The Dark Avenger

Dinner

In the pictures section there's an aesthetic for Kats life before her kidnapping.

•Steve•

We sat down to eat at the table. Her mother and grandfather and the ends of the table, her brother and sister sat across from us and we sat on the same side of the table. Her mother prepared steaks for us but no one but the kids were eating.

Her mother began cutting her steak "So we saw you on tv" she said breaking the silence "you couldn't think to call?"

Kat shuffled a bit in her seat

"You did amazing fighting all those robots" she glared "and killing all those people"

Kat swallowed roughly and looked down at her feet she didn't say anything.

"The number of civilian casualties was astonishing. Made me think about what you were doing all that time instead of having the decency to call and tell me you were okay and I don't know not dead"

Kat pulled her hair in front of her face but I saw a tear run down her face.

"Alright I think that's enough" I defended.

I was surprised I've never seen her so quiet. She would never let anyone talk to her like this.

"I deserved to know you weren't dead!"

"Victoria!" Ray scolded "this is not the place to address this."

Kat threw her napkin on the table and stood up "ya know I think we're just going to unpack"

We marched off to the car and she dragged all our stuff inside. All of it. She refused to let me help her. She was acting strange ever since we got here.

I followed her up the stairs and around the maze that was this gigantic house, from what she's told me her family really didn't have that much money which makes me question how they could afford this house.

As we walked I saw pictures hanging on the walls of her family. she was walking so fast that I really didn't have time to look at them but I guess I could do that later, finding out what was making her so weird was my number one priority.

We eventually came to a door at the end of a long hallway. It was plain and made of dark oak wood. She pushed the door open and I was surprised at what I saw. This must have been her old room. The walls were a pastel yellow and she had a vintage white bed frame. There were framed pictures sitting on shelves above her white desk. There was a vase of pastel purple roses sitting there along side a vintage royal typewriter and some notebooks. On another wall she had 5 shelves full of books and a stand alone mirror. On her bed she had a simple gray bedspread with accent pillows and two glass night stands.

I stopped to take a long look at the pictures above her desk.  There was a photo of her volunteering at a soup kitchen. A picture of her standing on the edge of a bridge, the water flowing beautifully beneath her. Then a picture of her gettin arrested for being on the edge of the bridge. A picture of her volunteering at a homeless shelter. Then there was a picture of her on a metal pedway on a stage with a pink background, she was being dipped and kissed by a guy.

"What's this from?" I asked

She laughed "oh that. That's a picture from the last performance of footloose. I used to act in the plays the local theatre put on."

"You sure did do everything" I chuckled

"And who's that?" I asked pointing to the guy, with a hint of jealously in my voice.

"That's my costar Peyton, he's a terrific actor."

There were more pictures of her out with friends and places on vacation but there was another one where she seemed to be wearing the same glasses that were her costars. Then another picture of him together. 

"You and Peyton seemed to be good friends."

"Yeah we were, we dated for awhile but it didn't really work out. It was kinda" she racked her brains for the right words "sad"

As I kept looking around her room I kept finding little photos and knock knacks of who she was. After all this time I've been basically begging her to open up to be and she refused but now she's an open book, there's something wrong here.

I vaguely heard the sound of footsteps up the staircase, Kat put down the cloths she was unpacking and she swept out of the room. I followed her but I was pulled aside bye her grandfather

"You're not going to want to be in the cross hairs for this one" he chuckled

She stomped into the kitchen with fire in her eyes where her mom was cleaning up dinner.

"What the fuck was that?" she spat

"I don't know what you're talking about" Victoria said obviously

"That stunt you pulled at dinner!"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know worrying about my daughters well being was such a crime."

"You know damn well that you shouldn't have brought that up in front of the kids" it's been awhile since I've seen Kat this defensive

"Why shouldn't I have? We all know you're not the same. You don't just disappear one day and then a few years later we see you on tv holding up a whole god damn city! What happened to you!" Victoria screamed, tears welling up in her eyes.

"You don't want to know" she whimpered

Victoria's nodded "yes, I do"

"I was tortured mother. I was tortured, experimented on, trained, and used as a weapon"

Kat wiped tears from her face  "I don't want you to see me any different" 

Victories sniffled "show me"

"What?"

she stood taller "show me"

Kat stood there and adjusted her stance, steadying herself. Suddenly she formed a ball of purple staticky energy. It looked unstable but in reality it was the strongest thing in the world. She brought her hands together and crises the ball between in her hands. She separated them again and in each hand was a white flame.

"That's not even half of it" she laughed with tears in her eyes "I would show you but I don't want to overwhelm you, it did the same to me."

I swallowed a lump in my throat that I didn't even know was there. I'd never seen this side of her before. She may have not said she loved me back but I know she's capable of love. It may be a weird mentally twisted form of love but it's love.