Supervillainess (Part One) by Lizzy Ford

Fortunately, it didn’t spread to the neighboring
building, but it did leave dozens of families homeless and
destroyed everything they owned.
    Kimber balled up the paper and tossed it in
the recycle bin on the other side of the locker room. He leaned
forward, elbows on his thighs, and rubbed his face.
    He hadn’t seen Keladry since ordering her
not to move. She was gone long before the police and fire
department arrived, and none of the pictures from the papers
featured her at all.
    Not that he was concerned about what
happened to her.
    Except he was.
    Sort of.
    I just want to see if she
survived, he told himself for the tenth
time. He wanted to think it was professional courtesy to follow up
with a patient and ignored the protective instinct that flickered
to life whenever he thought of her.
    Shaking his head, he stood. Keladry didn’t
deserve any such courtesy, not after how she’d murdered four men
and burnt down his apartment building without so much as a thought
about the consequences of her actions.
    Such as the fact he, too, was homeless.
    “Hey, hero,” called one of the ER nurses as
he entered the locker room.
    Kimber forced a smile. 
    “Basking in the glory of the city’s
gratitude?”
    “Hardly,” Kimber replied. “Pulling double
shifts, as usual.”
    “Same,” grunted the nurse as he opened his
locker. “Tish is looking for you.”
    “What’s she doing here at this hour?” Kimber
glanced at his watch. The administrators were normally home by five
or six, not eleven.
    “No idea. Hey, you wanna go out with a few
of us tomorrow night?”
    “Probably not.” He had fielded several
requests for drinks or weekend events since appearing in the
newspaper and turned down everyone.
    “Why not?” the nurse, Gary, pressed. “Don’t
tell me you have to work. We’re both scheduled to be off at six
tomorrow.”
    Kimber hesitated. How did he tell anyone he
didn’t want to get too close, in case he fucked up his life again?
Or someone found out about Chicago?
    “Think about it. I’ll ask you again
tomorrow,” Gary said with a smile. “It’s just three of us for
drinks.”
    “I’ll let you know,” Kimber replied. On the
surface, he had no real reason to refuse. If someone asked him
about his past, he could defer or respond vaguely, like he’d
practiced in his head. Sometimes, he did miss human interaction.
“See you tomorrow.”
    Kimber left the locker room and made his way
through the hospital to the administrators’ offices. The hallway
was dark, and only one office’s light was on. He tapped the door of
his supervisor.
    Tish waved him in. Her nose was red, and she
clutched tissues in one hand.
    “Hey, Kimber,” she said.
    “You’re here late,” he replied.
    “I’ve been fighting a bad cold the past
couple of days, but duty calls. Someone’s gotta approve the
timesheets.”
    He sat down. “What can I do for you?”
    “Melissa says you’re in need of a place to
stay?”
    “Sort of. I just haven’t had the time to
find a new place yet,” he replied. “If it’s a problem I’m sleeping
in the –”
    “It’s not a problem with the hospital. It’s
a problem with me, because I don’t want to see a good person living
in a miserable hospital,” Tish said. She reached into her purse and
pulled out an envelope, handing it to him.
    “What’s this?” Kimber asked, accepting
it.
    “Open it.”
    He did so. Two house keys fell into his
hand.
    “I have a friend who’s out of town for a
while. I asked if I could loan her place out, and she agreed.”
    His gaze lifted, and he stared at Tish,
surprised.
    “But it’ll give you a place to stay until
you’re back on your feet.”
    “I don’t know what to say,” Kimber replied.
“This is incredibly generous, Tish. It’s almost too good to be
true.” He ran his thumb over one of the keys in his hand. The offer
was needed – he was tired of sleeping in a hospital bed – but also
sent an uncomfortable flicker of emotion floating