It starts the same way anything else would, with a memory. Every memory is the greatest if it’s about my dad. He was my very own super hero. My dad would take me out and we would run around all day and he would never get tired. I could punch and kick him with my little hands and my little feet for as long as I wanted, and nothing! He was indestructible.

Every year there was one day where he would do something incredible, but it was only on a specific day. March 16, for some reason, was the day his super powers were the strongest. One year, I watched my dad fly down all the way from a helicopter. Now that I’m grown up my mother tells me he was just sky diving, but I know she’s lying. There is no doubt in my mind that my dad was a super hero.

            When he died, I knew that somewhere out there was a super villain, who had gone after my dad. My mother tries to convince me that he died of a heart attack, but I know that super heroes can’t die from natural causes. The super villain has brainwashed my mother and I just know it.

            It’s only me in this world. I’m the only one I can trust anymore. The day has finally come and I have this overwhelming feeling that I have finally inherited my dad’s powers. Today’s the day they should be the strongest, like my dad. March 16, on this day I will avenge him and hunt his killer. I will continue every year on this day for the rest of my life, if I have to. I, Richard Paine, will be known as Super Kill.

***

            The more I show up with blood on my hands, the more scared my mother gets. But it only makes sense to come home every few hours to wash off the mess. It’s not my fault this villain is a master of disguise. I just have to keep trying. I thought that when I found the one who killed my father, I’d know. But each person I look at seems as suspicious as the one I just buried.

            All I know is that I must be on the right track. Everywhere I go I see signs reading “Everything You Do Is Right Day”. This is my day, my day to do what’s right. My powers are allowing me to eliminate every target without a problem. Wherever this madman is, I’ll find him.

***

            This is my third year trying to avenge my dad and still, nothing. I’ve been left to turn to interrogation, but my mother won’t speak. I need to get the information she’s hiding, one way or another.

“Mother, this whole thing will end faster if you just tell me what you obviously know.”

“Richard, this is ludicrous! You need to take a step back and think about this. I’m your mom, I’ve cared for you through everything. You don’t have to do this, sweetie. I’m on your side.”

“That’s the wrong answer. And you were never on my side.”

She left me with no choice; I had to let the jumper cables do their part.

“Stop squirming! Don’t be annoying and you better not scream! Just tell me what I need to know so I can be done with you.”

She sobs out her reply, “I tell you the same thing every time you ask. Your father was a good man. He died five years ago, and we all miss him very much. I miss him very much.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. We both know that you’re well aware of who killed him. So, I’ll ask once more. Who killed my father?”

“Richard, please, you don’t have to do this.”

“Answer the damn question!”

The tears race down her face and onto her lap. She’s pathetic. I’m trying to make out her mumbling, but the strain of thought is hurting too much. Slamming my fist into the wall, so she can quit her crying, snaps her right back. “Not a ‘who’, a ‘what’. He died of a heart attack.” she finally cracks out her torn truth. And it’s infuriating.

“That’s the wrong answer! You know that’s not the truth. You know someone out there killed him. Dad was a superhero and in a world of superheroes there are super villains, and that villain killed him. And he obviously brainwashed you!”

I reach over to the switch. She needs some sense shocked back into her.

She sits there, staring at me. I’ve never seen such disgust in her face, not even when I came home with the bodies. The disappointment was tangible. “Richard, I want you to know that I cannot help you the way you want me to. Your father wasn’t an actual superhero. There’s no such thing. You’re a 20-year-old-man who has gone crazy on this fixed up idea that started from a lie his daddy told him when he was scared one night. Richard, grow up.”

It probably would’ve been great to listen to everything else she had to say, but nothing beats the speed of light. The voltage travels too fast and well, I don’t understand half of the things she’s saying while she chokes on her own spit. I flipped the switch the moment she told me to ‘grow up’. How dare she have the audacity? Her defiance aggravates me and never lets me concentrate. There’s too much noise coming from outside, too many things going on. I can’t think straight. Too many voices. Voices? How are there people outside at this hour?

