Chapter 11: Daddy issues
"Emily, aged 12.
Short red hair, a little over a meter tall, and was last seen three days ago wearing a brown shirt.
Any information on this lost child, please contact your local authorities."
Steve frowned.
He had just arrived in the city due to his information source telling him the potential whereabouts of one of the other heroes.
However, the first thing that greeted him when he first entered the town was a crying woman, begging random people to help her find her missing child.
The guards tried to calm her down, insisting they were trying their best to locate them, but the woman was still frantic.
'Seems no matter the world I'm in, some issues never change. Missing children… unfortunately, I can't help, but I hope she finds her child.'
Despite being the chosen hero, Steve was still just one man. No matter how much power he has, he can't help everyone with their individual issues.
Even heroes have priorities, and sometimes they can't afford to help a single person.
Still, this soured Steve's mood.
'Whatever. I'm here to find Summoner Lora. Hopefully she's here.'
Steve and Pethnor's plans were to currently find and gather all the former heroes and get them onto their sides.
However, most of their location's were unknown to the world (unlike Lumal who was a public figure) and at this point in time, several of them still hadn't even become heroes yet.
A little while ago, Pethnor's informants got information regarding the whereabouts of where one of the heroes, Summoner Lora, was currently living.
Upon getting this news, he went to share it with Steve immediately.
"Good news Steve, we have whereabouts of one of t-"
"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"
The moment Pethnor walked into the living room of his demon castle, Steve slammed his fist into the table, completely smashing it into a million pieces.
"My expensive table…" Pethnor muttered in sadness.
"If only Lumal had fucking listened and came here with me, he'd still be alive right now! BUT NO! That fucking dumbass bitch got himself killed!"
Steve's face looked like a veiny red tomato with literal fumes coming out of his nose every time he breathed.
He tightened his grip on the newspaper in his hand and threw it across the room straight into Pethnor's face.
"…"
After a moment, Steve's anger cooled down..
"God damn… oh, Pethnor. You're here. What'd you want?"
"I got a report on where Summoner Lora might potentially be living."
"That's good news. Hopefully she won't be a stubborn fuck like Lumal and get herself killed!"
"…"
Pethnor decided to stay quiet.
He knew about Steve's short temper for a while now and he'd gotten used to it.
Though if it were anyone other than Steve doing this, Pethnor would probably have killed them for insolence.
"Whatever… so, I'm assuming I'm going to be the one to go find her then?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, I'm the demon lord so I can't go. And you're the hero so she'll probably recognize and listen to you."
"Give me the details and I'll leave right away."
"Well, we knew her name, age, appearance and some basic information prior to the regression, so using that we were able to narrow our search down to a city far west. We haven't found any specific people but we're fairly certain that she's somewhere in that region, or at least, have left traces behind there. I'll give you a map and you'll go there looking for her."
Steve let out a sigh.
"Alright. I'll pack my stuff."
Before he could leave though, Pethnor stopped him.
"Steve… you sure you can handle this?"
"Don't worry, I'll be fine, I'm the hero after all."
Pethnor scoffed.
"I ain't talking about you. I'm talking about everything around you. I'm afraid you might fuck up and accidentally do something that you shouldn't."
"Seriously Pethnor? You have that little faith in me?"
Steve was kind of annoyed that Pethnor even doubted him.
But Pethnor just pointed at the rubble that was formerly the table that Steve had smashed earlier.
"That table was made of ancient demonic wood reinforced with condensed magic steel… if you used the same amount of power required to smash that thing, you would be able to easily pound a knight in mithril armor into a stain on the ground."
"Oh."
Steve just stared at the broken table and scratched his head dumbfounded.
"Sorry about that… I seriously don't know what's with me. I'm getting worked up so easily all of a sudden, I didn't used to be this way. Believe or not, before I came to this world, I was known for being cold and emotionless. I promise I'll be extra careful."
"If you don't mind, may I make a suggestion?"
"Huh? Oh sure, go ahead."
"Have you ever heard of personal conditional restrictions?"
"What the fuck is that?"
Pethnor cleared his throat before he started info dumping on Steve.
"Many humans apply conditions or restrictions to their powers and abilities. I will only use this ability against my archnemesis… I will never use this power for self gain… I will only use my strength to save others… I will only use this move against demons… these are some of the restrictions and conditions that former heroes had given themselves. By restricting your abilities and only using them when they fulfill certain conditions, it strengthens your own resolve and can boost your strength.
In your case, you're already freakishly strong so you don't need to become stronger, but I think if you give yourself a conditional restriction for using your heroic powers, it'd be beneficial for you… and everything around you. Might help you contain your emotions. Something along the lines of, I will not use my heroic powers if I'm angry."
"That sound pretty cool actually. So what do I do? Do I have to sign a contract with you or something? Or will you just seal my powers when I get mad?"
Pethnor just stared back at Steve like he was crazy.
What kind of hero offers a contract with the demon lord? It should be the other way around…
"No, no. It's a personal thing. You apply the restriction yourself and you manage it. It's not a hard coded iron rule, you can break your restrictions and conditions if you want, but doing so is not advised. Many heroes have lost their willpower and determination after doing so and as a result, weakened. Though in this case, it might be better if you weaken… ahem, but you can just make a personal vow to never use your powers in certain conditions and do your best to follow it. Simple as that."
"Well, I guess from now on, I'll apply a personal restriction on myself. I hereby vow to myself and swear on my left testicle that I will never use my heroic powers when I'm angry!"
Steve did say it in a half joking way, but he intended on maintaining this rule he gave himself.
After all, he didn't want to show Pethnor that he was a man who goes back on his words.
Upon hearing this, Pethnor did seem a little bit more relaxed.
Hopefully this means none of his furniture gets destroyed anymore.
"Good luck with bringing back Lora."
Steve nodded as he headed off.
And now, Steve was at the city located on the map that Pethnor had given him.
All he needed to do was to find Lora and persuade her to come back with him.
But that's harder than it sounds since he didn't even know where Lora was.
At this time, she wasn't even a hero yet.
In fact, she probably wasn't even an adult yet.
Out of all the heroes, Lora was the youngest.
When they had fought Lenier, she was a relatively young lady at around her twenties.
So during this timeframe, she should still be a child.
Steve was essentially searching for some random kid.
"Guess I'll start by asking around."
Steve walked over to a random guard standing around and started a conversation.
"Hello sir."
"Oh, hello there. Is there something you need?"
"Yes, I am looking for someone right now and I was wondering if you could help…"
"Oh no! Is it another missing person?!"
The guards sudden rise in volume startled Steve, who quickly made something up on the spot.
