This was my entry to the Romance - Trials of Love competition, from the @Superhero profile. 

https://www.wattpad.com/733028156-trials-of-love-damsel-or-by-superhero

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My heels clop through the street, the echoes bouncing through alleys and into the dark corners of the city, signalling to all where to find me. Shivering, I pull my cardigan closer, avoiding eye contact with the junkies, hookers and dealers, and ignore the wolfish calls from some loud drunks.

Smoke billows from a sewer grate, wafting in the cloudy night sky like a reluctant wraith fighting its own destiny. People move through the stench of the city like ghosts of their own, leeches stuck on a colossal beast that's been decaying for centuries.

This place is a cesspit of criminals and chaos. But hey, it's home. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

When I turn into a particularly dark and narrow alley, the echoes of my shoes are not the only things to follow me. Two men are no longer walking casually, but are now striding towards me like hunters closing in on their prey.

It's then that I spin around and put on my show, my eyes widening with fear.

The shorter of the two, the heavyset one, leers at me with greedy eyes. The tall one brings out a lead pipe and slaps it into his other hand, making a weak splat sound.

I gather my breath and let out a piercing scream, igniting the quiet air. I back-step away from the approaching men. My arms wave around me as I turn to run but the men are suddenly on me, grabbing me and twisting me towards them.

I scream again, louder, raising my throat to the indifferent sky. A hand wraps around my mouth, pulling my head back and almost throwing me off my feet.

"Listen lady, none of that screaming business now," the one holding me says. I kick out and fight against him, my dress billowing around me. The lead pipe appears by my temple, hovering menacingly.

A rush of air whooshes over us and something large hits the ground behind the fat man. The alley walls shake and the ground trembles beneath us like a shockwave.

The figure rises, coming into view as the fat mugger turns around. He is a huge, muscled mountain of a man. Thick metal gloves that went almost up to his elbows are on each hand, glowing with lines of energy and blinking lights. He steps forward with a serious face between a strong jaw and buzz-cut. His tight T-shirt has the image of a light bulb on the chest.

My shoulders sag with relief. I had been hoping for a Superhero to come rescue me, and it seems, even in this mess of a city, that dreams still came true.

"N-no, no!" the fat man says.

In a flash the large man is upon him, throwing the fat mugger into the wall like he was weightless. The lead pipe swings down towards me and I yelp, squeezing my eyes shut. But the blow never comes.

I blink my eyes open to see both muggers on the ground, heaped together and groaning. The large man with the gloves is standing over them, bending the lead pipe as easily as if he were making a balloon animal.

I find my voice. "I... t-thank you. Thank you."

He turns to me with piercing eyes. "It's all right, ma'am, you're safe now." He steps back to the muggers and brings out a phone. "The police will be here soon."

A sharp point suddenly pierces the large man's shoulder, showering blood and flesh onto the cobbled ground. He jerks back, freezing, as the pincer lifts him up.

The startled, fear-stricken eyes of the muggers follow the long spike to its source, seeing the solid black mass stretch back towards... me.

I roll my shoulder where the leg has extracted from, coming out from beneath my cardigan, and smile at them.

Both men scramble to run, but two more of my legs shoot out and embed themselves in their chests. They drop to the ground, dead. They were a waste of society, anyway.

I look up at the large man stuck on my claw, hovering helplessly in the air. He raises one of his gauntlets towards me, charging up an attack. And so I inject some more of my paralysing venom into him. His arm drops and he hangs limply, like a doll.

I sigh to myself, gazing up at the pathetic superhero. Another fly in my web. But not the one I wanted.

How I longed to see him again. I almost spit the thought out, angered at myself for still feeling such a thing. This man would have to do.

I release all eight of my limbs and scramble up the alleyway and burst out into the night air, my prize flailing beside me. Wind rushes over me as I soar through the sky. I release a stream of webbing and swing down between the buildings, before shooting back up into the air and aiming for home.

How I hated to hear people's comparisons of me and that annoying Spiderman character. But I was the real deal.

I call myself The Wanderer, which took some time to spread around. I come from a long line of Brazilian Wandering Spiders; the most deadliest spider in the world. The name also came from me wandering the streets at night, searching for prey.

Although no one actually knew what The Wanderer looked like. They didn't know that she was an unassuming woman who looks like she couldn't hurt a fly (I love that expression). I don't wear an elaborate costume like some of the heroes and villains in the city. My costume is my normal appearance: long red-blonde hair, petite frame, summer dress and cardigan.

I drop towards the rocky shores of the city, among the crashing waves roiling in the darkness, and swing down into the cave opening. Within minutes I've navigated through the underground tunnels and come out into my lair. My home.

