Here's the end! I hope you enjoyed this story which kind of turned into a sequel for Torture at the end. Please give me more ideas-y'all have wonderful ones I never would have thought of.
Shout out the reader who writes reviews as "Natalie"- you are so kind and I really wish I could PM you to tell you how great you are!
I wrung my hands nervously in a towel backstage. I could hear indistinguishable chatter from the audience, and it made my stomach churn. We were all gathered behind the curtain, ready to walk on stage at any moment. I took a gulp of water from my bottle, and tugged at the ends of my leggings for the hundredth time, making sure that they were still straight.
Diana, the backstage manager, walked over to our group whilst talking on her headset. "Backstage ready. Lights ready?...Good. Let's get this show on the road!" she said into her mic. Diana turned to us. "We are ready when you are!" she announced.
"Let's do this!" Tony goofily exclaimed. Natasha and Bruce rolled their eyes. My family all began walking towards the edge of the giant red curtain, but I was frozen in place.
Clint walked up to me. He smiled and squeezed my shoulder. "You got this, Beth." he encouraged.
I let out a shaky breath. "Yeah?" I tried to reply confidently, but it sounded more like a question.
Clint chuckled. "Yeah." he nodded, and with that we lined up behind everyone, with me bringing up the rear.
"And...You're on!" Diana instructed, with a point to the audience. Tony lead the way, and soon I was exposed to the loud screams and too-bright lights I remembered from yesterday. But, as soon as I had made it about halfway across the stage, the audience started quieting down rapidly. As in, everybody in the room suddenly hushed as they noticed a seventh-and much smaller-person following their favorite team of superheroes. I swallowed.
I took my seat next to Clint at the end of the row. Now, hundreds of confused whispers filled the auditorium. Tony approached the podium with only a few awkward claps showing their appreciation, instead of the usual deafening roar of the crowd.
"Hello everyone! I can tell that you have noticed somebody new on our stage. Beth will be leading the presentation today, and after what you saw of her skills yesterday, I can tell you that you are in for something good. Beth?" he finished, and gestured for me to take his place.
I set down my water bottle and stepped up to the microphone, pulling it downward. I cleared my throat. "Hi." I awkwardly began, and chuckled to myself. A few people in the audience laughed. I was filled with a little more confidence. "I'm Beth. I'm a junior here, in case you didn't know. I want to tell you a little about an event in my life before we begin. Last semester, I wasn't in school for about a month and a half. I told everybody that I had mono. That...wasn't true."
I heard various murmurs from the crowd. I pressed on. "I had actually been kidnapped." I revealed, and many people gasped. "My connections with the Avengers made me the perfect object of revenge for a sociopath needing a way to get back at my family. I was tortured and beaten for information and kept in a cell with little food and water. I was then injected with the chemical DT-78X. It gave me super-human abilities, but I was under the complete control of the man who tortured me. I was forced to do horrible things, such as spit fire onto the walls and attack my own family. I barely made it out of the ordeal alive." I stopped for a moment, images flooding my mind. My cell, the bathroom window, the needles, the yellow haze. Joseph. I breathed deeply, calming the maelstrom of thoughts swirling in my head.
"After having the DT-78X extracted from my brain, I had a long recovery period and suffered from PTSD and depression, along with physically debilitating side effects. It took me nearly a month to get somewhat back to normal. I still have nightmares and occasional panic attacks." I explained, and swallowed the annoying lump in the bottom of my throat.
"I tell you this not to frighten you, but to make you understand. Self-defense is invaluable. If I had known more, I potentially could have prevented my kidnapping and torture. I hope that by the end of this week, you will have learned enough to at least escape an attempted abduction- something I truly wish I had been able to do." I stopped speaking for a moment, simply proud of myself that I had gotten through my speech without suffering a panic attack.
Suddenly, the entire audience stood and gave me a standing ovation. Students were cheering left and right-some even jumping up and down. I laughed in surprise-I didn't think my speech was particularly moving. I held up my hand in an effort to quiet down the auditorium-kind of like Tony did. Silence filled the room. I was in awe.
"Anyway, Today I want to go through some basic self-defense knowledge. Like, how to tell if you are being followed, and what to do if you are. Afterwards, I want to show you a few techniques to escape an attacker's grasp. This does not include roundhouse kicking them in the face..." I joked, and everybody laughed. I can totally do this.
