Being Superman
Hovering over the city was such a simple thing. It was the most peaceful place in the city, the only place where crime hadn't fully breached. Floating on my back, I closed my eyes and listened for signs of trouble in the city below. My hearing traveled through the city, around corners and through open doorways, past women carrying groceries or pushing baby carriages, it wove through crowds and skipped through theatres. My hearing was a hawk at one moment, a mouse another. The city was at rest, for now.
I continued floating in my spot, and the wind pushed me to wherever it saw fit. How nice it was to be reliant on something, instead of it being dependant on me. A relief really. A relief I rarely had, I was always saving something, or protecting someone. There was never peace for Superman. The world was not an easy place to save, with its constant unraveling oforder. The streets crawled with robbers, thieves, men with guns, murderers, physcopaths, villains, terrorists, and much more I couldn't name off the top of my head. And it was my duty to save earth from them all.
My image, to the earth, was that of an invincible god. Not of a person. Their expectations weighed down on me, a weight I carried wherever I went. It was there when I saved someone from a burning building, when I brought yet another criminal to the prison, or when I flew through the city. The weight was my second shadow, my second soul. It was so hard to keep up with their expectations, so hard to be the perfect hero they needed. And sometimes, when I lay in bed at night, a terror gripped me with its terribly cold hands, a cold that seeped into my very soul.
What if I failed?
What if I couldn't be the person they needed? What if I let the whole world down? What if I stopped reaching their expectations? Would they discard me, leave me as a once was? Would all the hope that they had built up disappear? Would it turn into disappointment? Would they reject me, and scorn me whenever I came to save them? Would everyone, even Lois, stop believing in me?
I would remain faithful. I knew that I would continue to try and save them, even though they turned me away. Even though the pain cut me like a knife, I would never leave them in their time of need. This was my job, the thing I was bound to do for as long as I lived. Even though no one knew what I endured, even though no one could ever know the strain I felt, I would always continue to protect and serve.
"Superman!!" A women's voice ripped through the air, waking me from my fear.
I soared through the air, flying to the person whose distress had pulled me from my thoughts. I brushed the troubling thoughts away, begging them to leave me until another time, when there was no one to save, no one to rescue. Looking down, I saw a burning building. Fire lept from the windows, trying to taste the free air. Air that was not crowded by its own kind. A woman was standing on the casement of a window, trying to escape from the hunger of the flames. I screeched through the air,pulling her from danger. A flawless rescue. As the woman breathlessly thanked me, I smiled, pretending to have the security and strength of someone more assured than me. My armor of deceipt pulled around me once more, protecting me from my outside fears.