Scars

This story is by Nira Seijin and was part of our 2016 Winter Writing Contest. You can find all the Winter Writing Contest stories here.

Yoshi

“A slice here, another one there, a few over in this space. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.” The man said as he finished cutting a few slices into his masterpiece, a young girl, in a mask, tied to a chair.

“That’ll teach her to mess with us boss.” said one of his underlings.

“Are you done yet? I have a test tomorrow and I’d like to get a good night’s sleep.” said the girl.

“Shut it you cocky prick, just who the hell do think you are?” Said the boss, kicking her chair down and stepping on one of the fresh wounds on her arm.

“If you’re not going to let me out, I’ll just have to let myself out.”

“What the hell are you talkin’ about girly?”

“This.” She said as she broke out of her bindings and quickly rose to her feet. The men were frozen in shock.

“Don’t just stand there you idiots, shoot her!”

Shots were fired. She was shot several times in the chest but they were deflected by her kevlar vest. Arms riddled with bullets, she finally fell to her knees. They thought she had died or surrendered but they were wrong. She was laughing hysterically. When the laughter stopped she stared at the ground.

“Pathetic.” She whispered as she calmly stood up and walked to the window that was shattered by bullets. Looking down, she noticed that they were several stories up. ‘Looks like I’m jumping.’ She thought. She stepped forward letting herself fall. She tugged a chord on her suit and released her parachute.

Once she landed, She circled the block a few times before walking home. Home. Her quaint little apartment on the wrong side of town. She changed out of her “uniform”, studied, and went to bed.

“BEEP BEEP BE-” she pressed the snooze button and began her morning routine; shower, redress her wounds, brush her teeth, get dressed, and grab some toast on her way out. She always made sure to wear something that covered her scars and wounds. She smiled on her way to school, looking at all of the trees, birds, and flowers. She never knew when her last day would be so she savored every single moment.

“Hey, Yoshi!”

“Hi, Damon.”

Damon

‘A slice here, another one there, a few more over in this space. Hideous. Absolutely disgusting.’ Damon thought as the finished cutting into his arms.

Knock knock, “Master Damon, dinner will be ready in an hour.” Damon’s butler said through the locked door.

“Thank you vincent, I’m just studying for tomorrow’s test!”

“Very well then, as you were.”

Damon walked to the sink in his private bathroom and started to clean and dress his wounds. ‘Pathetic’ he thought. After a solid thirty minutes, he got dressed and went to the dining table.

“Hey, mom, dad, I’m just gonna eat in my room, I have to study.”

“Ok, It’s nice to see you focus on something other than that vigilante for once.” Said Damon’s father.

“Just don’t stay up too late!” Damon’s mother yelled as he left the dining room.

Damon went straight to his room, ate dinner, brushed his teeth, and went to bed.

Knock knock, “Master Damon, It’s time for you to wake up.”

“I’m awake!”, he yelled and began his morning routine; shower, redress his wounds, brush his teeth, get dressed, and eat breakfast. He always made sure to wear something that covered his scars and wounds. He blankly made his way to school, politely returning the hi’s and hello’s he got from his friends, until the saw his best friend approaching.

“Hey, Yoshi!”

“Hi, Damon.”

Sleeves

“Yoshi, did you hear about that heist the vigilante pulled yesterday! She’s so cool!” Damon beamed.

“Didn’t she kill an army of security guards and two civilians last week?” Shyly.

“Those ‘civilians’ cheated hundreds of thousands of people out of millions of dollars! She’s a hero!”

Yoshi silently gestured as a response.

They walked to school, talking the entire time. Well, it was mostly Damon who did the talking, Yoshi, being the shy girl she is(outside of her mask), mostly just nodded and listened to the enthusiastic boy.

It was lunchtime and Damon left Yoshi alone at their table so that he could get them some drinks from the vending machine. Yoshi heard some girls talking a couple of tables away from her. She really didn’t like eavesdropping but her senses kicked in.

“She’s such a wannabe, always following Damon around like a little puppy.” Said girl 1.

“Yeah, Damon could have any girl he wants, why her?” Girl 2 said

“I heard that she was some crazy obsessed chick who wouldn’t leave Damon alone and he just got used to having her around.”

“That makes sense. She even stole his fashion. Who else do you know who wears sleeves that long, even during the summer?”

“Hey, ladies, it’s not fair to just assume.” The girls turned around and were shocked to see Damon, “For all you know, I could’ve stolen her look.” He walked towards Yoshi and noticed her staring, dumbfounded by his actions.

“Heh, were you watching the entire time?” He said, embarrassed.

She nodded.

He let out a breathy chuckle and patted her on the head as he sat down. “I’m a little curious, what is the deal with the whole sleeves thing?”

“Secret.”

“Oh, I get it.” He leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “You have those scars, don’t you?”

Scars

She looked at him, surprised at what he just said.

“That look just proved it.” He smirked, “I’m your best friend, I know you more than you know yourself. I would’ve found out sooner or later.”

‘He knows.’

“It’s ok, I have scars too.”

She looked up at him with a mixture of shock and curiosity.

“You want to see them.”

She hesitantly nodded.

“Ok, I’ll show you after school, on one condition.” Damon paused and looked at Yoshi who nodded, “You have to show me yours.” she nodded and he patted her on her head.

School went on as usual. Damon and Yoshi still stuck together like glue. After school, they went to their usual hang out spot, under a tree on their way home.

“Ok, Yoshi, you go first.”

She took off her jacket and Damon just stared, completely shocked.

“Those are bullet wounds. Yoshi, why do you have bullet wounds?”

“Isn’t this what you meant when you asked about my jacket?”

“No, I meant, well what I meant doesn’t matter, wait are you the-”

“No, that’s impossible.”

“You’re the vigilante!”

“You’re joking, right? Me, the vigilante? Pfft! As if!”

“It so is you! How did I not see it before? It makes so much sense!”

“Ok, fine, just be a little quieter about it.”

“Oh, right, sorry.” he nervously chuckled “The question still stands, how do you fight bad guys? You’re so meek and timid.”

“Well, according to the files, during the cold war the military bought a facility known as Area 51 and-”

“You’re an alien!”

“What? No, I’m not an alien. Area 51 was a research facility dedicated to creating the perfect soldiers, spies, strategist, exedra. On September 7, 2000, they created me. Im supposed to have an incredible amount of processing power, in a matter of seconds, I can analyze what our top scientists took four years to analyze. My foster dad is the head of national security and, occasionally, he sends me to do some of his dirty work. He let me stay here because I begged to go to a normal school and be a normal kid.”

“Wow. I think that is the most you’ve ever said to anyone in your entire life.”

“Your turn.”

“My turn?”

“Scars.”

“I was hoping that you’d forgotten about that.”

He took off his jacket and once Yoshi saw what he had done to himself she slapped him.

“How could you do this?! Why would you do this?! You have everything!”

“That’s why I did it! It’s not fair that I have so much, I thought that doing this would sort of level out the playing field.”

“No! It doesn’t do that at all! In fact, it does the opposite! You shouldn’t do this! All you have to do to ‘level out the playing field’ is be grateful! If you’re unhappy with your situation then what does that make people in lesser situations?!”

“Wow. you are really angry, I never knew that you could get angry.”

“Of course I’m angry. I had no choice when it came to my scars, but you did, and you threw that away! I’m really disappointed in you.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. It was selfish and ungrateful of me. I’ll never do it again. I promise.” He patted her on the head.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled.”

“No, it’s okay. I needed it.”

They walked home and put on their jackets, always making sure to cover their wounds and scars.

“See ya later, Yoshi”

“Bye, Damon”

The End