To Rescue a Villain

Chapter 16

How could he know what I was? Who looked at someone and said, "Hmm. That person suddenly appeared in the middle of a field. They must be from another reality that is more real than this one and my world is just a fictional comic book created by someone else"? No one did. He must have been bluffing.

Crossing my arms, I stood my ground. "What am I, then?"

"Don't give me that look," he muttered before continuing. "You're a Valdis."

"What?" A part of my mind exploded at that observation.

The Valdis were people who, for reasons never explained in the books, were born with mysterious powers. They mainly tended to be female, though males were apparently not unheard of, and usually discovered their powers during their teenage years. These powers ranged from teleportation, moving things with their mind, creating weapons out of thin air, and flying.

I had only heard about two Valdis in my history of reading. The first had been a middle aged woman named Ebony who appeared for two chapters before disappearing and never being heard from again. The other was Dark's daughter, Polly. Her powers were part of the reason she died.

But me being a Valdis? "No way," I scoffed. "I think I'd know if I was a Valdis."

He raised an eyebrow. "Have you even bothered to check?"

"Of course!" Everyone checked to see if they had super powers every once in a while, right? Right? ...Everyone except me. Not recently, anyway.

Wait. What if he was actually right? I needed to test this.

"Derek, why don't you go home and have a nap?" I asked, nearly shoving him out the door so I could talk to Di and check to see if I had powers. "I need to use your office for a while."

"But I thought we were going to Odette's," Derek asked, gripping both sides of the doorway so I couldn't force him out completely. "It was going to be our first date."

"We can go later," I answered, not really caring about seeing my workplace right now. Couldn't he see that I had more important things to do? "I'll see you in an hour, okay?"

He still refused to budge. "But we need—"

"Bye." I used as much strength as I could to get him out in the hallway, then shut the door and locked it, not allowing myself to feel bad for him. We could hang out later. Right now I needed answers!

◑○★☆●◐

My heart was beating out of my chest again, though this time it wasn't out of anger toward my boss but confusion about Mary. Had I done something wrong? Was I not supposed to know she was a Valdis? Was she mad at me?

I started scratching my head and, not wanting to risk having her hate me, decided to obey for once and walk to my room. I was due for a lunch break anyway.

What was it about Mary that made me rush through so many emotions in so little time? She was so weird and unpredictable that I couldn't help wanting to figure her out, from her dreams to her strange accent to her nervousness when talking about her past.

Plus, she'd destroyed my pride by not mentioning our kiss from earlier. I thought my intentions had been clear but she was still acting like nothing happened. Did she not feel attracted to me at all?

My mind was still abuzz as I walked down the hall, trying to focus on what I should eat instead of why my girlfriend was so mysterious.

◑○★☆●◐

I gulped as I stood in the center of the office with nothing but Di to watch me. I felt sweat slide down the side of my face and the palms of both hands start to grow moist. I was so nervous about this.

"If you wish to test his theory, feel free to use it on your phone." Di opened the small compartment in the wall again, causing the phone sitting inside to jump a tiny bit from the movement. "I have extracted everything I can and will show you when you are ready."

"Thanks," I whispered and bit my lip, using one hand to rub the sweat off my forehead and stretching the other toward my phone. I flipped my hand right side up, then upside down to see if it would do anything. Then I focused all my attention on moving the phone with my mind, scrunching my eyebrows together so hard that it send pangs of pain through my forehead.

Nothing but my jagged breaths echoed through the room as we both waited for something to happen. My arm started to ache from the strain and I was about to give up when the tip of the phone slowly started to rise before slipping out of the compartment and crashing to the floor, forming a small crack across the screen.

My heart leapt.

Whirling toward the computer, my jaw dropped. "Did you do that?" I yelled in excitement, pointing at the evidence.

The AI shook her head, her face refusing to betray an emotions. "It would appear that you are a Valdis."

A Valdis. I was a Valdis.

Like mother, like daughter, I guess.

Ugh! Why had I thought that? I was not going to become Polly's mother because I wasn't going to marry Derek!

That reminded me, though. I needed to start reviewing those videos.

"Di." I placed both hands on the desk and leaned toward the screen. "Can you play episode 18. Start twenty minutes in. I want to see the part where Dark...the villain... confesses his past."

"Very well."

In moments, the part of the story that had made me fall in "love" with the villain began to play. I began feeling nostalgic as I watched Dark, looking older and more traumatized than the Derek I knew, stand before the heroes, moments before his breakdown occurred in which he truly morphed into the villain of the story.

"Dark...what's wrong?" Ace asked. "What did Di say?"

Dark turned to him with tears in his eyes. "My wife she...she's dead."

"What? How?"

"I don't know. She..." He paused. "I just talked to her yesterday on the phone. She seemed fine. I don't know why she'd..." He finally started to shake. "She was all I had."

"Well, technically you still have your daughter," Jala started in her typical, sassy tone.

Dark scowled. "You think this is funny?!" he snapped. "What do you know about my wife? She was so delicate and tried so hard to cover up her insecurities with a hard exterior. She was the only woman I ever learned to love and now she's gone forever!"

As he continued to yell, all three of the characters, even Ace who used to be Dark's best friend, started to back away. His eyes were growing dark and the veins were popping out on his arms. They'd never seen him like this before. In the past he'd always been cheery and great at tolerating every issue they'd come across.

"Dark." Ace tried to steady him. "They didn't say anything against your wife. You're just trying to vent your anger—"

"Shut up, Ace!" Dark suddenly yelled, shoving his best friend against the wall.

So they ran, unable to save him from his grief.

On their way out, Jala attempted to kill Dark so he couldn't hurt them but that only made it worse. He saw it as the ultimate betrayal and decided to use his Valdis daughter to control the Hikarius moon station, which he'd planned to use on Manica's citizens.

As I watched the moving scene, I felt my body tense up upon realizing what I'd just done to him moments before. I'd slammed the door in his face. Just like every other person he'd ever met, I had rejected him. I was no better than any of the other characters.

What had I done?

Panicking, I told Di I'd look at the phone later and ran out the door, calling Derek's name and charging toward our room. Hopefully I'd be able to apologize in time.