"Huh? No, I'm just looking for a… distant cousin of mine. Haven't seen her in a long time so I was trying to get some information about her."
The guard let out a sigh of relief.
"That's good. We've been getting a lot of missing people cases for a while now so things have been a bit tense."
"Sounds like there's something going on. Are the authorities not doing anything about this?"
"We've had this issue for a long time. A few people go missing once in a while and never get found. Obviously, we tried tracking them down but nothing ever comes out of it. Not only that, but most of the missing cases are commoners and peasants so it doesn't concern the nobles. It's truly unfortunate but it's a waste of manpower searching in vain when there are other problems this city faces. Because of that, we get a lot of desperate people… like that woman over there."
The guard pointed over to the sobbing woman with images of her child in her hand.
Steve furrowed his eyebrows.
He reluctantly reminded himself that it wasn't his job to find missing people, and that he had more important things to be doing.
The guard quickly changed the subject as things got a little awkward.
"So anyways, you said you were looking for someone? I don't know if I can help but I'll try."
"I'm looking for a little girl, um, not sure how old she is but she should be a child around the ages of 12 to maybe 16. I think she has blonde hair and uh… her name's Lora."
"Hm. Lora, eh? I can only think of one person who fits that description and it's… Sir Joseph's daughter."
The guard slightly hesitated.
"Sir Joseph?"
"You don't know of him? He was the former knight's captain. Retired a while ago but he's still well known for his achievements. Now, he's living the rest of his life with his wife and his daughter. Can't say if that's the Lora you're looking for but it's the only one I know."
"Thank you, I'll go pay him a visit."
"Ay, stay safe."
Steve nodded and left the guard to do his job.
He followed the direction that the guard gave and after around an hour of searching, Steve entered an extravagant neighbourhood.
Compared to the rest of the city, this section of housing was big and clean, each house taking up a chunk of the street, each one surrounded by fields of green grass.
It was clearly the high-end district of the city, reserved for the wealthy and high status.
Steve wasn't fazed by this.
He too once lived in a grand and extravagant mansion back on earth, and even in this world, he lived in Pethnor's demonic castle, so such houses seemed trivial to him.
Steve scanned through every house, looking for the address that the guard gave him.
He kept walking and walking until he reached the end of the neighbourhood located near the corner of the city walls.
"…seems I'm in the right place."
Steve muttered to himself as he felt an ominous presence that felt like it shouldn't exist in this world.
He recognized it.
It was the same presence he once felt from Summoner Lora's creatures.
In front of one of the houses on the neat freshly cut green grass, was a tree, and hanging down from it was a swing.
There was a little girl sitting on the swing, slowly rocking back and forth.
"Well, that was easier than I thought. There she is."
Lora quickly noticed Steve approaching her.
"H-hello sir…?"
"Hey Lora, it's been a while."
"Wha…? Sorry, I don't know who you are…"
"You forgot me already? It's me. Steve, well, I guess I was known as hero Xavier back then."
Lora slowly got off the slide and backed away as Steve got closer.
"I'm sorry, I… I don't know who you are…"
"Do you not remember me Lora?"
Steve narrowed his eyes.
This girl was definitely Lora.
She looked extremely similar, but the dead giveaway was the creature that was crawling in her sleeve.
A single eyeball stared back at Steve from behind Lora's palm.
No doubt that it belonged to Lora.
"How do you know my name?"
Her voice was shaky and she seemed scared of the foreign man who came out of nowhere, acting all friendly.
So what was going on here?
Using his heroic insight ability, Steve could tell she wasn't pretending or acting, she genuinely didn't know who he was.
If she were the only hero that Steve had met, it wouldn't have surprised him that she couldn't remember.
But both Pethnor and Lumal remembered, so why didn't Lora?
Unless…
'She died.'
Steve was fairly certain that the reason for them keeping their memories was because of the sigil that Lenier gave them.
If that sigil were to somehow disappear, they wouldn't keep their memories after time got reversed.
Dying would likely cause the sigil to disappear.
So either Lora died or…
'It was stolen from her.'
Steve vividly remembered what happened moments before the regression.
He had gotten into a fight with Serena, the original demon lord.
Serena had tried to take away Steve's sigil.
It's very much possible that Serena had stolen it from Lora.
While Steve was busy thinking, Lora had run back into her house.
Not wanting to seem like a weirdo, Steve turned around and left the scene.
He needed to figure out what he planned on doing.
This situation had gotten a lot more complicated.
In the future, Lora would become a powerful summoner and tamer, but right now, she was a clueless kid who knew nothing about what was to come.
"ARGHHH!!! What the fuck do I do now?"
Should he try talking to Lora again?
Maybe try to get her to regain her memories?
Would that even work though?
And even if she doesn't regain her memories, he still can't just give up on her.
She'll be a hero in the future, having her on his side would massively increase their fighting force.
Not only that but if Serena or the cult of Lenier find her first… that could be disastrous.
By now though, the sun was already going down and it was getting darker.
"I should probably find a place to sleep and figure out what to do tomorrow."
Steve had an adequate amount of money on him as travel funds, so he went looking for a hotel or an inn.
As he was walking though, he noticed in the far distance a teenage boy staring at him from behind a tree.
The boy seemed to be watching him.
Steve was new around here so it wasn't strange to get weird looks, but something about this place felt off to him.
Maybe it was because of the darkness of the night, or perhaps the emptiness of the neighbourhood except for the boy staring at him, but something about this entire area felt eerie.
Looking back, the boy had disappeared almost like a ghost…
But ghosts couldn't hurt Steve anyways, so he shrugged it off and left to find a place to rest the night.
Steve found a nice-looking place to stay, got a room and took a bath before heading straight to bed.
Ever since coming to this new world, Steve had been keeping a very strict sleep schedule.
This was very different compared to his life on Earth where he would often stay up and rarely slept unless he was too physically exhausted to stay awake.
Steve stared up at the ceiling as he remembered his life back then.
It felt like such a long time ago, yet at the same time, it felt like he was still living that life in a way.
Miserable.
That's how he would describe his life.
But Steve knew that if others had heard this, most people would be quite mad.
On Earth, Steve was wealthy.
Lived a life of luxury and comfort.
In this world, he's the most powerful hero.
He physically could not lose a fight and would be able to achieve anything he set his mind to.
These were things that people would quite literally kill for just to have a fraction of.
Yet he felt no fortune in what he had.
Perhaps, if he were to be put in a situation where he was stripped of all his wealth and power then maybe he'd come to appreciate… no, never mind.
