Art by Mori_art_ti

Challenge: Self-Portrait

Idea by @minipage

Character witnesses a fight between a superhero and supervillian.

But the character knows the villian.

minipage

The thing that excited me most about living in an apartment complex was getting to know my neighbors. I pictured something along the lines of The Big Bang Theory where my neighbor would eventually become my best friend. Or maybe we'd fall in love.

But I found my neighbors on the third floor incredibly uninteresting.

Chuck and Jan lived in the first apartment and Joe lived in the second. My neighbor to the right was Alfonso and then there was me.

Alfonso is the center of this story because it was a day in March, the first sunny day in a long time, when he became incredibly interesting.

I was doing my laundry at the laundromat down the street (another downfall of living in an apartment complex in the poor side of Brooklyn). I was stopped at a crosswalk when a white figure fell five stories landing with a thud, face down on the pavement.

Someone screamed.

Following the figure by a mere second was a figure in black. He was in much more control than the previous faller, landing with a firm purpose on top of the white figure.

I only recognized Alfonso's voice because he could frequently be heard belting showtunes in preparation for Broadway auditions.

"One day you're going to learn to stay down," he said. I knew in an instant that he was the man in black, crushing the man in white.

I wanted to join in the screaming.

Even facedown, the white figure was still recognizable. He had been deemed our hero and humanity's savior.

Why was Alfonso doing this?

"Stop!" I screamed, unknowingly. 

He must have known my voice as well, which surprised me since I never sang at the top of my lungs, despite how good "Eye of the Tiger" will always be.

Alfonso's masked face was facing me.

"Terri?"

Our hero took Alfonso's moment of weakness to throw a punch across his face, sending him flying across the street and ending in a heap at my feet.

I could hear his groan as the man in white stood up, dusting himself off.

I knelt down beside Alfonso, checking him over. He seemed okay for the most part.

I could hear the firm footsteps of my "savior" coming towards me.

"Your concern is touching, young lady," he said. "But let me finish this scum off."

I threw myself over Alfonso.

There was no way that Alfonso, Broadway singing, audition failing, Alfonso was the scum of the earth, worthy of this man's hate.

"No," I mumbled. 

That was probably the bravest moment of my life.

But it didn't last long.

I was thrown aside into a pile of trash bags as the man in white finished off my neighbor.