Valarie Parker had never wanted to be a superhero.
Straight-A students without so much as a detention on their record weren't supposed to be hated vigilantes wanted dead or alive by the police force. Fifteen-year-old high school freshmen weren't supposed to beat the ever-loving crap out of supernatural demons and hardened criminals with guns and knives. Wannabe chemistry majors didn't sneak out at night to play the roles of reluctant hero and destructive villain to the populace.
However, that was exactly what she was doing now, and things could never go back to the way they were.
She knew exactly when things had gone wrong for her. It was all because of that goddamned penknife. That ancient penknife that she had gotten for five dollars at a random middle school auction had altered her, changed her permanently. Not physically. She wished it was just physically.
Valarie Parker (not related to Peter, but nice try) had been about as normal as one could expect for her upbringing. Her dad had walked out of her life when she was seven. She had never been popular. She never wanted friends. She could have had them if she wanted; her mother was a famous actress worth millions. But Valarie and her mom both knew that she had never wanted that burden on her shoulders.
So she had gone into school under a different last name, not telling anyone who her mom was. It was easy to say that they weren't related. They looked completely different. Emily Parker was gorgeous with long curly blonde hair cascading past her shoulders, barely falling away from her sparkling blue eyes. Valarie had short, mousy brown hair and unremarkable green eyes. Emily Parker was five inches shorter and much thinner than her 5'6" daughter. So it was simple to pretend that she was nobody special. No after-school clubs, no sports teams, no band or choir. She lied about where her house was to the bus driver so that she could walk the whole five miles back to the expensive house in the north side of National City.
She even worked at a place where no other kid would dare to go, just so that nobody would recognize her there. Looking back, however...if she had known what would happen at the lone maximum security prison that she volunteered her time at, she would have stayed as far away from the place as possible.
It was a cold weekend night in the early part of spring, just after March. She was folding towels that had come out of the dryer in the laundry room. She had to jump through a lot of hoops just to get that job, but it paid, and so long as she spent all of her time in the laundry room and kept that damned penknife on her, she would have been fine. That was not the case for that night - at least, not for the former.
Corrections officer Richie Kane strolled into the room. Valarie didn't like Kane much, as she knew that he felt the same way about her. She knew from her short time here that he only tolerated white straight males and hated teens with a passion. However, she wasn't scared of him; she knew that he wasn't allowed to hurt her, especially not when the other guards were in the facility. That smile, though...she remembered that very clearly, and it scared her more than anything else - because Kane never smiled around her.
"Hey, kid," he said coolly. He would have been handsome to most with wavy sandy-brown hair, a tall, muscular frame, and a boyish face. Still, there were his eyes. Those blue eyes would have been just as gorgeous as her mother's if they had any sort of warmth in them. "How are things going in here? You almost done?"
Valarie sighed. "Almost done, and then my shift is over," she said. "It's almost midnight, and there were so many..."
"Eh, one of the inmates got a shiv. He tried to off some gangbanger and succeeded." Kane laughed. "One less criminal in the world, right?"
Valarie looked down at her feet. He smiled again. "Hey, not saying that you're a criminal. You seem like a decent girl. Quiet. Does her job. Doesn't stray outside of who she is."
"Is there anyone else here?" she asked, hoping that someone would interrupt this awkward conversation.
"Just you, me, and the guards," Kane said dismissively. "Plus the inmates, but nobody gives two shits about them." A look sprung into his eyes, and she didn't know what to make of it. "Say, I can show you something pretty cool in this place! One of the few cool things here. You want to see it?"
"I'm sorry, but I have to do this job and-"
"Hey, don't worry about it. It can get finished tomorrow. No need to be shy. I insist."
She knew that he wouldn't take "no" for an answer. "Sure," she said reluctantly.
"All right!" Kane clapped his hands once and led her out of the laundry room, past the reception desk...and into the correctional facility.
"Wait, I shouldn't even be-"
"Aw, what's life without a little risk, huh? Most of them are asleep. And they're all in their cells. And they're not going to hurt you with me here. I promise."
She tried to pull away from Kane, but he held her wrist in a tight grip, and he covered her mouth when she tried to scream for a few guards who were dealing with a situation up top.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I haven't even shown you the best part!" he said with a laugh and led Valarie all the way down the hallway, as she struggled to get away from him. Terror was crawling down her throat, climbing down her spine, and her heart was beating like a hammer against an anvil. She was unable to make a sound out of fear.
This isn't happening, this isn't happening...
Kane opened the door at the end of the hallway with his keys in one hand and pulled her through three more cell blocks filled with shouting inmates before finally stopping at a door that had a sign saying, "This room MUST be locked at ALL times." A guard noticed the two of them and yelled at Kane to stop before he opened the door, walked in with Valarie, and slammed the door shut.
He's gonna lock me in solitary, oh fuck, oh God, oh fucking God...