That scenario reminded Steve of his time in the trenches during the war.
An awful memory came back to him.
Steve sighed in frustration, trying to forget that and focused on trying to sleep.
Despites his efforts, Steve couldn't fall asleep.
He let out a sigh and stood up to go get a drink when suddenly he felt something staring at him.
At the entrance of the room, was a tall slender creature.
Due to the darkness of the room, Steve was unable to make out the details of its body, except for its big round glassy eyes and pitch-black pupils which stared back.
It didn't move at all.
Almost like it wasn't alive, an inanimate object.
Just kept standing there looking at Steve.
Steve sat back down on his bed and stared back at the thing.
"How's Lora?"
It didn't move or respond to Steve's question.
"Is she nearby? Or did you come here yourself?"
Again, no reaction.
"What? Did you come here to watch me sleep or something? I thought you came here to communicate but I guess not, so what the fuck you want?"
Steve began releasing a small portion of his own energy from his body causing himself glow and pushing away the darkness in the room.
As he did this, the creature finally started speaking.
"H e r o X a v i e r. Y o u h a v e c o m e f o r L y l a."
"Yeah."
Upon hearing that, the creature in the corner started violently shaking.
Its entire figure shook and convulsed rapidly making its body seem to blur.
It continued trembling until it eventually distorted and seemed to glitch out of reality and completely disappeared.
The darkness dispersed and everything returned to normal.
All that was left was silence.
"The fuck…? Why'd that thing come here just to say one sentence all dramatically and leave?"
That thing that Steve just spoke to was a creature he had seen before.
Boogeyman.
Lora's original familiar.
Most summoners and tamers typically have familiars such as wolves, griffins, dragons or etc.
But Lora was special in this regard, she didn't tame the typical fantasy creatures, instead she tamed creatures of horrors.
Boogeyman.
Wendigo.
Leviathan.
Cthulhu.
Basically, terrifying creatures of mythical and urban legend that had not been confirmed to exist.
Even Steve recognized these names.
It was something that had bothered Steve, not that these scary monsters existed, but the fact that he recognized their names.
This was a different world from Earth. A fantasy world.
So how come creatures and monsters from the stories on Earth exist in this world?
You would think that if a completely separate world unrelated to Earth were to exist, it'd have a ton of monsters that we wouldn't have even imagined, right?
But weirdly, a lot of the monsters in this world are things that also exist in Earth's fiction.
Which made Steve wonder, is this truly a separate world from Earth?
There has to be some sort of connection.
Is this world based on Earth's stories?
Or are Earth's stories based on this world?
Have there been other people like Steve who came to this world and returned to Earth and shared stories of the monsters?
A lot of questions like these had plagued Steve's mind when he first came to this world... now though, he just doesn't care anymore.
After Steve realized that no matter what world he was in, he was going to be miserable anyways, he stopped giving a fuck.
Putting aside the depresso expresso though, Steve was very confused right now.
The boogeyman just came out of nowhere, watched Steve sleep for who knows how long before being caught, said one sentence, and then left.
But the odd part was that it seemed to know who Steve was, or at least his hero identity.
"Why is this getting so complicated. Tsk. I'm going to need to do some investigating it seems."
After meeting the Boogeyman though, he got a headache and suddenly felt tired with all this shit.
Steve dragged his body back into bed and forced himself to sleep by using his magic to block the flow of oxygen to his brain, immediately knocking him unconscious.
The next day he woke up with a severe migraine, a typical morning for Steve.
Using his spatial inventory magic, he pulled out a cup of coffee he had prepared and a new fresh set of clothes.
After the drink and changing, he left his room to figure out what to do.
He made his way to the neighborhood and started spying on Lora from afar.
She was currently in her house sleeping.
"I feel like a creep doing this, watching a random girl who doesn't know me, sleep."
Steve set up a little chair on the grass he was on and sat down to continue observing the situation.
At the same time, he was trying to figure out what his next move was going to be.
His conclusion was that:
"I have no idea what to do."
Steve truly had no ideas in his head.
Lora didn't know who he was so he can't even try convincing her. She'd think Steve was a madman if he suddenly talked about being a hero and needing her help to take down an evil man.
What the fuck was he supposed to do then?
Kidnap her?
"Wait… Kidnap her?"
Steve's eyes slightly widened at the idea.
"Just kidding haha! I may not be a hero, but I don't go around stealing children, right?"
A bead of sweat slowly slid down his face as he pushed that idea away.
He enhanced his eyes and continued spying on Lora from afar.
However, she was still sleeping.
"Hm, this is kinda boring."
It was still pretty early though so not surprising that she hasn't woken up yet.
Looking around her room, it looked very ordinary and normal… except for the monster hiding under her bed.
After visiting him last night, the boogeyman returned back to its master's side, dutifully watching over her from the dark undersides of the bed.
This gave Steve a bit of a chuckle.
On Earth, there were many stories about monsters living under children's beds but Steve had never seen any.
To think that in a fantasy world after death, he would get to see it, and he would even get to speak to that very monster.
It was just slightly funny to him.
However now, the monster remained still and dormant while Lora was sleeping so there was nothing else to see here.
Steve used a bit of magic to stare straight through the walls, allowing him to see everything happening in the house.
In the kitchen, there was a lady washing the dishes, presumably Lora's mother.
Past that in the living room, there was an older looking man, likely Lora's father, sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer in hand.
Upon seeing his, Steve just muttered to himself under his breath:
"God, I wish I had some beer on me…"
Unfortunately, when he checked his spatial inventory this morning, there weren't any left.
Pethnor must've removed it before the trip.
He could go buy beer at the tavern, but it tastes like shit compared to the ones he had prepared.
Steve made a mental note to himself to complain the next time he sees Pethnor.
For now though, he just sat there on his fold up chair watching Lora's house.
Suddenly as Steve was mindlessly staring, the father who had been drinking beer in the living room started shouting something.
"LORA?! WHERE ARE YOU!?!?"
Lora, who had been sleeping in her room, jumped out of bed upon hearing it and rushed out of her room.
"Y-yes father?"
She frantically scrambled to her father's sides.
His father raised the beer bottle in his hand and smashed it on Lora's shoulder.
"Back when I was in the army, if you slept even a minute past 6, you'd be beat and left to starve for the day! Now go get me another fucking beer."
Lora nodded her head as she struggled to stand up from the ground after she had fallen, cut wounds scattered over her body and drenched in whatever beer was remaining in the bottle.
"Yes father… right away…"
She used her surroundings to support her weak legs as she scuttered off to find another beer bottle for her father.
Steve frowned as he watched this from afar.
