lit up as he strutted down the road. His orange jumpsuit laid uselessly at his sides; they were black from charring and looked like scales peeling off of a shedding snake.

He was a snake.

"You lose, you lose Stark!" He hissed.

He was a snake.

"How's your daughter?"

He was a snake.

Alyssa wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and hide from the world. Hide from Whiplash, hide from Iron Monger. But she couldn't, their faces were branded in her mind since the moment she saw them.

The memory, a blessing and a curse.

She sat up from her bed still shaking from her little episode.

Why am I so weak?

Alyssa shuddered and walked up to her dresser. A small locket was laying there. It was a gift from Pepper. The red-head has insisted that Tony picked it out too but Alyssa knew better. This was all Pepper. She slowly pulled her hair up wrapping the petite silver chain around her neck. The clasp clicked and the girl admired her work.

The locket is beautiful. The front is framed by little pink roses, violets, and sweet alyssum. Alyssum is a tiny white flower that is often seen in clumps. Pepper quite loved the small flowers, she said that reminded her of someone. Alyssa is her name. She is a flower, pure...innocent even.

She's fragile, easily broken, hard to fix. Alyssa's petals are easy to rip away and discard. You can tear away at every fiber of her being but, life, as it should, lives on. And, so does she.

The music from downstairs distracts the girl once more from the daydream that she was enjoying.

Jeez, no wonder you people are deaf.