Greenmatter: Revenge of the Maeville Ghost

by Daniel North

  I closed my eyes and shivered, remembering what happened.

  Harvie had beaten me. He found a way to disable my ability then violated me. It seemed like a dream. How could a man do something so evil? Then there was the ball stadium. Everything had gone so wrong. Michell and Frost had died, Parson was injured and maybe even dead too. I didn’t know what happened to Craft or whether anyone else got hurt.

  I sniffed back tears.

  I was supposed to be the hero, to walk in and save the day. Instead, became a victim. Just another person beaten and abused by a criminal in this city.

  Harvie Belter had sworn revenge against me for stopping his robbery, for humiliating him in the media, and for destroying his reputation. I’d been arrogant trying to face Harvie alone especially when I was already strained from overtaxing my ability. I fucked up and Harvie took advantage of me for it. If Hood hadn’t come, I don’t know how much further Harvie would have gone. Would he have kept abusing me? Would he have killed me? It doesn’t matter, in the end, Harvie never got the chance. He wanted to break me, but he didn’t. I was alive, and although injured, in time I could fight again.

  I took a deep breath an made my own vow of revenge, against Harvie.

  In revenge for what Harvie did to me, I’d keep being Greenmatter. I’d show the world that he hadn’t broken me. I’d wear my costume with pride and finish destroying what remained of Maeville’s crime and corruption. I never had to be a hero, no-one asked me to be, but I chose to be this, and I’ll see it through till the end.

  Fuck Harvie Belter and fuck the Maeville Ghost.

  It hurt, and it was complicated trying to get out of bed without putting pressure on any of my bruises, but I did it. I hadn’t noticed but I was naked and my hair was down. My costume or what remained of it, was in a pile on the floor beside the bed. I grabbed the bedsheet and gingery wrapped it around myself. Walking to the room’s door I opened it.

  I was in a small apartment or maybe a duplex. There was a dark bathroom in font of me. Down the hall light from the morning sun shown brightly through the windows. A living room and kitchen were at the end of the hall. The couch in the living room had a scattering of blankets and a pillow, from someone sleeping on it. There was a faint aroma of coffee in the air, and as I walked further on, I could see Hood sitting at the table looking out the window.

  Hood was out of costume, wearing only some pajama pants. He still had the bandage I had made him above his hip, but now had some more bandages on his arms and torso. Even with the bandages, he looked like a god. The man must have been training his muscles his whole life because they were thick.

  “Hey,” I said lightly.

  Hood flinched and his coffee almost jumped out of his cup. He turned to me, cleared his throat, and said “Your awake.”

  “Yea,” I said.

  He studied my face for a moment then turn to look back out the window, his expression darkening. “I’m sorry about what happened. I should have been there,” he said solemnly.

  I looked down. Hood blames himself for what happened to me.

  “Don’t. You came. That’s all that matters. I shouldn’t have tried to take on Harvie alone,” I said. I wasn’t blaming myself entirely for what happened. Yes, I took on Harvie alone, but it was still Harvie that hurt me, not myself, not Hood.

  I walked up to Hood an put my hand on his shoulder. “Did you manage to save Harris?” I asked tentatively. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

  Hood took a deep breath then a sip of his coffee. “We got Craft, but he stabbed my father before I could get there. I just got off the phone with the hospital, dad’s in rough shape but they say he’s stable,” He said then chuckled, “Stubborn old man.”

  “You should be with him,” I said.

  Hood looked to my hand on his shoulder then put his hand on top. “I needed to make sure you were safe. Craft still has people out there and they could have found you in the hospital; Hurt you again. I wasn’t going to let that happen. Besides, my father’s protected. A lot of cops are outside his room right now, making sure no-one tries anything,” said Hood.

  I leaned over and kissed Hood on the side of his head. “Thank you,” I said.

  Hood closed his eyes and hesitated in what he was about to say. “I care about you,” he said.

  Hearing Hood say that made my stomach flutter. I hugged Hood around his big neck and said, “Me too.”

  I walked around and sat on Hood’s lap. Out heads leaned against each other and we watched the morning go by through the window.

  Hood draped an arm over me and held me close the entire time.

  Message from Author

  I am a strong advocate for safe sex, sexual equality, antidiscrimination, and mental health. Yet, at a young age, I became aware of my darker sexual nature. Ashamed of my sexual fantasies, I was a teenager who lived in fear that one day someone would see me as a monster. In secret, I was a regular consumer of superheroine peril in the forms of film, digital media, and literature. It wasn’t until I became sexually active, that I realized that my fantasies were only that, fantasies. In reality, I fantasied about having loving relationships with a partner, whom I’d never harm. I still have these dark fantasies, but they will and shall always remain just fantasies. I write this message for the reader, because for a better part of my early adulthood I was miserable, confused, and ashamed of who I was. You don’t have to be. We can’t change our fetishes, and for some of us, the fetishes we have are evil. The important thing is that you express your fetishes safely and without harm to others. For me, the characters and scenarios in my book, although dark, are completely fictitious. I get off on this stuff, but it stays in the book. So, I ask you to be safe, be kind and considerate of others, and be healthy.

  -Daniel North