"Ah. I see how it is now. Typical shitty family, huh?"
Steve shook his head as he pitied Lora.
Back on Earth, Steve had seen many situations and cases like this, especially after the war.
Many soldiers who had suffered in the war would vent their trauma on unrelated family members and would often abuse substances.
It wasn't uncommon, but still tragic nonetheless.
Steve was tempted to just go in and beat the shit out of them, but he decided not to.
For one, he wasn't too worried about Lora.
He knew Lora was bound to become one of the world's most powerful heroes, and currently, she has a monster hiding in her shadows, protecting her.
Even if someone tried to murder her, they wouldn't be able to with her monster protecting her.
Not only that, but Steve had personal experience dealing with these situations. Back on Earth, he took care of many orphans and dealt with many of these cases.
He knew that recklessly getting involved can make things worse for the victim.
As long as the abusers are still in control of them, any conflicts or accusations will only cause them to vent their anger and frustration on the victim even more.
For now, he decided to just watch.
He needed more time and information on the situation before he could make a decision on what to do.
Back in the house, Lora limped into the kitchen where her mother was.
"M-mama… can you grab the beer for me…?"
Lora asked as she opened the refrigerator, unable to reach the top shelf where the beer was stored.
The mother slowly turned to her and nodded.
"…sure…"
The mother reached over and handed Lora a bottle, before looking away again quickly.
Steve shook his head again upon seeing this.
The mother looked pale and sad, subtle bags under her eyes.
She probably wasn't treated too well by her husband, though judging from how they look, Lora took most of the abuse.
With Lora around, most of the abuse would be focused on her instead of the mother.
That's probably why Lora's mother won't stand up for her.
An all-too-common case in domestic abuse, he had seen it before and he's seeing it again.
Lora handed the beer to her father and then stood there awkwardly, hoping he wasn't mad.
The father immediately started gulping it down as he munched on some bread and cheese.
"What? Stop staring at me. Go away."
Luckily for Lora, her father must've been satisfied with what he was doing so he just shooed her away without getting violent.
Lora retreated back to her dark and unlit room, sitting at her desk as she began writing on some papers and books spread across the table.
She seemed to be working on homework or something similar.
It was pretty boring to watch but Steve would rather be bored than the alternative of her getting beat.
Still, it was strange.
"Shouldn't a kid her age be going to school?"
Her family seems wealthy enough to afford education.
Today wasn't a weekend and he had seen students around the city, so she should be going to school at around this time.
Yet she didn't leave her room, much less her house at all.
Steve wanted to get a chance to talk to Lora alone, but if she doesn't leave her house, he wouldn't be able to do that.
"ALRIGHT LORA! Time for class."
Lora's room door burst open as her father staggered in, clearly drunk and still had beer in his hand.
"Open up your book and uh, hic… show me what the fuck you've been doing, or whatever."
He slammed his beer bottle down onto the desk as he loomed over Lora's shoulder staring down at her papers and books.
"The… the homework thing. Did you fucking do it yet?"
He roughly grabbed the books on Lora' desk and stared at it.
"WRONG! YOU CAN'T EVEN SOLVE SOMETHING SO SIMPLE?!?!"
He grabbed Lora's hair and yanked her head up, shoving it into the book.
"I'VE TAUGHT YOU THIS SO MANY TIMES! FIRST YOU ADD THE 3 WITH THE 4… Hm? Oh wait… You got the answer right, I must've seen wrong. Didn't think a retard like you could actually solve it."
He let go of her hair and threw her back onto the chair.
Lora didn't cry or scream at all during this, she remained quiet and let her father do whatever he wanted.
She was used to it and knew resisting only made it hurt more.
"This is hard to watch." Steve muttered to himself.
He had seen such victims before but rarely had he seen the actual abuse happening itself.
Steve's urge to kidnap Lora suddenly reemerged.
Her family was shit anyways, so even if he kidnapped her, she'd just be taken out of a bad situation.
Kidnap might actually be the best option here…
"Nah, I can't do that. Even if I know her situation, kidnapping her would only make me look like the bad guy."
Steve went silent for a moment.
"Wait a second, I don't consider myself a hero. Since when did I care about being bad? Should I actually just go in there, beat the shit out of them and just take her?"
After a bit of serious pondering though, he decided not to.
"That's a stupid idea. It'd probably only make her less likely to cooperate. I don't even know if she would want to be kidnapped. Kidnapping her would only make her more afraid and confused. It could also end up changing her future to becoming a hero somehow. I've also only watched her for a few hours, so I don't really know her full situation, I could make things worse if I do something stupid…"
It was frustrating but he decided it would be wise to observe for a while longer.
Lora's father sat his fat alcoholic ass down next to her and started scribbling something into the notebook.
"Let's just start today's lesson and get it over with already…"
It seemed the reason why Lora wasn't at school was because she's homeschooled by her father.
Well, that would actually imply that her father actually taught her anything.
Throughout the next several hours, her father would just constantly insult and abuse her whenever she made any mistakes.
The only thing that Lora learned was how to take hits.
"That's it for today brat, I'll be back for our night lessons later."
Her father finally stood up and left the room, probably to get more beer since he had run out.
Lora was finally given some peace by herself… and the monster under her bed who had been watching the entire time.
"Why the hell did it not do anything this whole time? Isn't it Lora's pet? Why the fuck didn't it defend its master… unless Lora doesn't want it to help her?"
Steve just grumbled as he kept his thoughts to himself.
He continued watching but nothing else happened, his father passed out drunk in the living room so at least Lora was safe.
And slowly, the sun started going down and it was becoming night again.
An absolutely unproductive day, all Steve did was watch a kid get bullied by their father.
Steve still had no idea what he was going to do, but he didn't want to keep watching this.
As he was about to stand up and leave, he noticed Lora's stepfather enter Lora's room again.
Steve groaned.
Just give her a fucking break already man.
You've been beating her all day already, just go to sleep like the old retired miserable fuck you are.
"Time for your… night lessons, Lora dear."
Her father chuckled, before slowly moving to the window, looking around a bit before then closing the blinds.
This wasn't a problem to Steve though since he could just see through the wall itself.
However, Steve suddenly felt an ominous feeling watching this.
He had a very bad feeling…
It was at this point that Lora's father started unbuckling his belt and dropped his pants.
Steve's eyes widened.
After slowly removing his clothes, Lora's father crawled onto her bed as she just watched from the corner.
Lora seemed scared… but not surprised.
Almost as if this has happened before.
"Come here to daddy, girl."
Lora's father grabbed her arm and started to…
Steve closed his eyes.