I glanced at Steve. He had this smile on that clearly said "I'm gonna get you later for that...". I chuckled.
Diana walked onstage and handed me a microphone to pin to my tank top. I stepped out from behind the podium and walked to the center of the stage. I clasped my hands together. "Let's get started! The first and most important rule of self-defense: Trust your instincts. I cannot stress this enough. If I had trusted my gut that day, I might have found help sooner." I explained.
"Next: It's definitely better to be safe than sorry. If you think somebody is following you, get help. Don't feel embarrassed or foolish if it turns out nothing was wrong." I said.
"Now, who would like to be my first volunteer to practice a sequence?" I asked. I peered out into the crowd, and a million hands instantly shot up. I feigned indecision for a moment, and then picked a boy in the middle of row seven. "Row seven, blue shirt. Yeah, you." I said. All of his buddies clapped him on the back and he held up his arms.
He strutted up onto the stage and waved to everyone, completely hamming it up. I rolled my eyes. "Alright. What's your name?" I asked hands on my hips.
"Bryce." he answered confidently, and I swear he puffed out his chest.
"Well Bryce, meet Thor." I said, and my big brother got up from his seat and stood across from Bryce, towering above him by a good few inches. Bryce blanched, his bravado forgotten, and I smirked. "Thor and I are going to teach you how to escape an attack from the front."
Bryce gulped. Thor chuckled. "Do not worry, Midgardian. I shall not hurt you." Thor said with a grin. He raised an eyebrow. "Much."
I laughed along with the rest of the audience.
"Great presentation!" a teacher said as she passed. "Thank you." I replied.
"That was awesome, Beth!" a guy named Tyler told me. "See you in English!" he said and waved.
"I waved back. Thanks, Tyler!" I said, and grinned. This kind of praise had been going on long after our seminar ended. We were outside the auditorium greeting the students and teachers.
I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Even though I had fully physically recovered from the harrowing events of last semester, they certainly hadn't left my mind. I had bone-chilling nightmares at least twice a week, and they left me shivering and in a cold sweat. My contact with Joseph had also dwindled since school had been kicking both our butts. Stupid SATs. We hadn't Skyped in forever, and it kinda sucked.
As the last few people stopped by to congratulate my family and I on "another wonderful presentation", I spotted a familiar mop of brown hair floating through the throngs of people filling the hallway. No way.
My heart started pounding. It can't be. The brown hair floated closer and closer, and then morphed into a boy with beautiful blue eyes and the brightest smile in the world. Joseph was about ten feet away when he opened his arms wide.
I didn't hesitate. "Joseph!" I shouted and practically took a flying leap into his awaiting embrace, nearly knocking him over. I knew that people were staring, but I didn't care. We hugged for a bit, him tucking my head under his chin.
We broke apart and I looked up at his face. "Have you gotten taller?" I asked, and raised my eyebrows.
"Maybe." Joseph replied with a mischievous grin. "It has been a while since we've met in person..."
"Too long." I agreed.
"You are very brave, Beth." he said, his eyes shining with warmth.
I cocked my head. "Why do you say that?" I asked, and blushed a little. Nobody has ever really called me brave before...
Joseph grabbed my hand. Electricity shot through me like it did all those months ago. I blushed even harder. "You talked about our experience to your entire school. That's an amazing thing. I can still barely talk to my mom about it..." he said, his eyes momentarily clouding with what I was sure were memories of the past. After a split second, Joseph's face brightened again. "You really did a wonderful job up there, Beth. I can tell you're working through this and taking it one day at a time. I'm really proud of you."
I grinned and kissed him on the cheek before pulling him into another hug. "Thank you so much, Joseph. It really means a lot to me that you came." It was his turn to blush.
"Wanna grab some ice-cream? I have an off-period, and Tony's probably buying." I offered.
Joseph smiled. "Sounds great!" he replied. We turned and walked back to my waiting family.
Bruce smiled when he saw Joseph at my side. "Good to see you again!" he said, and shook Joseph's hand.
Natasha squeezed his shoulder. "Glad to see you're still around." she commented with a smirk. "Tony's gonna take us out for ice cream and I know he wouldn't mind paying for yours." she said, and glanced at Tony to remind him that he definitely wouldn't mind.
"Of course! Everybody- order the biggest sundaes they have to offer!" Tony announced with an exaggerated flourish of his arms. We laughed down the hallway and out the doors of the PAC.
These presentations aren't too bad, I suppose.