#made a lil profit and got rid of a load of my junk so essentially got paid to clear my room out!!! hell yea!!!

[raineandsky]

#57

tw fire / arson

The street is engulfed in a burning blaze. The buildings next door will adopt the flames too, and before long the entire city will be alight with the villain’s master plan.

Everything is coming together just as he wanted. By the time the heroes get here, the destruction will be too great to do anything but salvage whatever little remains. The fallout will give them plenty of time to get everything in place for his final big show. 

The villain lets the flames warm his face from where he’s watching the carnage. Everything is perfect.

There’s a light tug at the end of his coat. “Mr. Evil?”

The villain gives the spot next to him a frown, before pointing it downward—a child, a wholeass child, clinging to the hem of his coat with a little too much force, wrinkling the usually smooth fabric. A glance around gives him no inkling as to how they got here.

“Hey, uh…” The villain has to raise his voice over the sound of the buildings crumbling around them. “If this is your kid, can you come and get them? I won’t attack you.”

Nothing. Either no one is willing to risk their neck or this kid is somehow out here alone. Wonderful. Of course this would happen to the villain as he’s trying to reach his peak in life.

“Look, kid.” The villain squats down to the child’s level. They don’t let go of his coat like the villain had hoped, and so he sets about carefully prying their tiny fingers off. “It’s dangerous. You shouldn’t be out here. Where’re your parents?”

The kid laughs brightly, as if the arson of the city they live in is entertaining. “Mr. Evil!”

Clearly there’s been an attempt to teach this thing stranger danger, but maybe the concept of ‘evil’ hasn’t quite gone in yet. 

The kid points up to where the building opposite is ragefully burning. “Boom!” they squeak, and they clap their hands joyfully when it responds by creaking on its supports.

There’s no one around but the villain and this child that looks to barely be in the double-digits. He can’t leave them here. He’s a villain, not a degenerate. There’s screaming nearby as people flee the impending blaze.

He stands back upright with an irritated sigh. He can’t believe he’s letting morality he shouldn’t technically have get in the way of everything. He holds a hand out to the child expectantly.

“Come on,” he says with what he hopes passes off as kindness, “we should be going.”

The kid has a concerning lack of hesitation in taking his hand, a bright grin on their face as they watch the flames engulf everything.

There’s people making their getaways a few streets over, moving from the flames like a terrified flood. The child watches everyone absently as the villain tries to pick out anyone he can hand them off to.

“Hey, you!” the villain calls into the fray. “You, in the blue shirt!”

A woman miraculously slows down, swimming through the current of people to reach them. “This kid needs to go,” he tells her urgently. “They’re lost—find their parents if you can.”

The kid turns up to the villain with wide, puppy-like eyes as he lets go of them. “Mr. Evil?”

“You’re going to find your parents, alright?” he says. “Go now, before the fire spreads. I have to, uh, go look for other people.”

The woman nods, bending down to the kid with her hands out. “Come on, kiddo, let’s get going then.”

The villain has let go of the kid, but said kid doesn’t seem to have the same idea. Their grip is back on the bottom of his coat, tucking behind him like he’s the safest person in the world. It takes a frankly embarrassing amount of effort to push them into her arms. They fight it the entire time like they’re being kidnapped.

The woman turns on her heel to continue her escape, and the child gets one last look at the villain from over her shoulder.

“Mr. Evil…?” they say uncertainly. The moment it’s clear the villain’s getting further away they burst into tears, their wails echoing through the collapsing city around them.

The villain lingers worriedly, waiting until the pair are out of sight before turning on his heel to finish what he started.

God, he’s a villain. An upset child shouldn’t make him feel bad. His heart hurts though, much to his dismay, and he knows that he never wants to see a kid caught up in his plans again.

Goddamnit, he doesn't even like kids.

#creative writing #writblr #writers on tumblr #writing #writing community #heroes and villains #tw fire #me: hm. im not very good at writing kids. lemme do it anyways #i went to a car boot this morning too. woke up at 6:30 in the am for it rip #made a lil profit and got rid of a load of my junk so essentially got paid to clear my room out!!! hell yea!!!