The enormous cavern silently welcomes me. Dozens of fires in hanging sconce's light the area in wavering shadows. Illuminated within the light are the glistening lines of my passion project. Covering the majority of the rock walls is my web, stretching over two hundred feet from wall to wall.

"Hello, boys," I say. "I'm home."

I lift my newest prize up to a nearby section of the web. And about time too; the muscled man had started to get heavy. I set him down a dozen feet away from The Rescuer, just below The Magic Mechanic.

I step back and admire my work, smiling. Spread over the web were my toys. A dozen superheroes, on the brink of consciousness, caught within the world of my venom, stuck to the power-weakening energy of my webbing.

I was the perfect hero-catching machine. And I couldn't have found a better purpose in life.

Though the prisoners were a great sight, I find myself turning away and sighing, aware of the empty feeling trying to swallow me up.

It hadn't always been this way. I used to just kill my enemies. But back when I first caught him, I changed the game.

He was impossibly handsome, with perfect hair and a powerful build. He called himself Super Fly, and he enjoyed catching criminals with a lot of dramatic flair. He was even known to dance as he strutted around, overpowering criminals with his acrobatic fighting skills. The name Super Fly came from the large wings on his back.

He talked incessantly, and was so annoying. But he was easy to talk to. And we talked a lot, sometimes into the early hours of the night. He asked me a lot of questions about myself; he really seemed interested in me, and I fooled myself into thinking I could tell him anything. It was strange, at first, getting on so well with an enemy. With prey. But he was also arrogant, over-confident, and had a horrifying lack of film knowledge.

When he managed to somehow escape from the web, I lashed out at him hard. All the while we fought he'd been trying to say something to me, but I was too enraged to listen. He got away and, I admit, I had been devastated. I realised after how much I'd fallen in love with him, despite how ridiculous that sounded.

Even so, I've spent more than a year capturing heroes, in the hope of finding him again.

At first I just captured anyone I could, telling myself I could have anyone I wanted. All these heroes up there on my web were proof I didn't need him. I could have my way with any of them, and I did. They were all mine.

But they weren't him.

I fire up my bank of monitors and settle into my chair. News reports and websites stream across the screens. I tune the police radio and listen in for a while, popping a handful of fruit and nut mix in my mouth as I survey my command station.

A monitor light flashes, signalling a hit on Super Fly. Someone must have mentioned him in the news. It happened, from time to time, and I didn't always get excited about it now. Someone is always talking about someone, and it always ended up being a waste of time.

I raise the volume and hear that someone had seen Super Fly in a convenience store, having spotted his wings under his long coat. A camera phone image comes up of the man with the long coat in the store.

My heart jolts.

It's him! Really him.

He was bearded now, but I would never forget those smouldering eyes.

The next few seconds are a blur. I'm out of my lair and swinging through the city, towards the convenience store. A crowd had gathered below; flashes of photography lighting the night air.

Suddenly a figure shoots into the sky, large petal wings flapping and carrying him away. Heat flushes within me when I see him. I propel myself harder, swinging towards him.

Now was my chance to finish him off. I could finally kill him and release myself from his hold.

He doesn't see me until I collide with him, crashing into his chest and holding on. We fall through the air for a moment, spinning out of control, before his wings gather strength and we're shooting into the dark night.

He smells great.

My limbs reach for him but he dodges and knocks them away. He pushes off me tries to take off, but I stick him with my webbing and pull myself closer to resume my attack.

I don't see the building until we hit it. Bricks and concrete explode over us. We crash through several walls as our fight takes us through the office building, and smash through the window at the end.

We roll through the air before hitting a roof below. I'm still trying to stab him as we hit, hard, and the breath is knocked out of me.

I roll off him, panting heavily, waiting for the world to stop spinning. He stirs beside me and my fight instincts kick in. He surprises me by holding his hands up in defeat.

"Whoa, whoa, what-" He freezes, his eyes growing twice their size as he looks at me. "It's you," he says softly, in awe.

I scramble away from him and get to my feet, unsure what to do.

He gets up and says, "I thought I'd never see you again. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you."

I pause, my limbs frozen around me.

"You... you never let me explain. You thought I was trying to escape. I..."

He takes a step closer, a hand out towards me, like he was approaching a wild animal.

"I've missed you."

My chest is pounding, and somehow I find enough strength to hesitantly say, "I missed you too."

He smiles, and I melt. Damn him.

"I've been a mess since I left you," he says. "I thought you hated me."

I take a careful step closer, excitement coursing through me. "I did. I still do." I smile at him.

"Well," he says. "This is certainly the strangest date I've ever been on."

I can't help but chuckle. It was really happening. After all this time, we were together again.

The one that got away.