Serender: The Accidental Super Villain

13

Home was where her spirit wanted to take her as she departed from the madness she had created.  Tears filled her eyes as she burst through the sky towards California’s shore line. Within no time, she found herself rigidly landing, then rolling over dead bodies in the street of what looked like a shopping strip. Her heart told her to run for cover but her mind thought differently. Her logic led her to the understanding that there would not be any swift retaliation, no unloading of war missiles in her direction. The president and the people of the world in general needed a moment to grasp the situation. 

She took precautions regardless and followed her heart. She ran down the littered street, maneuvering around bits and pieces of mankind. She ran into one of the abandoned clothes stores and picked up the largest hoodie she could find, then grabbed a face mask for later. She could barely breathe, so there was no way she would run with it on. Her chest burned like she was still breathing in her flames. 

By the time the sun had settled into the horizon she could only minutely fill its warmth. She ran trying to catch up but found herself stumbling over the trash that cluttered the streets.

While breathing heavily, she bent down and put her hands on her knees and watched the sun sink behind the ocean. The darkness was more ominous than she remembered. The weight of the stars and the air seemed heavier, as if the only thing that kept it light was the annoying noises that  humans made, noises that came from their technology and their partying. She grabbed her chest. Serender was suffocating, at least that was what it felt like. She frantically looked around for a place to sit. That’s when she saw the house in the distance. A house that set out on the sand and lunged out into the ocean. [Go!] She pushed herself to move. She pushed the large black gate that guarded the house open and made haste for the front door. 

The sidewalk leading up to the home seemed to go on forever but she could see a door knob. A golden door knob that shimmered from the moonlight while giving way to an infinite blackness within the home. As she walked up the steps, she stared at the embellished door knob like it was a treasure that would lead to the destruction of the home.

“This isn’t a movie, Serender.” She whispered to herself. She pushed open the door then used the moon’s light to search the walls for a light switch. Once the room illuminated, she closed the door behind her. 

The walls held no pictures, no sconces, only emptiness. The kitchen’s white marble floors, that seemed to be imbued with pearls, met the living room flawlessly. The whiteness of the room made her think no one could possibly live there. She slowly walked from room to room, passing her fingers gently over the smoothness of the wall. Every room was completely furnished but only one held family photos. 

Pictures of a family of three;a husband, wife and their child. She picked up the silver frame that held their vibrant smiles and continued to move towards the balcony. The living area had windows from the ceiling to the floor. It took her a moment to figure out how to open the sliding doors.

Once she did, she walked the length of the balcony, leaning into the breeze that harbored the scent of death. She looked down into the water as the bodies pushed against each other with the incoming tide. She held out the picture frame over a blood-soaked plaid shirt that was filled with water and dropped it. This was her home now. She could only imagine that the family was somewhere below the balcony, forever swimming with the fishes.

As she looked down at the plaid shirt that held the frame, a glowing brightness came from the deep. It did not surface but it did drag the body wearing the plaid shirt into the abyss. Serender’s mouth was dry and her air caught in her throat, but she worked hard to bring her words to the forefront. “What was that?”

She continued to stare into the water in disbelief. Every part of her wanted to jump in and chase the light. But the ocean was tainted, she could  deal with smelling the rotting body under the summer heat, even the hoards of flies and carnivorous birds. Tasting the water or letting it flow through her gills was an entirely different feat.

The thought of how the water felt and tasted made  her throw up over the side of the balcony. She wiped her face and ran back in to the property. Serender searched for a glass to put fresh water in.  She filled it then gurgled and spit out the water, drinking it the second time around. Her hands shook as she felt the stress and hatred that flowed through her resurfacing. The glass rolled from her fingers clanging against the metal sink. 

Her legs started to wobble and give way under her body as she weakly slid to the floor. The blood and dirt that caked onto her feet smeared the floor and left footprints on the kitchen island. She leaned forward and pulled the hoodie over her head, then tossed it on the pristine floor. Until she had touched the glassware she didn’t realize how nasty her skin looked. She was covered in dried blood. Her clothes smelled like the rotting body that extended for miles into the ocean. 

Her hair was crunchy and stuck together. She fell to her hands and then pulled herself up on her knees. She crawled towards the room where she found the photos. Every morsel of energy she once had was leaving her body fast. “What’s wrong with me?” She whispered to herself.  The bathroom was flawlessly white, just like the rest of the house. She wished she could get to her feet. No matter how clean the bathroom was, it still felt disgusting crawling around on the floor.

Serender turned on the shower head then sat on the floor of the shower room. Chunks of brain and other unknown matter got caught in the drain, she found herself vomiting more than she liked. She pulled her t-shirt over her head and threw it in the corner of the shower. She continued to remove clothing as her energy came back to her. After shampooing her hair and taking her time detangling it with her fingers, she stood up. 

The shower room would need to be bleached down once she finished. She had to keep moving gunk from the drain so the water would flow down. She turned off the water and then pressed the timer to start filling the separate whirlpool bathtub. She emptied a jug of rock salt into the tub, then went to the large mirror. 

She stood naked for a moment. Serender hadn’t actually looked at her body at length before. She never felt the need to. All she knew was she was a woman, equipped with basic woman characteristics. That was all that she needed to know. The lights were so bright around the mirror, she felt she was getting ready to go on set. 

Her breasts were large. She was taller than she remembered being. All of her changes were a little unsettling. She pulled a towel from the rack and wrapped it around her body. Then she shuffled through the drawers to find an eyelash brush. She could still feel buildup in her eyelashes. Once she found one, she combed through her eyelashes. [So refreshing.]

These types of occurrences always helped her remember she was not completely human. She required water not just internally but externally. 

While the water ran, she went back into the bedroom and sat on the bed. There was a cell phone sitting next to the remote. She figured the phone wouldn’t be useful because most people had passcodes or facial recognition. She picked up the remote first, then turned on the television. She fiddled with the phone while a movie played. “Lucky me.” She said to herself.  The phone wasn’t locked.

The phone had children's games on it. She worked to delete the games and then downloaded a couple of ereader apps. She would need to pick up stand-alone batteries just in case she had to go somewhere where there wasn’t any electricity. While she was lost in her thoughts, the bathtub timer dinged.  The sound was music to her ears.

She stepped into the lukewarm bath and melted. This had been the longest week of her life. She lost her parents, her home, and now she was the reason for the international calamity. 

“I wonder if they will call me a terrorist or a super villain?” She said, then laughed to herself.  The sound of her voice echoing in the bathroom made her bottom lip tremble. There was no more life for her to live. She wanted to be with Zsu or help the old hag whose husband had became a tumor on her side. “I even ruined the ocean!” She yelled out. A loud cry burst from her lungs. All she could do was let it play out. Everything hurt. Even though she didn’t intentionally mean to kill millions upon millions of people, she couldn’t take it back. 

She could only embrace it.