Chapter Text
When he is finally done with work, he is walking home, hoping that his curse wouldn’t come anytime soon.
He is almost home, only he is stopped by a fire truck speeding past him. He doesn’t wait a second and he is running after it, looking for the where the truck would come to a stop.
It wasn’t a long run and the burning house already came into view, Wilbur didn’t hesitate to grab his mask out of his pocket and putting it on, he was going to save the people inside. Wilbur always has a mask in his pocket for occasions like this, when he needs to hide his identity fast, so that is the best way to do it.
He comes to a stop by one of the fire trucks, it has his sirens on but Wilbur can’t hear it, he is already deaf.
He sees firemen standing together at the end of the truck and runs up to them. He does a little wave and puts one finger up, trying to ask the firemen if there is someone in the house.
Just like Wilbur thought, the man didn’t understand. The man tries talking to Wilbur, but he waves at his ears, telling the man he is deaf and can’t hear him. Happily the man understands and puts his mask down, telling… telling Wilbur that he needs to leave? He never got a reaction like that, but that doesn’t stop him.
‘no, are there people inside?’ he mouths.
The fireman seems puzzled about Wilbur’s question, but still nods.
‘how many?’ Wilbur mouths again.
The man brings two fingers up and Wilbur understands. Before the man can grab Wilbur’s jumper, he already ran into the house.
Not soon after, he sees the first person on the first floor. They are bleeding, but there is a clear path to the exit, so Wilbur picks them up and carries them outside.
Before the fireman from earlier can grab his jumper, he already ran into the house again, looking for the other person. When he went over the whole ground and first floor and found nothing, he makes his way to the second and last floor. He can’t see anything, not because his curse, but because the smoke that is hanging in the air. Although he couldn’t see anything, he found the last person. It’s a kid, they look around eleven- Wilbur shakes his head, no, that isn’t important right now, Wilbur needs to get the kid out of the house.
Taking the stairs down isn’t a change anymore. The staircase in flames, so Wilbur jumps from the window, into a soft bush. Before people can surround him, he brings the kid to the ambulance and sprints away, letting everyone puzzled about who the mystery man is. Wilbur knows they soon will find out that it was Discour, but that is the problem of future Wilbur, not the present one.
It’s already dark outside, he notices when he finally walks into his home. The air in the house is strange, it feels like someone forced to let the house feel homely.
He kicks his shoes off and walks into the kitchen, only to be met with his dad setting the plates on the table and telling him to sit down.
When Phil sits across from Wilbur, the first thing he notices is that Wilbur is wearing a mask and directly ask about it.
‘Wh.. … you … ma.. on?’ Wilbur lipreads, he moves his hands to his ear to tell his dad that he can’t hear him.
“Oh, Sorry.” Phil signs, “Why do you have a mask on?”
“Oh,” Wilbur didn’t know he still had it on, “it’s… a new work policy. So no one gets sick.” He signs back.
Phil eyes suddenly widen in shock, Wilbur doesn’t understand why, he looks around but there is nothing to be seen. Until he sees the door bursting open and three men walking inside of the room. They all point their gun at Wilbur, who is too shocked to move and just sits there, eyes wide and mouth agape. He puts his hands up, trying to let the men put their gun down.
One man looks at Phil, then at Wilbur and then again at Phil. He keeps his attention on Phil and the other two keep watching Wilbur, what he finds strange, because he didn’t do anything, right?
Wilbur looks at his dad, his dad stares back, wide eyed and looking betrayed, like he is betrayed by Wilbur himself. The man who has his attention on Phil moves his mouth, asking something.
Phil looks back at the man, and sometimes nods when he is asked something. Phil looks again at Wilbur, Phil nods at his hands, telling Wilbur to look. Phil signs something, it’s the word ‘sorry’ and then nods.
The other man then looks at Wilbur, forcing him to freeze on his chair. Suddenly, one of the three men walks forward and looks Wilbur straight in the eyes. The man then grabs a needle from his pocket and moving it to Wilbur- who shoots back in his chair, falling on the ground. The other two men rush forward to pin him to the ground so the last one can inject the needle into his neck. Before everything goes black, he sees his dad, who stands in the corner of the room, a mix of betrayal and sorrow in his eyes.
Then his whole world goes black.
-
When he wakes up, he is met with a familiar void around him. Great, his curse stole his vision again.
“Where am I?” he asks into nowhere.
“So, you are awake?” he suddenly hears, their voice is a low and calculated “How considerate from you.”
“Who are you?”
“That doesn’t matter, but I think that it is better that you start thinking about why you are here.”
“What do you mean with that?”
“Your power has always been fascinating to me, Soot,” The man continues.
“You mean the curse?” he asks, not knowing why the villain would call it a power.
“It’s just so special and unpredictable. Switching at random moments. You’re just so… intriguing.”
“I am no different than other people.”
“I want to know how you do it,” the villain tells him, “I want to know how you manage to live with it.”
“You won’t get that.”