He had no intention of watching what was about to happen.
He took a deep breath in and took a deep breath out.
In and out…
After calming himself, Steve made his way towards the entrance to Lora's house.
When he made it there, he raised his fist and politely knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" A woman's voice called from inside.
Steve heard the doorknob start to shake, but before the door could open, Steve punched straight through it and planted his fist deep into the face of whoever was on the other side.
The woman screamed and was sent flying back as Steve raised his foot and kicked the door in.
The door exploded with shards bursting everywhere like a shrapnel bomb.
Steve slowly walked into the house, observing his surroundings and ignoring the injured screaming woman.
The wooden planks under him creaked loudly as he took big heavy steps forward towards the room which he was watching into earlier.
"Wha? What's going on?!"
The door burst open as a half naked man, Lora's father, stepped out from one of the rooms hearing the commotion.
Steve stared at his target and slowly made his way towards the man.
"Hey! Who are you?! If you don't know, I'm Joseph! A former knights captain! If you dare to do anything, I'll have you captu-"
Steve immediately threw forth a fist, breaking the sound barrier and smashed Joseph's face in.
He made sure to grind his knuckles in to deal extra pain.
Lora's father… that fucker, was sent flying back and smashed through the wall.
Steve wasn't done yet though, and he slowly stepped forward.
That punch was strong enough to kill a normal person, but luckily… or I guess, unluckily for Joseph, he was a strong trained knight and managed to just barely survive that.
Of course, if Steve had been using his heroic powers, Joseph's head would no longer exist… but he didn't use it.
Because Steve was beyond furious.
And if not for that stupid promise he made to Pethnor, that stupid little condition that he gave himself to not use his powers while he was anger… he would've fucking pulverised Joseph until not even his dust would be alive.
As Steve took another step forward, something blocked his path causing him to freeze.
"P-please! Don't… don't hurt my daddy!"
Lora was the one stopping him.
"What? You're… defending him? After everything he's done to you?!"
"My… my daddy loves me, so don't hurt him…!"
Lora was terrified, tears pouring down her face as she stood her ground.
Steve was momentarily taken aback.
He understood if Lora didn't defend herself from her father… but why would she actively protect him?
Steve just couldn't understand why she was doing this.
"Get out of my way Lora."
Steve didn't know and he didn't care.
He was going to kill her father.
"NO! PLEASE!!"
She grabbed Steve's legs and tried dragging him away, of course, to no avail.
"My… my daddy, he's all I have! Please! Don't hurt him!!"
"GET OUT OF MY WAY DAMN IT!"
Steve shook his leg violently to get her off, but when she didn't let go, he… hit her.
While in his rage, Steve accidentally used too much force and launched Lora into a wall nearby.
"I… didn't mean to do that…"
Thankfully, he was not using his hero's powers, and the boogeyman had protected Lora from any major damage.
Steve felt extremely guilty but there was something more important he had to deal with.
As he turned back to search for Joseph's body, he felt something stab into his rib.
"How do you like that you damn intruder!" Joseph shouted as he backed away, hoping this would scare Steve off.
Steve looked down and yanked out the knife that had been embedded in him.
"Next time, aim for the neck. Because that's where I'll be shoving it into you."
Steve gripped the knife in his hand and walked towards Joseph again.
"Y-you… stay back! Stay back!! What do you want?! Money?"
Steve didn't bother entertaining him and just kept walking, knife in hand.
But before he could reach Joseph, he was tackled onto the ground by several people.
"Put the weapon down!"
Several guards had arrived and pinned Steve to the ground.
It seemed that Lora's mother had run off and called the guards while all this was happening.
"You're surrounded! Give up!"
But Steve was still fuming.
"YOU BOYS BETTER FUCKING HOLD ME DOWN, CUZ IF I FUCKING GET OFF THIS FLOOR, I'LL TEAR OFF THAT FUCKTARDS CHILD SIZED DICK AND SHOVE IT SO FAR UP HIS DAMN ASS HE'LL KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO DEEPTHROAT HIMSELF IN REVERSE!"
Steve clenched the knife in his hand and chucked it as hard as he could towards Joseph, slicing off an ear but not managing to inflict anything fatal.
The guards quickly swarmed and dragged Steve away, all the while tending to the wounded.
Today, that fucker may have gotten off free… but Steve would be back.
For now though, he was tossed into a jail cell.
"Well… this is awkward. Didn't think I'd be seeing you again, especially not like this."
As Steve stared up from behind bars, he saw the same guard that had given him directions to Lora's house yesterday.
"Oh, hey," Steve just mumbled angrily in response.
"You caused quite a ruckus I heard."
"Yeah, did you guys know what that piece of shit does to his daughter?"
The guard shrugged.
"Listen man, Joseph… he's a rough man, always has been. Part of being a knight captain and all. Now, I'm sure he hits Lora a bit, but who's old man hasn't? I remember my old pa used to beat my ass so often… I miss that old bugger. Doesn't mean you can go in and try to kill him though."
"He tried to rape his daughter."
"What?"
There was silence for a moment.
"Well… um, I can't say since I don't know but maybe Lora wanted it? I know she loves her father very much after all, she even protected him while you were attacking him. Are you sure she was against it?"
"Huh? THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?"
Steve stood up and grabbed the guard by the collar.
"Did you just say that Lora, a literal child, happily agreed to doing it with their old ugly alcoholic father???"
"H-hey man! Like I said, I don't know! I wasn't there, I don't know if she agreed to it or not!"
Steve just pushed the guard away and sat back down.
"Fucking forget it…"
"Listen man, calm down. I'll um, I'll be back in a bit to check up on you. I don't think you're a bad guy, but you definitely look like one, so might wanna calm down." The guard said before leaving Steve alone to his thoughts.
Steve tried to listen to the advice and calm himself down.
The guard's response pissed Steve off so much, but it wasn't surprising either.
This world Steve currently lives in… it's primitive.
Yeah, there's magic and technology that surpasses modern society, but it's very far behind when it comes to many things.
Such as the fact it doesn't have any child protection laws.
People aren't educated on child safety.
Children are basically treated the same way adults are.
So yes, while Steve wanted to strangle the guard, he knew the guard's way of thinking wasn't uncommon in this world.
"Yeah, I see why Pethnor became a demon lord now. Some people in this world have got to go. It's so much easier to be a demon lord than a hero."
Steve just grumbled to himself as he had no idea what his plans were.
His first step was to calm himself down so he could start using his powers and break out of this prison…
Steve regret applying that condition onto himself so much, when he gets back, he's planned on complaining to Pethnor so much.