But it wasn't solitary. It was worse.
Ten cells were lined up in the room, five to one side and five to the other. All of them were occupied. All of the inmates were awake and leering at her.
"Welcome to death row, baby!" Kane crowed, locking the door behind them while ignoring the guard's shouting. "Home to the ten biggest scum to ever walk the earth!"
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face a thin black man with dreadlocks in the first cell on the left.
"Javarius Simpson! A serial strangler and killer of thirteen women, Simpson has been incarcerated for ten years in a lifetime sentence."
Valarie stood in stunned silence, tears leaking down her face. That bastard was reading off their list of crimes, one at a time, as if it was a fucking biography. He yanked her over to the first cell on the right, housing a twenty-year-old white man with stringy blond hair. She realized that she had seen him on the news.
"Ben Haynesworth! School shooter, killed at least twenty-two kids at his local high school. He's the newest resident at two years of a life sentence."
Kane pulled her over to the second cell on the right. A large white man with balding gray hair grinned at her, revealing stained yellow teeth.
Brent Naposki! Triple-homicide and a known cannibal, he's served nine years of a life sentence."
He brought Valarie over to the second cell on the left, housing a bald black man with multiple facial tattoos. The man stared at Valarie with an almost-longing smile.
"Terrell Sharper! Double-homicide and necrophilia, he's served twelve years of a lifetime sentence."
Valarie was trembling by the time Kane swung her over to the third cell on the left. Another black man - they must have been separating them by race - with a scarred face said, "Hey, girl, lemme have some fun wit' you, aight?"
"Leonard Hornsby! I bet you've heard of him; he bombed the park down by Hawkins Boulevard and Stone Street. Killed at least a dozen people. He's served three years of a life sentence."
Kane pulled the terrified teenager over to the third cell on the right. The occupant was a gray-haired white man with thick glasses. He gave her a small smirk.
"Scott Carter! Formerly a doctor for National City Medical, he was convicted of murdering a whopping sixty-three elderly ladies by poison and wiring their savings to his offshore bank account. Sent at least ten husbands to prison before he was caught and sentenced to life thirteen years ago."
Valarie was taken away to the inmate over by the fourth cell on the right: a white man with curly red hair. His fanatical green eyes seemed to look into her mind, and she immediately knew who he was before Kane even said his name.
"Todd Cobb! He's our biggest killer in this place, convincing over eight-hundred people to commit suicide in his cult. He's served fourteen years of a lifetime sentence."
Kane put her next to the fourth cell on the left, face to face with an old short black man with a crazed grin. She realized that she knew him as well.
"Lawrence Payne! Convicted of the arson of the Ravenstar movie theater, he burned it down, along with forty-five moviegoers. He's served the longest of the inmates here at sixteen years in a lifetime sentence."
He placed her over by the last cell on the left. A black man without an index finger on his right hand glared at her hatefully from behind the bars.
"Adrian Rozier! Convicted on multiple counts of animal cruelty, as well as the rape and murder of his girlfriend after she bit part of his pointer finger off. He's serving eight years of a life sentence."
Kane grabbed Valarie's wrists and dragged her over to the last cell on the right. A bald white man with cut marks all over his face and head licked his lips when he noticed her breasts, muttering, "I want," repeatedly.
"Taylor MacDonald! A serial rapist and murderer with over seventy victims to his name, he's served fifteen years of a life sentence."
Kane let Valarie go and stood in front of the locked door, while she listened to the death row inmates howling slurs at her and the officers banging on the door and screaming at Kane. She was too scared to even cry. She looked up at the corrupt officer.
"Let me go, please, I'm begging you!" she pleaded.
"You really think I'm going to do that?" Kane said coldly. "Nah, I wanted to teach you a lesson. You bratty ***** shouldn't be taking jobs from honest male citizens. You don't belong here. If you promise that you'll never come back, I might let you out after three hours."
Multiple guards were now desperately to unlock the facility, and as they shouted commands for Kane to open the door, Valarie pulled out her penknife. "Let me go, you fucking bastard! I'll do what you say, but you let me out of here right now!"
"Oh, so you're threatening an officer with a weapon?" Kane said with a laugh. He pulled out his service pistol and pointed it at her head. "Look, kid, the video cameras are off. I turned them off myself, see?" He waved his left hand at the cameras, which had no red light. "The door's fucking locked from the inside! There's absolutely nobody who can help you, and nobody's going to believe a lying bitch who wanted to see the inmates over a cop like me."
"You mean a dirty pig like yourself?" Valarie spat. "It's over, Kane. Everyone will know what you've done."
"SHUT YOUR ***** MOUTH!" he roared. "I CAN DO WHATEVER I DAMN WELL PLE-"
Before he could get out the rest of the sentence, a portal opened up in the middle of the room, and everything went to hell and back.
