Lizzie closed her eyes, letting the swelling noise of an orchestra lull her into relaxation as her hands methodically loaded dirty clothes into the laundry mat washer. After two heart beats, she opened her striking green eyes to gaze around at the mindless people doing this stunningly boring chore as if the world want hopeless. But then her eyes landed on one familiar person, Billy. He was working just a few washers down from her, the same calm exterior on his dorky face but even to the side, Lizzie could see the repressed pain in his blue eyes.
Billy felt her eyes on him and glanced her way, a hateful look gracing his features. Lizzie averted her eyes and focused back on the music flowing from her earbuds. She heard the gossip, she wasn't dead despite how much she wanted to be. Billy had lost a crush of his to Captain Hammer-a has been deceitful "hero"-and then had been given news that he had let the girl die. A tragedy that no doubt has been what haunted him. Lizzie knew Billy only by gossip; they've never talked face to face before.
She had heard all about him when she had moved in, just six months after the rise of Dr. Horrible- the notorious villain that plagues the city-and stayed out of his way. The washer was loaded and Lizzie hopped up on the one next to hers, just watching the people pass by. There was an emptiness inside of her that had become familiar since her move, since her mothers death. It was an emotion that seemed to suck the joy out of everything she had once found fun but Lizzie found that the plague took away her will to care.
She was letting life slip her by in a boring hazes and didn't seem to care. People sympathized at first but then realized how truly emotionless she was and they become fearful. Eyes. The feeling of eyes burning into her head caused Lizzie to turn and meet blue eyes. Billy was watching her with an odd look as a brunette man talked quietly to him. Lizzie silently wondered as he held her gaze if he had heard the rumors of her. "Not human". "Freak".
Billy broke the look first and then exited quickly, leaving his clothes behind as he hurried after his friend. Lizzie let out a sigh that she couldn't hear over her symphonic music. A pang of..something startled her out of her daze and she hopped off of the washer to move both hers and Billy's clothes to dryers, intent on delivering his clothes.
It took Lizzie an hour to reach the two story house she shared with her best friend, Lucy. A small smile played on her face as she bumped open the plain wooden door that stemmed from the only happiness she has felt since...Lucy had been Lizzie's friend since third grade, a feat that Lizzie still can barely grasp, and had decided to let Lizzie move in after loosing her home three cities over. It was an odd arrangement that Lizzie was quite content with where Lizzie roomed with Lucy in her plain house with not so plain science experiments lounging around the home.
Lucy, decked in her monogrammed lab coat and thick rimmed glasses, looked up from a microscope hidden on the clutter on the kitchen table and grinned, lighting up her childish face. "Lizzie, you're back!"
"Hey, how's this whatever going?" Lizzie smiled softly back, relishing in her bit of happiness.
"Oh, wonderful! I'm very close to (lizard stuff)!" She replied cheerfully.
Lizzie giggled a bit, "that's great! Well, I have to go put laundry away but I'll be down in a moment, okay?"
"Okay. Hey, whose is that?" Lucy asked, brown eyes looking inquisitively at the extra basket of clothes Lizzie was juggling.
"A friend of mine left it at the laundry mat. " Lizzie answered off-handedly.
"You have a friend?"
Lizzie gave a mock glare at her friends tease before climbing carefully up the stairs towards her plain bedroom. She set the clothes on her neatly made grey bed and say next to them, staring at the brown wall. Without Lucy's smiling face and the music drowning out the thoughts in her head, Lizzie finally felt the utter meaningless of her current lifestyle. It wasn't like she chose to live this emotionless life, it just occurred after...
Lizzie was doing so well at repressing the memories but something today stopped her from keeping them all at bay. The images came in crystal clarity; the searing pain of burning skin, the wails of the woman who gave birth to her, the light fading out of eyes similar to her own, the desperate, trapped fluttering of her heart as she clawed her way out of a burning house. It was arson that caused her mothers house to burn, a teenager fulfilling a dare to fit in, and it was arson that killed her only family. Lizzie stood and blinked back angry tears, glaring at the mirror hanging in her door. Slowly, she unbuttoned her blouse until the harsh, red blisters glared back at her, causing all the bitter emotions inside of her to boil over.
Tears spilled over her pale cheeks for the first time in three years as she finally allowed herself to feel the hatred she tried so desperately to repress. A stupid teenager killed the closest person to her and gave her these scars! These scars that remind her every single day of the ache in her chest! He should be punished! But no, all he received was a night in jail with free food and a cot. Oh, how Lizzie wished she could make him feel her pain.
Lizzie was so caught up in her own turmoil that she didn't hear the commotion downstairs. Lucy was working diligently on her research when the door banged open to reveal a nasty looking Dr. Horrible in blood red clothes. He glared at her before entering, a single finger on his lips silencing any whimpers Lucy was attempting. "Quiet. Don't move, don't make a sound, and you won't get hurt. "
Lucy didn't believe him but did as he said, letting him come in and close the door behind him. He pulled back the blinds of a window slightly and cursed under his breath before setting down a silver suitcase labeled Amazeranium- do not drop. Lucy was shaking but slowly started inching towards the staircase, thinking if she could get to Lizzie that together they would be able to get out of this. But halfway there, the door was kicked off it's hinges and crashed into a wall, causing Lucy and Dr. Horrible to take cover as the house rattled ominously.
Lizzie felt the house move and threw on a t-shirt before racing down stairs to see a muscular man with luscious black hair and a red, white, and blue outfit. He took a look at her, winked, and then sauntered up to an annoyed looking Dr. Horrible. "Dr. Horrible."
"Colonel Justice Eagle Freedom." Dr. Horrible spat, inconspicuously trying to hide the silver suitcase.
Lizzie saw Lucy huddled behind an armchair and rushed over, whispering in a hush voice, "what's going on? Are you hurt?"
"No..." Lucy replied carefully, eyes never leaving the ruckus ensuing between villain and hero.
Lizzie pulled Lucy to her feet while watching Colonel J. E. F. smash Dr. Horrible's stun gun. The two women slowly inched their ways around the fighting people towards the gaping hole where the front door used to be. They had made it as far as the kitchen when Dr. Horrible yelled, "STOP!"
A large crash erupted as Colonel J. E. F. tore the silver suitcase from the super villain and carelessly tossed it towards the kitchen. The case broke open and a shimmering opal like vial shattered on the floor. A single beat past before a force so powerful sent every being in the house flying away from the element and the house exploded. Chemicals, carefully labeled and stored chemicals, splattered in the kitchen and covered the two women, causing Lizzie to black out and Lucy to screech in searing pain as she clutched at her face. Dr. Horrible picked himself up from torn debris to stand in shock at the two women and then to glare at an unhurt Colonel J. E. F.
"You idiot!" He shouted, unable to repress the flashbacks of that faithful day...
Colonel J. E. F. stared in disbelief while Dr. Horrible picked his way over to console Lucy until she was sobbing quietly. Sirens sounded in the distance and snapped Colonel out of his trance. He walked over to Dr. Horrible and picked him up by he scruff of his lab coat before throwing him to the side. Seeing Lizzie passed out, he picked her up just as the ambulances arrived. They ushered Lucy off and let that paparazzi take pictures of the heroic Colonel saving a damsel.
Dr. Horrible winced as he dragged himself up from the dirt and sulked away, not wanting to be in the press as all of the pain from...that day...slowly resurfaced as the still, dead look on the pale girl'a face replayed in his mind, overlapping with the only other death that broke his heart.