But as he was mentally sending complaints to Pethnor, some time passed and a boy appeared in front of his cage.
"Sup." The boy greeted casually.
"And who are you?"
Steve wasn't in the mood to entertain some random kid, so he tried to shoo the boy away.
"I'm the person who's gonna get you out of here. Out of this cell that is."
As the boy said that, a guard walked in with a pair of keys in his hands and unlocked Steve's cell.
"You're free to go chump, don't go causing any more trouble. You're lucky that Mr. Lewis's son here is vouching for you, otherwise you'd be in this cage for much longer."
The guard turned away and left, leaving Steve and the boy alone.
"You just going to stay in there, or you wanna come out and have a walk with me?" The boy said as he too, turned around to leave the building.
Steve followed along.
He wasn't sure what this boy was up to, but Steve figured he'd play along for a bit.
"What's your name kid?"
"I'm Bradley. You?"
"Steve. You got me out of jail without even knowing my name?"
Bradley just shrugged.
"I guess so. Knowing your name wasn't that important, but it's nice to meet you Steve."
Bradley extended his hand.
As they shook hands, Steve took a careful look at him.
He seemed to be an ordinary teenage boy, slightly pale and subtle bags under his eyes, but nothing worth noting.
Although strangely, the boy did look vaguely familiar, almost as if he had seen him recently.
After their handshake, they left the building, Bradley in front with Steve following behind.
Steve had a lot of questions to ask but he took it slow and asked a basic question first.
"So Bradley, care to explain? How'd you get me out of there? I was imprisoned for some pretty serious crimes, home invasion and attempted murder… can't imagine it'd be easy to get me out."
Bradley just scratched his head. "Well, my dad's rich. He basically funds this entire city and everyone knows that. That means I get a lot of privileges for being his son. Just by vouching for you, and a little bit of money, it wasn't too hard to get you out."
Steve nodded; he knew firsthand the power that money held so he didn't doubt it.
Still, that answers the how, but not the why.
"I'll get straight to the point, why'd you get me out of there? You don't even know me."
"I heard about what you did last night, broke into Sir Joseph's house. Injured his wife and his daughter, and nearly killed the man himself. Yeesh."
"I didn't mean to hurt Lora, her father was the one I was after."
"Oh, I know. I know why you did it."
"You know…?"
"Yeah. You were trying to help Lora right?"
Steve was surprised.
He didn't expect Bradley to actually know.
From everyone else's perspective, Steve's actions should've looked completely violent, as if he were trying to attack the entire family.
Steve did mention Lora when talking to the guard earlier but it shouldn't have been enough for someone to confidently assume his motive.
And yet, Bradley seemed to confidently know that Steve was helping Lora…
"You're the first adult I've seen to have stepped in and try to help her. Most people turn their heads when they notice what happens to her."
"So you were also aware of her situation then, yet you didn't help her at all?"
Bradley's gaze fell as he looked down with shame.
"I've tried to, but there's only so much I can do for her. I'm still just a kid, and her father is a former knight's captain. People respect him, and he knows important people. He's basically immune to the law. And not only that, Lora herself refuses to be helped as well… but in the end, those were all excuses. I couldn't help her in any significant way. I'm just like everyone else. But not you! I was so amazed to see you actually do something. I knew someone like you didn't belong in a cell."
"Don't think too highly of me, I'm not as good of a person as you think I am. I also watched her be abused for a while without helping. But the worst thing is I even accidentally hurt her myself."
Steve recalled the moment last night as Lora clung to his legs while crying.
He couldn't even control himself and ended up hurting her.
Steve was extremely disappointed in himself.
"Yeah, what you did wasn't good… but it was an accident, and you hitting her once is better than what her father was going to do."
"You sure do know a lot about her situation. And you care for her too. Are you her friend?"
Bradley hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly.
"Friend? I guess you could call us that. Her father won't allow her to have actual friends, but sometimes she sneaks out and we've kind of hung out together. It's not much, but I try to comfort her when I can."
"Well, at least you cared enough to help in your own way, unlike most of the useless cunts in this city."
"I guess so… it's more mutually beneficial though. We understand each other and hanging out with her helps me too."
"Hey… you're not also being abused by your dad by any chance, are you?"
Bradley was slightly surprised by that question, but immediately shook his head.
"Nope, my dad loves me a lot. He would never intentionally hurt me…"
Steve let out a quiet breath of relief when he confirmed that Bradley wasn't lying with his heroic insight.
He was glad that he doesn't have to deal with yet another abusive family.
With that out of the way, Steve decided to change the topic.
"I forgot to ask earlier, but how'd you know that I was trying to help Lora from her father?"
"Oh. The guards told me."
"…"
Bradley wasn't telling the truth.
His answer didn't seem likely to Steve.
First of all, the guards hadn't interrogated Steve yet, so they didn't know his motives for certain.
They shouldn't have been able to confidently conclude that Lora was the motive, and as such, it'd be strange for them to tell Bradley that.
It was extremely subtle, but despite his very quick and nonchalant reply, Steve could sense that Bradley was hiding something.
If not for Steve's enhanced perception, he might've missed it, but Bradley seemed to have flinched upon his question.
His eyes darted around and almost seemed like he was looking at someone, or something.
But Steve didn't detect anything odd around them.
They were walking along the streets so there were passersby but no one suspicious, or that Bradley could have been specifically looking at.
Why would Bradley lie though?
It was such a strange thing to not be honest about.
Still, Steve didn't pry further.
Although Bradley was suspicious, he seemed genuine when he was talking about Lora.
Everyone has their circumstances after all and it's not like it was an important question anyways.
"We've been walking for a while now. Where are we going?" Steve asked to get the conversation back.
"Uh, nowhere really. I just wanted to talk to you. But I guess we are also going in the direction of my house though."
As they kept walking, Steve noticed that they had entered the same fancy neighbourhood that Lora house was.
'I guess it's not that strange that they live close together if they're friends. And Bradley did say his dad was rich so of course he'd live in one of these big houses.'
Steve turned to Bradley.
"Is that everything you wanted to talk to me about then? Because I should probably leave before Lora or her family sees me with you."
"I guess so. I didn't really plan this out to be honest. I just wanted to help you since it'd be like as if I was indirectly helping Lora…"
"Yeah, thanks. Don't worry, you were more than helpful. I was hesitant before, but I think meeting and talking with you has convinced me to do what I need to do."
"I believe… you can help Lora."
"I will."
Steve replied firmly, before turning away and waving his hand.
"Cya Bradley."
Bradley watched as Steve walked into the distance, hoping that he would succeed in what he does and that Lora would finally get the help she deserved.
