It was after midnight when a persistent knocking sounded over the great mahogany door, echoing throughout the mansion. The knocking went on and on, irritating the owner of the property.
"Enough! Will you stop that unholy racket?" wondered the Count at the persistent hammering.
"Henry!" he shouted angrily.
Having received no answer, he decided to get up and take care of the emergency himself, in the face of repeated bombardment of the door.
"Where the hell is Henry, who didn't take care of the wretch who dared disturb my peace?" he cursed a few times as he descended the grand central staircase leading to the entrance of his mansion..
The volume of the knocking increased as he approached, lessening his patience.
He opened the heavy door with a bang and gaped at what was behind it.
A young woman, her clothes in tatters, staggered around trying to keep her balance; startled, she caught herself before lunging at the large door again.
"You're in trouble," the girl pointed her finger at the Count. The Count's face crumpled in contempt at her vacant stare and her liquor breath..
"I've come to finish you off once and for all," she said as she fell flat on her face in front of the entrance.
A young man hurried to the Count's side, his legs trembling but his eyes wide open, sweeping the scene from side to side, looking at the Count and back at the young woman on the floor; clothes torn to shreds, bruises and scratches all over her body, her matted hair covering her face.
"It... Ma.. Master," he hesitated as he looked at the Count's hardened face.
"It's..."
"It's Ava!"
"How were you able to defeat her?"
"Is she dead?" the servant asked dumbfounded, not waiting for an answer.
"Don't be an idiot, Henry. She's invulnerable and indestructible. She's just..." he paused, his face crinkling even more as he finished the sentence, "...drunk."
Henry was petrified at the scene, still wondering what a superheroine would be doing at the entrance to the mansion in such a pitiful state..
"Take her to the guest room and treat her wounds. Make sure she is fitted with clothing worthy of her status."
Henry stammered for a moment, and finally, the words came out of his mouth
"As you wish, Master."
He ran for help inside the mansion leaving the Count with his thoughts and face even more hardened.
...
Ava's face tightened at the heat and intensity of the sun's rays streaming through the gothic window. She covered her eyes with her hands and a throbbing headache brought her back to her senses.
Where the hell was she, she wondered. She could hardly remember what had happened. She was lying on a bed as soft and cozy as cotton candy, wearing green pajamas with blue plaid stripes; the room was sweetly decorated and framed with pastel-colored walls; to one side on an exquisite ivory-colored dresser was a silver tray with a glass of orange juice, toast with freshly made eggs still steaming next to a cup of hot coffee, and on a small plate was a couple of pills.
Behind a thick pane of glass sat the Count comfortably in an antique armchair. He was sipping a cup of tea, a habit he had enjoyed as a child.
"Those are aspirins," the count mused, never taking his eyes off his teacup.
The girl rubbed her forehead to relieve the hangover.
"You are totally at my mercy, this room is reinforced with titanium walls, thick enough to contain you. Imagine my surprise, to be able to capture you effortlessly. Without you, the other superheroes will be no match for my wicked plans."
"You're wrong if you think I'm alone, soon enough the Justiciars will come for me and give you what you deserve," she replied angrily.
"I doubt it, if they did they would have come by now. You've been in that bed for over 12 hours. And from the way you arrived, I assume your companions detest your behavior and company.
Ava lowered her gaze.
"I have been watching you for a long time. You've changed. You've stopped being the competent superhero everyone knows. You have made many mistakes and destroyed buildings and property without measuring the consequences.
Ava gritted her teeth and averted her eyes from the window, soon the Count's chattering became inaudible. She was tired of being a superhero. The constant call of duty and the repeated requests for help from the citizens were becoming monotonous; it had been many years since she had any time for herself, and she had never had a day off since she had become what she was today... A superheroine.
The Count kept talking about how careless she had become and the plans he had to wipe out the Justiciar's society. Concentrating on his malevolent plans and thrilled to have in his power none other than the great Ava, it took him a while to realize that his guest had fallen completely asleep... Again.
Curled up on her body, wrapped in a ball she began to snore; she rested her head tenderly on the feather pillow, and her childish gesture of sucking her thumb, while sleeping, made Count's face soften.
Ava was not quite an adult, barely turning 21.
So the days passed while she recovered from her injuries, and under the premise of being locked in an airtight room, she decided to take some time to rest. In the evenings, she began to appreciate her conversations with the Count during dinner.
She and the Count began to appreciate each other's company, to such a degree that he put aside his evil plans to spend more time with Ava.
One night, the Count lowered his walls and confessed something Ava could never have imagined. His former life was never what it is today, in his youth, he had been the victim of abuse by his classmates at the boarding school, to the extent that he had old scars from burns and wounds inflicted by his tormentors. They made fun of him for being overweight and for being slow to understand what he wanted to learn.
He often took his complaints to the student counselors; however, coming from a class of limited means they constantly doubted his word. His parents, tired of his incessant problems, decided to give him up for adoption. To his misfortune, the pattern kept repeating itself during his stay at the orphanage.
"I've often thought about ending my own life," Ava was stunned to hear.
"But my desire for revenge overcame my pathetic self-pity for myself and drove me to amass the knowledge and fortune necessary to become the towering man I had become."
Both were silent.
Belatedly later, Ava revealed her innermost thoughts.
"I always believed in taking down enemies in one fell swoop, regardless of the reasons that led them to that life. I never put myself in my opponent's shoes, it never even crossed my mind to think that there was a reason for them to be the way they were."
She sighed.
"I guess it was easier to smash up their asses than to stop and think about what drove them to such actions."
Ava began to see that things were not as they seemed. Through understanding, patience, and tolerance, she could see that villains were also victims of oppression and injustice.
One morning, to Ava's surprise, her superhero costume was fully repaired and neatly folded on the dresser next to her bed. The thick glass shield was gone.
After putting on the costume, she heard a tapping on the bedroom door.
"Come in," Ava answered. This time it was Henry bringing breakfast.
The servant bowed and said.
"By order of my Master, you are free to leave at your leisure."
Ava stretched her arms to wake up and inadvertently drove her fist through the titanium-reinforced wall without much effort.
"Oops, I am so sorry... My apologies to the Count" she expressed childishly with one hand over her chest.
Henry swallowed hard and vanished out the door immediately.
Ava returned home and was greeted like a heroine. Her friends and teammates were thrilled to see her back and sorry for leaving her alone, she apologized to everyone for her behavior months earlier.
Inside Ava felt different. She had seen a side of the Count that she never expected to see, and she couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for him. Ava realized that she had learned an important lesson about life and justice.
