merciless

MECHRI

14

TWO hours fly by.

Petra and Pearl are both slick with sweat, while Andy is draped over the couch, her eyes fluttering with every hit that lands. It pains her immensely to watch the two girls, equally large in stature and personality, attempt to dig their fingernails into each other's eye sockets; but it also interests her in a deeper way than she would ever admit.

Truly, every superhero (or villain) has a origin story, and Andrea is no different.

Violence was always attractive to her, even though didn't have a particularly violent childhood. Her family yelled a lot about trivial things, but don't they all?
Born 3:27 AM on May twelfth, 1997, she was a flower like everybody else in her family; a petite thing made to be sweet and soft. However, from the beginning, she hated all of it. All the pink walls and ruffled clothes and muffled sexuality and ignorance did nothing but add to her flaming anger. We all know that fire is most dangerous when left to grow; when left to eat at your facade's bones and skin and floral personality until all that is left is rust and dirt and smoke and someone who will sell their morality for some cash.

She wasn't made to be a murderer, but flowers can be poisonous.

+++

A scream yanks Andy out of her internal monologue and back into the half-lit hollow, currently coated in broken glass and band-aid strips. Her eyes flash open, inspecting the strange scene before her.

Petra is sitting in a corner, her knees pulled to her chest and her whole body shaking violently, while Pearl stares at her, frozen. Something is in her eyes that Andy has never seen before, and it looks like fear.

Andrea breathes and inches closer to Petra, the girl's breathing deep and heavy and loud. She reaches for her arm, but halts when she see's Petra's skin.

It's literally smoking. Thick, black curls of smoke cling to her skin like claws, making it looks like her whole body is aflame. Petra opens her eyes to acknowledge Andy, who has to take a step back to really take in the reality of her stare, of her glare.

Her eyes-they're glowing. In fact, her entire body is glowing like an ember under all the strange smoke, like fire is flowing beneath her skin.

"What in the hell?" Andy whispers to herself, biting her lip.

The goddess looks up at Andy through her hair, opening her bloodied mouth to say something.
(It's not her blood; she never said she was above biting. Teeth are sharp for a reason, yes?)

Pearl interrupts, her voice shaking as she nursed her many cuts and scrapes. She is the only one on earth who knows how it feels to have your skin under a goddess's fingernails, and, needless to say, it's probably going to cause some emotional damage.

"Get the fuck away from that thing, Andrea. She'll kill you."

Petra shakes her head, her eyes looking exhausted.

"I won't-I won't do that," she groans, leaning against the wall. Her body is covered in black marks that, like the rest of her, Andy only wishes she could understand.

The smoke is quickly fading from her skin, as if the fire is going out. However, her eyes are still mercilessly gold, like stars in the dark room. She reaches for Andy, who flinches away from her smoking hands.

"This is the part where you forget about me, isn't it?" Petra whispers, half-conscious, fully bruised. The problem with never being beat is that your fighting skills are perfect, but your coping skills are shit.

She laughs to herself.

"I tried so hard, too."

Her body goes limp against the wall, a ring of black dust settling on the floor around her. She isn't dead-no, not yet-but she is defeated and has retreated into herself to find a dark space where nobody is watching her and she can breathe.

She just needs to breathe.

"She can do whatever she wants, just please, do not bring her back here. I'm begging you. That thing-whatever she is-is not anything close to human."

Andy has never seen Pearl look so afraid, and it shakes her to her core.
Still, she promised Petra that she would give her a place to stay, and she isn't going to leave her on the street to die, or worse.

Thus, she takes the blonde into her arms, carrying her to her car. Mentally, she lists the questions she has for the girl when she wakes up.

Mentally, she prepares herself for what the answers may be.

(dedicated to my doll of a friend Sarah for her successful coming out! im always so proud of you and the amazing things you do!)