With a sigh, Bradley also turned away and walked towards his home, thinking about Lora and Steve.
As Bradley's house came into view, he saw that there was a man sitting on the porch.
When the man spotted Bradley approaching, he rushed over.
"Bradley, you're back! Where'd you go? You were gone for so long!"
The man grabbed Bradley and hugged him, before being quickly pushed off as Bradley stepped back.
"Sorry… there was something I wanted to do. I thought I'd get home before you would, so I didn't bother telling you."
"Oh, that's alright. I was just a little worried, but all is fine. Let's go inside for dinner, Bradley. I'll even get your mom from the basement. She'll want to join us for dinner."
Bradley flinched as the man grabbed his hand and guided him into their house.
Bradley was led into the kitchen and was sat down on a chair.
"I got us some food from the market, you can sit down and start eating. Your mother's almost ready, I'll bring her up in a bit."
The man went into the basement and closed the door behind him.
"Remember Bradley, no peeking!"
After the man said that, Bradley could hear groaning from the basement, and then some chopping noises before everything went silent.
The man opened the basement door and came out carrying Bradley's mother on his back.
"Here she is! All right, now let's sit down and eat dinner together as a family!"
The man sat down on the opposite side of the dining table, setting down Bradley's mother on the chair next to them.
"Well, lets dig in shall we!"
The man grabbed some of the table on the food and started eating, while Bradley just sat there staring at it.
"Hm? What's wrong Bradley? Why are you not eating? Is the food not to your taste?"
"No, I'm just not hungry. Plus, mother's not eating either."
"Aw, you won't grow big and strong if you don't eat. Your mother's already a full-grown adult so she doesn't need as much food, isn't that right dear?"
The man nudged his wife's shoulder
However, she did not respond.
Bradley's mother merely groaned as her face drooped down.
Suddenly, her eyeball fell out of its socket and splashed into the soup ball.
Her entire body abruptly just collapsed headfirst onto the table, spilling and making a mess of all the food.
"Aw shit! My bad Bradley, looks like this batch was no good. I can't believe I ruined our family dinner."
The man face-palmed and picked up Bradley's mom, slinging her over his shoulder
"I'll have her fixed up, I'm so sorry you had to see that. You mind going back to your room while I clean this up?" The man asked before heading back to the basement.
"Sure…"
Bradley mumbled to himself as he stood up and started heading upstairs to his room.
Before he could make it far though, a hand was placed on Bradley's shoulder.
Bradley turned around to look at the man, who loomed over him, staring down at his face.
The man slowly leaned down, bringing his face closer, before kissing Bradley's forehead.
"Good night, Bradley. Your mother and I love you."
"I know dad. You have a good night too."
Bradley pushed his father away and hurried back up to his room, closing the door behind him and let out a long deep breath.
He sat down on the edge of his bed and just stared out his window, sitting there in silence for hours, watching the sun sink below the horizon as the fog of night started to rise.
Even though his body was physically tired, Bradley's mind was whirling with thoughts of what happened.
Despite knowing he wouldn't be able to fall asleep, he laid down onto his bed, resting his head on the pillow and just let his eyes close.
It was a brief moment of rest that he knew wouldn't last long.
Eventually, he started hearing some noises around him.
Scratching and heavy breathing started to grow louder as they creeped closer to all sides of his bed.
And the air grew colder carrying the smell of rotting flesh.
Out of nowhere, something grabbed Bradley's foot and started pulling him off the bed.
Bradley's eyes popped open.
"Don't worry… I'm not sleeping. I'm awake, I'm just thinking."
Bradley stood up, kicking away the severed hand that had latched onto his foot, and stared at the sight before him.
Blood dripped from his ceiling as the dozen or so corpses surrounding his bed just stared at him.
Well, some of them didn't have heads, much less eyes, to be looking at him.
Most of them were just severed body parts and broken limbs strung together by random organs or intestines, but they seem to at least be looking in Bradley's direction.
One of the smaller looking corpses, a child looking one that has its head split open, started making loud screeching noises.
Bradley started patting the exposed brain of the child to calm it down.
"I know, I'm worried for Lora too. That's what I've been thinking about…"
The other corpse shook in response, splashing blood everything, and letting out low guttural moans.
Bradley let out a sigh.
"I just hope he can help her. Steve seemed different from the others, so maybe he can do what I can't."
The corpses all moved closer to him, almost touching him.
Bradley didn't respond to their movement and just muttered to himself.
"I wonder what Steve is doing now…"
As Bradley was contemplating this, Steve was currently in the process of kidnapping Lora.
Steve had waited until night, and then applied a stealth ability on himself to sneak into Lora's house.
He had made up his mind to kidnap Lora.
"Those shit stains should be asleep now so I don't think they'll notice anything. Now I need to find the girl and get out."
Steve walked around the house, noticing the damage and destruction he had caused the last time he was here.
He ignored all that and barged into Lora's room.
However, no sign of Lora.
Activating his energy senses, Steve searched through the walls and detected a small quivering life form huddled in the bathroom.
He made his way there, breaking the lock and entering the bathroom forcefully.
There, on the floor, was Lora, beaten up and drenched.
She was shivering, clutching the torn rags that were covering her body.
Her ears were still ringing so she barely even noticed Steve come in, and her eyes were bruised enough to prevent her from seeing him.
Steve looked over and saw the boogeyman kneeling on the toilet seat, staring down at Lora with its big beady eyes.
"Hey, I'm going to kidnap your master. You better not stop me."
It didn't respond.
Steve focused back on Lora.
He grabbed her entire head by the palm of his head, and directly injected vast amounts of heroic energy into her.
With the amount of power being poured into her, she began to softly glow as her wounds healed.
"Wh-wha…?"
Before she could even stutter out a full word, Steve lifted her up and shoved her into a bag he had brought with him and tied it shut.
He could feel her struggling and trying to rip her way out, but the bag itself had been reinforced with his magic and wouldn't tear so easily.
The only one present who could even potentially damage it was the boogeyman, but it just silently followed behind as Steve left the building.
"Fuck, I just realized. Not only did I not solve the missing child cases, I contributed to it."
Steve grumbled to himself as he made his way to an abandoned house he had scouted out a few hours prior.
Once inside, he locked the door behind him and then untied the bag containing the child.
Lora stared back up at Steve with wide teary eyes, trembling in fear.
"Hey Lora…" Steve awkwardly greeted.
Lora immediately threw her hands forward and flailed them around randomly in an attempt to defend herself.
