Val’s house had some pretty flowers in front of it, which I thought was a surprisingly lively touch given her gruff, anti-social nature. She never struck me as moody, at least not like Lori could be, thankfully. Val was a little bit of a tough nut to crack. I realized I had no idea what she liked to do or what her hobbies were. Did she like decorating with flowers, or did someone just give her some advice on how to spruce up her home a tad? Not that she owed me an explanation or anything, but I wanted to make an effort to be friendly with her.
Before I knocked on the door, it flew open, leading me to nearly knock on Val’s shoulder instead. Val looked outstanding. She’d always been beautiful with her piercing eyes and blonde hair, but beautiful in a sort of scary way. Sort of like how certain natural disasters like a volcano eruption or a tornado had a terrifying allure that made them impossible to take your eyes off of. That was what Val’s particular beauty reminded me of.
But the woman who answered the door was different. Her curly blonde hair was pulled back into a casual ponytail and she had a flowing sundress that twirled just above her knees. When she smiled, it felt like the sun shone a little brighter. It was a rare thing to treasure, and her ugly past be damned, I felt special that she chose to smile at me. It wasn’t just her natural looks, she seemed relaxed and maybe even a little happy to see me there. It was incredible that she’d been that menacing knight that struck so much terror in people.
“Wow,” was all I managed to say. The casual vibe she gave off was completely clashing with what I knew about her.
“Please, come in.” She gestured behind her and I stepped right back into the Scrabble Disaster Zone without nervousness or fear of a repeat or similar incident. Val shut the door and fidgeted with her dress. “Lizzy’s been trying to get me to wear some brighter clothes. Something about pushing me out of my comfort zone and making me look a little presentable. I put a hard no on her makeup attempts. Oh, Lizzy wouldn’t tell me, what does RBF mean?”
I snickered and turned my head to the side. “Uh, she said you have resting bitch face. It means you look a little pissed off by default. Knowing her, she probably meant it in a nice way.”
“Oh, well, she’s right. I look very grumpy most of the time I’m awake.” Val tried to hide a small chuckle behind a fake cough. “So, this bright dress...be honest with me, is it ugly?”
“No, I was going to say you look really nice.” It felt weird, and maybe a little wrong, to compliment a woman who wasn’t my fiancée on her appearance. That was a silly way of thinking. Being with someone didn’t mean I couldn’t say another human being looked nice, and Val was clearly trying to put effort in with her brighter appearance. “More than nice, you look happier. Doesn’t look like you’re taking the weight of the world on your shoulders now.”
It was truly amazing how relaxing a little could completely change how a person was presented. I wondered if that was how I looked to my friends and family after spending months slowly getting things together. Did they feel the same way looking at me when I came back as I did looking at Val in brighter clothes and in a better mood? Did my time spent on Clamor make me look like I knew what I was doing, even just a little bit more?
“Reading has helped. Right now, I’m reading a book about a bunch of kids who can see magical creatures. They’re going on all sorts of adventures together. The protagonist can turn himself into a butterfly, and I can’t help but wonder if there’s someone with an Anomaly that would them do that in the real world.” She drew a little butterfly in the air with her two index fingers. I knew exactly which book she was talking about, but no way was I going to interrupt her when she was so enthused. “I’m completely hooked. When I said it was for me, the guy at the bookstore looked at me like I was nuts. I guess it’s for kids, but that’s where my reading level is at right now, so I’m not going to be ashamed of it. Not after how much worse it was a few months ago.”
“Good for you!” I held up my hand for a high five, which she hesitated in finishing. She looked like I might take it back and make fun of her. “Don’t let it get to you if someone doesn’t get it. I’ve read it and I think it’s awesome. When you finish, let’s talk about it, okay? I’ll have to read it again.”
She nodded enthusiastically. If she had a tail, it would have been wagging fast enough to carve a hole through steel.
“Thank you for what you’re doing.” Val went from happy to serious again, the tiniest hint of a pleased twinkle in her eyes. “I’m sorry that I was on edge yesterday. There was so much going on that I got snappy when I should have been happy at the reunion. I appreciate that you want to include me.”
I waved away her concerns with a hand. “None of that. You’ve fought with us and you shouldn’t just be alone.”
