We’ll All be Remembered (Entry Three)

“Villain? Are you alright?”

The villain was not alright, but they didn’t say that. Slowly, painfully, sitting up, they looked around the dark room. The small woman standing beside their bed reached out and brushed the hair off of their face. 

“I’m sorry for waking you, but the hero’s on TV.”

It took everything the villain had not to lean into the kind hand. Instead they reclined against the headboard and turned on the television. There stood the hero, bruised and bedraggled. 

They looked far worse than they had after the fight, if that was possible. Makeup didn’t mask the bruises, but made them look darker. The injured arm was wrapped tightly against their chest and they had black circles under their eyes. 

“This villain may be more diabolical than we’ve ever seen, but I promise–” the hero coughed, bending over and swallowing hard. 

The villain’s lips twitched in a slow smile. 

Remember me. 

The hero straightened, their lips red. “I promise that I will defeat them. No matter how long it takes, I will always fight for you. I will never fall to their level.”

The villain turned off the television. They went to stand up, but collapsed just like the hero had. This time it was real though. The remote clattered to the ground with the villain’s battered body. 

A few silent tears slipped down their cheeks, but not from the pain. At least, not the physical kind. 

“How many are left?” they whispered, the words like a knife in their throat. 

The woman crouched down and took the villain’s face in her hands, inspecting their wounds. “A few. They’re all scared. They’re all hurting. But no one’s leaving.”

“They all have to.” The villain wiped at their eyes but did nothing to stop the flow of tears. “They’ve all got to go.”

“Why?” 

“Because Hero will kill them. Just like they killed Mary, and Paul, and James and Sam and Patty and Clara. They killed them all.” 

The woman knelt, still holding the villain’s face in her hands. She leaned forward, placing her forehead against theirs. “They won’t leave.”

The villain pulled away, burying their face in their hands. “I know.”

Slipping her arm under the villain’s, the woman lifted them to their feet. Gently, as painlessly as she could. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Limping alongside her, the villain made it to the bathroom before their body gave out again. And the woman tended to them there, crumpled on the floor. She wrapped the wounds and set the bones and lifted the villain’s chin so that they could swallow the pills. She sponged away the blood and helped them into soft, clean clothes. 

“Charlie will bring up your breakfast.”

The villain let their head fall back against the bathtub, closing their weary eyes. “You’re certain no one will leave?”

The woman nodded, though the villain couldn’t see her. “We’re all with you.”

The villain sighed, pressing their lips together. “One day, we’ll all be remembered. And I don’t care how.”

The woman tilted her head towards the dark screen. “It looks like we already are.”

The villain lifted their bruised head, licking dry lips. Their face cracked in a smile.

“Indeed. Indeed we are.”