When she realized she wasn't doing anything to him, Lora frantically looked around the room until she spotted the boogeyman in the corner, who had followed Steve here.
"S-sir Monster! Please h-help me! Send… send this bad man away!"
For a while, Steve had the idea that maybe Lora wasn't even aware that the boogeyman existed by her side since he hadn't seen her give it any commands, but this confirmed that wasn't true.
Steve turned to look at it.
"So what're you going to do booger man. You going to listen to your master and send me away?"
The boogeyman remained still.
It knew its place.
"Sir monster…? Why… why won't you… hic…"
Lora's face twisted in despair as she realized her only hope wasn't helping her.
"I know you're scared, but I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you."
Steve attempted to soothe her but it didn't seem to be working.
"G-get away from me! Please! I… I want to go home! Sob… please don't hurt me…"
She got on her knees and began crawling away, trembling like a leaf.
Steve didn't get closer as he knew she was terrified.
"Please listen to me. I'm not going to hurt you like your father. In fact, I am here to save you from him."
"My daddy protects me from bad people like you!"
"Your father hurts you. He's not protecting you. He's the one you need protection from."
"My daddy told me that the world is a bad place! Bad men like you would capture me… they'd lock me up forever and do whatever they'd want with me, and that it'd hurt a lot… a lot more than I can even imagine. Much more than my daddy's love…"
Steve could feel his anger rising.
"What the fuck has your father told you…"
Steve didn't disagree with Lora's father.
There were definitely bad people who would do that.
But a kid shouldn't be hearing about this in this much detail, much less as a way to justify abuse.
She's been manipulated into believing and relying only on her father.
Basically, she's been brainwashed.
"Fuck… maybe if I give her some food and water, she'll calm down…? I don't know, how the hell do I deal with kids. Boogey bitch, you got any ideas to help calm your master?"
The boogeyman just stared back.
"Tch, don't know what I expected."
Steve glanced over to Lora who crawled next to the boogeyman, hugging and grabbing onto its leg tightly like it was her last lifeline.
"Can you at least comfort her?"
This time, the boogeyman raised its arm and wrapped it around Lora, patting the back of her head gently.
Its limbs coiled around her body, forming almost a defensive shell against the world, keeping her safe inside.
Lora eventually exhausted herself and fell asleep.
"Thanks boogeyman… I will admit, you're not bad. Somehow a more decent person than her fucking father. I'm glad she had you protecting her."
Steve collapsed on a chair and let out a long sigh.
He stared at the ceiling as he just thought about what to do.
If he were to forcefully bring her back to Pethnor's castle, no doubt she'd break down and despise everyone.
He needed Lora's trust so he could help her.
But as of right now, Lora probably thought of him as a very bad man who beat up her parents and kidnapped her in the middle of the night.
Gaining her trust would be hard…
What if he used the boogeyman to vouch for him, could that work?
Knock. Knock.
Steve immediately went on alert.
This place was abandoned and no one should know he's here, yet someone's knocking on the front door.
"…"
But upon recognizing who the person knocking was, Steve relaxed.
He walked over and unlocked the door, allowing the person to come in.
"Bradley, what the fuck are you doing here?"
"Hey."
Bradley waved his hand as he looked past Steve's shoulder and saw Lora sleeping.
"Seems you went and did it… you took her."
"Yeah, I'm a kidnapper now. You going to tell the guards?"
Bradley shook his head.
"Of course not."
"How'd you know I was here anyways? I never told you about any of this…"
"Oh. Um… I saw you through my window and followed you."
Bradley was lying.
And Steve knew that. However, he didn't really care since he had better things to worry about.
"Well, since you're here, could you help me talk to Lora? Since you're her friend and all."
"Yeah, that's why I'm here."
Bradley walked past Steve and crouched down next to Lora before softly shaking her shoulder.
"Hey Lora… wake up."
"Mnm…?"
Lora's eyes fluttered open as she slowly looked up at Bradley.
"Oh, h-hi…"
That's when she saw Steve standing behind and remembered everything that had happened.
"Ah! B-Bradley! Were you kidnapped too?! Oh no…!"
Before she could freak out though, Bradley put a hand on her shoulder.
"No Lora, calm down… I came here myself. The man behind me, his name is Steve. He wants to help you. From your dad."
"Help me…? Why? My daddy loves me…"
"I know that. But not everyone does. When other people see your dad hit you, they don't know and think he's hurting you. Steve is one of those people. He wants you to not be hurt."
"I… I don't know… I just want to go home…"
"I know, but if it's hard to trust Steve, trust me at least. And your monster friend. We all want to help you."
"Okay…"
Bradley smiled softly.
"I promise you'll be safe here, right Steve?"
"Yeah. It's fine if you don't trust me yet, but I won't hurt you."
Lora nodded and seemed to at least have accepted her situation.
Bradley got up and moved over to Steve's side so they could talk privately.
"So, what's the plan now? Just going to take her away from her family forever?"
"I'll be honest, I don't fucking know. I just kidnapped her because the longer she's in that house, the more pain she'll go through. I don't know what I intend on doing with her yet, and it doesn't help she still believes she's the safest at her father's side."
Bradley nodded, falling into thought for a moment.
"By the way Steve, how do you know Lora? You seem to know her, but she doesn't seem to know you."
"It's complicated. If I said it, you'd think I were insane. But the gist is she's an important person. And I came to find her, only to find her in this situation."
"Important?"
"Yeah."
Steve pointed over to the boogeyman next to Lora.
"She's got a special ability. That thing over there is proof of it. You also knew about it, didn't you?"
"I did, but I didn't think that it was so special…"
"Well, most kids don't usually have horrifying monsters protecting them."
Bradley didn't respond.
"She'll eventually get more of those monsters and she'll become a worldwide powerhouse, but that's in the far future. Right now, she's just a kid."
"I've always wanted her to just live a normal happy life, but I guess being someone special is also pretty good."
Steve glanced over at Bradley, who was staring at Lora.
"I will say though, I'm a tad bit surprised you're just believing everything I say. You aren't doubtful at all how I'm talking about the future?"
"I… don't know why either. But I just feel like you're trustworthy…"
Steve sighed as he figured it was probably due to his passive hero abilities causing others to be more trusting of him.
He never liked how his hero abilities affected other people's minds, but in this case, getting Bradley's trust was very helpful.
"You should probably head back home Bradley. It's like midnight or something, so your parents might notice you're gone. I appreciate your help with Lora though. I'll try to slowly gain her trust and figure out what to do from here."
"Oh, sure. I guess I should… I'll come visit tomorrow."
Bradley made sure to say goodbye to Lora before leaving.