“I don’t know what to say. All of my life, I only knew what my father—sorry, McLeod—had taught me. There was nothing fun like reading, playing board games, going to the movies, or going on a shopping spree with your girlfriends. Everything, and I mean everything, was about his vision and goals. When I helped with Pittsburgh, something just changed in me, and realizing he lied to me my entire life was the final thing that pushed me over the edge. I want there to be a better life for people like us, but I didn’t do enough to truly see how far he was willing to go to make it happen until it was too late. It...sounds so much different than it actually is. I was too much of a coward to take my life to repent and now I feel like I’m using you to hide from the justice that I deserve.”
Val said she didn’t know what to say, and maybe that was true. She did drop something pretty heavy on me there. I really didn’t know what to say. Her atrocities were something we had sort of avoided talking about since it wasn’t going to help us get through the mess we were in. She killed Lori’s best friend in cold blood on national television, something that made Lori legitimately want her dead, which I couldn’t find myself blaming her for. I knew Lori didn’t like Val, and most likely would never forgive her. Yet, she had at least worked on making their relationship professional for the time being. I didn’t have a dog in their fight, so to speak, but my voting to allow Val into our group had caused some serious friction between the two of us.
“I think you’re better off here helping than dead or in prison,” I finally said. It wasn’t the nicest thing to say, but I was at a bit of a loss. “Your life has more value than what you can do for us in stopping McLeod. You might not have been allowed to read or watch movies there, so you should keep finding things you like here to always gain that perspective. Oh, here’s an idea! How about when you get a few more books under your belt, we start a book club? If you love reading so much, you can find some like-minded people.”
We stood there in silence, a depressing mood filling the room. It was so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that she had killed people before. Innocent people whose worst crimes were being late on paying parking tickets. Part of that did make me want to turn my nose up at her in disgust. How could it not? One of the only things that me holding back on a bad reaction was that I knew that she’d been lied to and manipulated all her life. That didn’t excuse her actions, but the more I looked at her think about what I had said, the more I couldn’t help but think of her as a normal girl with an impossible life.
She was still pondering the book club idea when I couldn’t let myself get in my own head anymore. I had to look for something to break the silence. Peering past Val and into her kitchen, I saw a single chocolate cupcake on a small table in the middle. My eyes danced between her and the delicious baked treat that beckoned me with its lopsided pink icing. The single unlit candle stuck out at an odd angle. It was perfectly fitting for the uneven treat.
Right when Val looked up, I darted past her and had the cupcake in my hand. “Finally, what I really came here for!”
“Wait, put that down!” She grabbed her sword and pointed it at me, trying not to look like she was about to break out in a grin. “Unhand the treat, fiend!”
“You’ll have to best me in combat for it,” I said, creating a Shimmer-Sword. Where she got her own sword from, I had no idea. There wasn’t room to hide the thing in her sundress.
We lightly tapped the flat part of our blades together, careful not to actually hurt each other or damage her house. Her skill with a sword was better than mine anyway, so even when just playing around, she effortlessly knocked my sword to the ground. A five-year-old with a stick would have put up a better fight than I had. Gently, she bonked the top of my head with the flat of her sword. I crumbled in an overdramatic heap on the ground, holding the cupcake up in the air.
“You’ve bested me,” I said, forcing my voice to crack. “Your reward, brave warrior.”
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“Actually, that’s yours.” Val held out a hand and pulled me up with almost minimal effort. Her face was a little red and she must have found something really interesting to look at on my shoes. “I tried some baking. I know it’s late, but that’s for the birthday here you missed. Oh, and a gift to welcome you back home.”
I looked at the slightly ugly cupcake and back to her. I was touched. Like, way more touched than I probably should have been for a single cupcake. My eyes got a little misty and I had to wipe them with the back of my hand. I could tell she baked it entirely by hand, and the faults made it so much nicer. If the cupcake tasted like burnt dirt, it’d still be one of the tastiest things I could have eaten. “This is the first birthday gift someone’s given me since I’ve been back. I...wow. Thanks so much.”
I fetched a knife from her drawer and cut it in half, taking the side with all the icing. It was sitting in my belly like a brick before I even took a bite, not that I had the heart or nerve to tell Val that all the sugar might give me an upset stomach. She kept eyeing me while I held it, a nervous glint telling me she thought I was about to just slam it in on the ground in a huff. I knew she didn’t have a good childhood, but I didn’t want to think about what made her look so scared I was going to throw her gift away. I didn’t even know Val really could be scared.