“I think I will,” the villain tells him, his voice dangerously low, “it is just how much you want to cooperate with me.”
“You really think I am going to talk? With you of all people.” Wilbur huffs in disbelieve.
“I think you would talk, Soot. You would do everything to save the life of your dad.”
He feels his blood run cold, “If you hurt him-“
“Hurt him?” he laughs “of course not, I won’t touch him if you cooperate with me.”
“I won’t tell you anything.”
“We’ll see, Soot, We’ll see.”
The words of the villain hang in the air, chilling the room. Wilbur’s pulse quickens and he desperately tries to break free out of the restrains he is in.
“I do not have anything else to tell you,” he says, “You already know more about me than you should.”
Wilbur hears the hero walking around the chair, making circles until he abruptly stops.
“What caused the curse to change? What happened that day? What did you see?”
Images flash in front of Wilbur’s eyes, images that he so long ago tried to forget. “I don’t know what you mean,” he lies.
“What happened that day, that day that your power came.”
“I won’t tell you.”
“You will tell me, because you know what happens if you don’t.”
“No,” he says firm.
“Hero,” the villain says, sounding disappointed, Wilbur hears them pressing something- a button. There is a faint scream from outside, a sound that fits in with the voice of his dad.
“Stop! Don’t hurt him, I’ll tell you. Just, please, don’t hurt him.”
“Begin.”
“I- I saw flames, they were everywhere. The house was on fire, I couldn’t see anything, only smoke-“ his voice trails off, lost in the memories of his past.
“Go on.”
“I can’t remember anything else.”
“We both know there is more, tell me.”
“No, there isn’t-“
“You still try to keep secrets from me, Soot? It won’t make his experience any better,” the villain threatens. “Tell me more.”
“I lost someone, he died in the fire-“ his voice stops again.
“What happened after the flames?”
“I don’t know!” he yells out, “like I said, I can’t remember!”
“Try harder,” the villain tells him. Wilbur knows he can’t keep silent, but he doesn’t want to tell the villain those things. He isn’t ready for it and certainly isn’t ready to share those secrets with his enemy. But still he does. He starts talking, telling everything he knows from the fire and the villain listening carefully, saving every thing that Wilbur tells him.
Wilbur falls back in his chair, exhausted from every confession he made. Every memory that he now remembers after he tried so hard to forget everything.
“That’s enough,” The villain tells him and they start pacing again.
The air is thick, thick with unsaid words. He hears the villains mouth open and close, wanting to say something but deciding not to.
“What are you doing?” Wilbur asks, voice low.
The hero turns to Wilbur. Although Wilbur can’t see that, he can feel the smile forming on the villains lips, “You gave me something to consider, to think about,” they say, almost mockingly. “But it is not enough.”
“What do you mean ‘it’s not enough’!”
“I want to get to know you, I want to understand how you work, how your curse works. There are gaps in your story, ones that prevent me to see the whole picture. I want to know the whole story.”
“What do you mean?” he asks, almost angry.
“You know what I mean.” They say, their now red eyes glistering.
“I want to give you a chance. A chance for your freedom.”
“What kind of chance?”
“You’re going to take a series of tests,” they say their tone almost casually, like they’ve done this before. “Tests that are designed to push your limits, test that will slowly break down those barriers that you created around your mind. If you succeed, I might let you go.”
“And you think that I believe that you’ll let me go?”
“You don’t need to believe me, you just have to play the game.”
“And what if I don’t? What if I won’t do them and make this extra hard for you?”
Wilbur feels the villain lean in, their forehead almost touching Wilbur’s. Their voice goes dangerously low and they whisper “Your dad won’t make this out alive then.”
Wilbur’s breath hitches, it feels like the walls are closing in on him. “You’re lying,” he forces out.
“Am I?” the villain asks, “Why would I? You’re a hero, always have been. A hero who sacrifices himself for anyone. Not daring to let anyone suffer from your mistakes. You’ll take my test and you’ll succeed, because deep down… you know it is not just your life that is at stake.”
He wants to refuse, tell the villain they can fuck themself. But just like they said, it is not only his life he needs to succeed for. His dad counts on him, that he will do everything so that they both can live, that they both will leave this place without missing any limps.
“Fine,” he says, “but remember, I am only doing this for my dad. And you promise that you let him go when I succeed?”
The villain laughs, “We’ll see about that, I can’t make promises that easily. But, if you succeed, I’ll look into it.”
“Deal.”
“But, be careful. This won’t be easy. I am not looking for simple answers, I am looking for the truth, the whole truth.”
“Prepare yourself to hear it then.”
“I’ll do. Rest now, Soot, you need it.”
Wilbur hears them walking to the door, walking out and letting the door slam shut with a click from the lock.
“The first test starts soon.” A metallic voice from the ceiling tells.
Wilbur only now feels how tired he is. He feels how his curse tries to take over, so he gives himself to it, letting it steel his hearing in exchange for his vision.
He scans around the room, in a lost attempt to escape, but he is too tired and his eyes glide shut.