I’m being watched…it’s him.

I have to end this by any means necessary.

Getting to the kitchen of my own house is now a mission. At any second I can run into the madman that killed my dad, he can strike at any moment. I have to be ready for anything. But I also can’t wait here to be attacked. I must hunt him down.

Heading to the front door I hear laughter from across the street, a group of people. So much laughter, but why are they laughing at me? Why are they mocking me? There’s only one explanation. I am insulted at the fact that this fiendish villain would haunt me in my home, on my property. These disturbances, these voices, they must be his doing.

A group of petty beings linger, what are their intentions? Why do they watch me so? With intent…it must have been them. This whole time, how could I not have seen it? It wasn’t just one person; my dad was too great to have been defeated by just one person. It was a group of these monsters. I can’t let them go on.

Now’s my chance. The night is old and I can’t afford to wait another year for my powers to be at their full potential.

“Hey! Hey, I’m right here!” I yell out to them, but they just ignore me and keep walking. They just ignore me. They just keep walking. Well, that’s unacceptable.

            I catch up to them at the end of the street and come up from behind them.

“I was talking to you.” The way they all gasp back at the same time when they see my knife is great. It’s my favorite knife… it’s the really big one.

“Whoa, man, take it easy with that thing.” I assume that the first one who comes up is the leader. I will make an example out of him.

“Mike, isn’t that the guy all over the news? The guy no one can do anything about because he only does his stuff on Everything You Do Is Right Day?”

            They have the audacity to plot against me, right before my eyes. Their evil is unlike any other. I need to get rid of this Mike guy for them to respect me. It’s on.

            I slice through the air he’s breathing, my first swing. The group’s choral screams are the melody to my joy, until I realize that it means I missed. I laugh anyway, I can finally dispose of the monsters who killed my dad and they are putty in my hands. Next swing, I strike at his chest so, I can rip out what he tore from mine. Mike jumps back and he’s still unharmed. How is this even possible?! Mike puts his fists up. Is he actually planning on fighting back?

“Stop it! This is my night! My ni-.” There’s a dent on the side of my face that only Mike’s fist fits. The blood conjures up a salty taste in my mouth, and it’s disgusting. He interrupted me while I was speaking, unacceptable.

I stare at him blankly, lift up my knife by the blade and throw it right at him. One and a half turns.

The looks on the rest of their faces remind me of my mother’s. And I can’t stand my mother. I finish off the rest of them with my bare hands, it’s not hard. Most of them are in too much shock to move.

            I drag each of the lifeless sacks to my house and into the basement. The bodies are stacked up right behind my mother. She gives me the same look I am already tired of.

            “I can’t believe you. This time it was a group? Are you satisfied yet?”

            “Well, now that you ask, no. I’m not. I can’t help but shake the feeling this madman villain is still out there.”

            “All these years I’ve looked at you and tried to figure it out, but I never could. The doctors thought I was making it up and the police never believed me. I couldn’t show them proof, because who actually goes to work on Everything You Do Is Right Day. I started to believe that this was all somehow my fault. But I see it now; I see it the way you’d want me to. You’re not like him. When I see your face, the shape of your nose, and the way your chin curves the same way his did, I see him. But when I look in your eyes, I see the villain you’re talking about. You are this monster, this villain you keep talking about. It’s all you! You are nothing like him! You are a monster!-”

            Her nonsense would’ve been a great little story to listen to, it probably would’ve been awesome to hear everything else she had to say, but I snapped her neck right then and there. She was a nuisance that, nothing but, wasted my time. Good riddance. I couldn’t keep dealing with her lies. Good riddance. Dragging her body out of the way isn’t as easy as I thought; she must’ve put on some extra weight. Good riddance.

            She was a fool who couldn’t realize that those Everything You Do Is Right Day banners are for me. Everything I Do Is Right, always. I’m a hero.