Chapter Text
You awoke with a start, your peaceful dreams dissolved by the barrage of obnoxious alarms on your phone. Sighing you sat up, rubbing your eyes in hopes that you’ll wake up faster. You read the number on the screen, flinching at the glowing 5:00 am. Every morning you’d give anything to sleep just a little longer, but you knew that if you didn’t wake yourself up… they would. Your stepmother, Tomoko, and her two daughters Hina and Dari. Ever since they joined the family, it seemed to be their one goal in life to make yours a living hell.
You decided that your alarms were a better wake-up call than a glass of cold water to the face by the hands of your alleged “family” and promptly got up, starting your quick morning routine.
In the next hour you not only got yourself ready, but also made breakfast, tidied up the house, and finished all of yesterday's chores. You worked with practiced and talented hands, perfectly checking each chore off the list until you’d done everything Tomoko could ask you for and more. You tried to have a positive outlook on life, and didn’t want that to be ruined by Tomoko berating you for missing a spot.
You heard the chime of alarm bells start from upstairs, and promptly grabbed your car keys. You’d rather leave before they woke up. They weren’t exactly kind in the mornings, their morning selves were even worse than their usual charming personalities, and you knew if you lingered you’d somehow get roped into doing more useless tasks they made up just to make you miserable. But part of you always lightened as you drove to work. Truly, it was your refuge, you safe space. Working as a journalist was your life goal, and specializing on Pro-Hero commentary made every day feel new and exciting. There was only one thought in your head as you drove away- good riddance.
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As soon as you stepped out of the car to enter your news agency you knew something was wrong. The doors were wide open, and the building missed its typical noise of busy chatter. From the corner of your eye you saw broken glass further into the building. You weren't stupid- not taking any chances, you immediately backed up and pulled out your phone to call the police, sure that whatever happened happened recently and you didn’t like it one bit.
But before you could dial the number or retreat back into the safety of your car, a hand reached out from nowhere, and before you knew it you were being tugged into the open doors, without even having the time to scream.
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The villain had taken the entire building hostage and tied everyone up on the top floor. You felt delirious, sure that as he was dragging you into the office you must’ve hit your head and was now struggling to retain consciousness. You weren't sure since your hands were tied, but you had a feeling that if you could touch the back of your head it would be wet with blood. Dizziniessclouded your vision, but you fought it, desperately wanting to keep your wits about you. You had to stay strong.
The man was on the phone, spitting threats to whoever was on the other end. Something about an unfavorable news story from one of our reporters ruining a job he and his buddies had lined up for weeks. It didn’t matter to you, in your mind villains would do anything, say anything, to justify the pain they put others through. It was just greed. Greed and needless blood lust, pure and simple.
But then, he got angrier. Maybe whoever he was speaking to said something to upset him, or he wasn’t getting what he wanted, but he became violent. He thrashed around, yelling and spitting in the other hostages faces.
His eyes were suddenly on you, and your blood ran cold.
“Listen, I want the money and I want it now.” (Despite the pounding of your head, you had to refrain from rolling your eyes. It was always about money, always. So typical. Couldn’t villains get a bit more original?) “I’m telling you, you wire it over now or a hostage dies.”
You didn’t like that. Not one bit, especially not with his beady eyes staring straight at you. You curled in a bit towards yourself, trying to make yourself small, less of a target.
But it didn't work. Of course it didn't, when were you ever that lucky?
At that moment he rushed over and grabbed you, tugging you over to a broken window and, to your horror, hanging you out of it by your arm.
The pressure of gravity felt like it would tear you apart, your arm stinging. You bit back a groan at the pain, putting all your energy into staying awake.
You couldn’t fight it, couldn’t do anything, because your head and the fear was beginning to cause you to black out. You felt the air rush around you, shivering from the cold altitude. Tears ran down your cheeks. You didn’t even know when you’d started crying.
“I’m telling you, I want that money now. Do you see her? See this pretty girl, huh? I’ll drop her on the count of three.”
You shook your head as well as you could, pleading to the man, don’t do it, don’t drop me!
“Three,”
You closed your eyes and silently begged to anyone who would hear.
“Two,”
He didn’t wait for one.
In a sudden second you went from suspended to free falling, feeling the wind and watching the ground rush towards you.
I don’t want to die, you thought. The line was overused and obvious but it was true, so true, and in that moment you prayed with everything you had that you’d live another day. You thought of your mother. Your father. It was hard to admit, but you'd even take living with your step family for a hundred years over dying right now.
The edges of your vision became blurry and slowly faded to black as your brain short-circuited, finally having enough of the pain and high-strung emotions.
The last thing you saw before you were fully gone was a lightning fast streak of green, followed by an overwhelming sense of safety. And then you were lost to the world.