“Here, you take this half. We’ll share.” I handed her the more palatable-looking half with as warm a smile I could muster. “What better way to share a gift than with friends?”
“Friends,” she mumbled looking down at the cupcake half I gave her. The word hung on her lips like she’d never said it before. Or even considered it.
I couldn’t help but stare at her and feel guilty. She did some evil things with a flimsy excuse, but she at least owned up to that. She put up such a tough exterior and I didn’t know where she really stood on an emotional level. There were times where she seemed like an unstoppable badass who wanted nothing more than to right her wrongs. Then there were times where some vulnerability slipped out and she was a scared girl with no social skills, reminding me of myself throughout most of my childhood.
“Did he ever hit you?” The moment the question left my lips, I covered my mouth and my eyes widened with shock. How the hell could I ask her a question like that? Had I lost my damn mind? I couldn’t even stumble out an apology for her.
Val’s eyes widened a bit too. For a moment, there was rage in her deep blue eyes. They were an entire raging ocean about to swallow a rickety little boat whole. Her grip tightened on her sword and I felt my heart jump. Without breaking out my powers, I only had half of a cupcake to defend myself with. As much icing as there was, I didn’t trust it was enough to stop her sword.
Then, as quickly as it came, the frightening rage left her eyes and her shoulders fell. She was calm again, though not without reminding me just how scary she could be. But it also showed me how in control she was.
“He-”
“Please, you don’t have to answer that. I wasn’t thinking and it slipped out.” The strange part was, I really wasn’t thinking of asking it. Usually, I wasn’t so much of a motormouth whose foot ended up inside.
“No, it’s okay.” Val set her sword down on the table, its tip pointed right at me. I had to force myself to not take a step back in fear. “McLeod’s hit me before, yes. When I wasn’t doing well enough, it’d become something like my motivation. It turns out I didn’t do well a lot.”
I clenched my fists at my side and tightened my jaw. I didn’t feel like it was my place to speak, even if the look on Val’s face told me she wasn’t necessarily against me saying anything. I had a lot of opinions on people who used any kind of power, be it age, physical strength, or political, to hurt others. Val saw this man as a father figure—the closest she’d ever had—and he put her through abuse for who knew how many years. Well, I was sure Val knew. After my first blunder, I wasn’t going to ask that question as a follow-up.
Slowly, she lifted up the hem of her skirt, getting it up to the point where I almost had to turn my head away. “He put them in areas that were hard to see.” She pointed toward some long, pale marks that ran across her thighs. Some looked small, but almost like they were done deliberately that way to keep them hidden. Did he take a small blade and run it slowly across her flesh? The piece of shit really had an attack he thought he could keep hidden as long as Val was under his thumb. Maybe he did.
“I’m sorry,” I said as gently as I could manage through all of the anger that ran through me.
“It’s okay, really.” It was not okay and she was bad about lying that she felt the same way. She tried to muster a weak and forced smile. “I’d show you the ones on my back, but you’re going to be a married man soon, so no chance there. A shirt or sports bra covers those ones, so I don’t have to worry about someone accidentally seeing those.”
“Val, I...” My voice trailed off, unable to find the right words for the situation, if any existed at all.
“It’s okay,” she repeated, dropping the hem of her skirt to her knees again. She gave me a bitter smile, but not one without any warmth. “We’re friends, right? Friends are supposed to tell each other things. Confide in each other. Share vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Share secrets together. It makes me happy that you want to be my friend.”
“Please don’t take offense to this, but when did you become so normal?” A vision of her crushing the teleportation stone in the Tomb Removed from Time flashed through my mind. We were just a quick decision away from at least one of us not being in this room.
“Books helped,” she admitted, folding her arms like she wasn’t happy about it. “When I read through these stories with all these colorful characters who just want to be good despite their flaws, they rub off on me and I try to learn from them. A lot trust their friends and allies. I want to be like that too. When did you become so outgoing?”
“Being stranded on a planet put a lot in perspective for me.” I took some icing on my finger and gave it a lick. “When I was away for so long, I didn’t even know if you guys were alive. I wanted to appreciate everyone more when I got back. You’re the first of many visits I owe to people. Oh, and Lizzy being aggressively peppy wore down my tough, bad boy exterior that I’d spent years building.”
“You know, I would have laughed at you a few months ago for saying that, but I think you’re the right amount of tough and tender.” She eyed me up and down, causing me to go red. “I can see why Rebecca fell for you.”
“What do you mean by that?” I scratched the back of my neck, forcing myself to maintain difficult eye contact with her.
“Ask her. She’s going to be your wife, so I don’t think she’d be shy to tell you.” Val pulled a DVD out of one of the drawers, and before I could ask her why she had a movie stored in her kitchen, she waved me to the living room. There, she put the DVD in an old player that was hooked up to a TV that would have been all the rage nearly two decades prior. Even the TV stand looked like something that followed Rebecca from her time. “Don’t worry, I know how to operate a DVD player.”
“DVD is a bit outdated now. I’m more concerned with why your TV stand looks like it’d crumble if I sneezed.” I sat down in front of the TV and crossed my legs, praying it wouldn’t fall on me.
“I didn’t want to spend more than I had to. It does the job. If there was one good thing McLeod’s attempt at being a ‘father’ taught me, it’s that something just doing the job can be all I need.” Val pushed the DVD player’s tray and it responded with an agonizing plastic groan. “Your sister can’t pay us that much, after all.”
“She pays you guys?”
“Yeah, these houses don’t pay for themselves.” She mashed on the remote control, but when nothing happened, she huffed and marched off to get batteries from the kitchen. Her voice was slightly muffled there. “All of us are part of the Luna Defense Team, which does pay a bit. Helps all of us who don’t have regular jobs or parents to live with. Actually, I lied about the houses a little. We don’t pay for them. Staying in them is a perk of being in the LDT, which is why the pay isn’t outstanding.”
I stared at the ground, thinking about the money being moved around.
“You didn’t think that everyone just lived entirely rent-free here, right? I don’t know the ins and the outs of it, but people very much work here.”
“I didn’t really think about it,” I admitted. My cheeks were a little pink. It was obvious when she said it, so I was a little embarrassed I didn’t think of it.
Luckily, I was spared further embarrassment by the start of the movie. It was an animated movie made for young children that hadn’t been popular since I was in kindergarten, not that Val cared about that in the slightest. She watched it, eyes sparkling, only opening her mouth to tell me about something she liked. It was nice, but it was sad too. There was nothing wrong with adults liking stuff made for kids. That was one of the benefits of being an adult. You could like media meant for all age groups. It was the knowledge that she never had the chance to be a kid that made it feel special. Things like the books and the movies were safe for her. I had so much trouble reconciling the fearsome woman I knew she was with the vulnerable little girl she never got to be.
When the movie finished, I realized I had to wipe my eyes. I tried to turn my head so she couldn’t see, but I didn’t do a very good job.
“It got me the first time too.” She offered me a hand to get me off the ground. Her grip was like iron. “Hell, still gets me sometimes.”
“It wasn’t the movie,” I muttered.
“It wasn’t? What was it?” Her voice was a little panicked. “If it was something about the house, I can-”
I put my arms around her and gave her a quick hug to shut her up. It only lasted a second, but I felt her lean muscles tense up. I forgot that she was stronger than she looked, and she already looked plenty strong. I didn’t even know if the hug was for me or her at that point.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
“Thanks for having me over. I’m sorry about everything that’s happened to you.” I wiped my nose and looked at my shoes. “I’m glad that life’s better for you here. We’ll...we’ll figure all this out. Just get over this hurdle, and I promise, we’ll figure out a way you can repent and atone without it costing your life.”
She laughed and patted me on the back. “It was scary at first, and I wasn’t in a good place, but I’m happy here. Truly, I am. You’re a good man. Seriously, ask Rebecca why she fell for you. Just don’t let it go to your head.”
“Oh, if it goes to my head, I’m bringing it here for the movie tomorrow.” I eyed the empty space in the living room that desperately needed to be filled with chairs and a table. “Not much we can do about your lack of furniture right now, but just get a few pizzas. Garbage food and something to watch is all a host needs to have a good party.”
“We all just had pizza yesterday, don’t you think-”
“Nope, I don’t think. Not once before and certainly not now.” I crossed my arms and stood my ground. “More food that’s terrible for me is exactly what I need now that I’m home.”