A hero

Mum always said Nik had too much of a hero complex. Nik couldn’t agree more.

 Why else would he choose to spend the rest of his life saving other people? His friends thought he was mad, and the adults around told him he was quite insane. Nik soon found he didn’t care. It was his life, after all- he could do what he liked with it.

Turned out saving people was a much more travel friendly job than Nik had originally thought. He had travelled more planets than most of the world combined in an effort to save the most people. And he loved every second of it.

Mercury. The days were painfully bright, the powerful sun beating mercilessly down on it’s peoples. The soil, colored a gold that made his head ache, was harsh and baked, flaking away under his feet as he walked. The nights were freezing cold, harsh winds biting at his body as if it could eat him away entirely. Its sparse inhabitants were too tired to hurt each other. The cold stars that twinkled down at night were their only comfort. Nik helped them find more time to enjoy those stars.

Venus. The planet was packed with clouds, too thick to see through. No ray of sunlight pierced the layer, nor twinkle of star. Electric lights shone like tiny fireflies from the ubiquitous lampposts on every street. The people were cold and miserable and bitingly sarcastic, flying at each other for the slightest slur. There were many of them , and they fought fiercely. To bring global piece was a feat indeed, but Nik did it.

Earth. A few wispy clouds did nothing to hide the cold blue skies, stretching over the limitless plains. The sun shone bright, throwing it’s rays with magnanimous grace at the planet. The people were natural complainers, whinging about the smallest things. Wars erupted with careless disdain over nothing at all. Earth had been one of Nik’s biggest challenges, probably because of its burgeoning population.

It was on Mars that Nik had met Kris. The cloying, aggressive dust rose from the brick-red soil and surrounded Nik, leaving him coughing and sneezing. It was painful, almost overwhelming, until the dust his arrival had stirred died down and revealed a boy.

The boy was tall and slim, his eyebrows twisted into a knot. Curiosity, perhaps, or anger. Maybe even worry. His lips were pressed in a thin line, sharp against his pale skin. The red dust was caked on his slim frame, pulled into a defensive stance. Long fingers clenched a small dagger. Wariness, then, at the very least.

“Who are you?”, he had spat the question, as if it were a slur.

“Nik.”, Nik managed, after near a minute of coughing.

“Where are you from?”

Nik considered. Where was he from? Pluto might have been his birthplace, but he belonged there about as much as a lion in a sea of starfish. He didn’t really belong anywhere else either, except maybe space as a whole.

“Everywhere.”, he settled for. It felt nice. Imperialistic.

The boy, strangely enough, nodded. “Me, too.”

They sat on the rocky plains of Mars and stared at the sky. There wasn’t much else to stare at- the plains of Mars were cold and dead and empty, just miles of unbroken wasteland. The sky was much softer on the eyes- a soft, calm butterscotch, broken only by streaks of brown.

Later, they would sit on the same spot again and again, simply enjoying the sky. They needed no excuse for their friendship- that they both belonged nowhere was enough. Butterscotch must have been Nik’s colour, though, because after two days of staring at the sky, he didn’t feel like he belonged nowhere, anymore.

Nik only learnt Kris’s name 3 days later. It didn’t feel like something that mattered- in fact, Nik might just forget it. Names were a part of them that neither needed. It was only after he knew Kris’s name, though, that Nik had the courage to ask for more.

“What do you do?’”, Nik managed one day.

Kris was silent for a long moment, and Nik was afraid for a moment that he had gone too far. What a person did was their own business, after all.

“I do what I like to do.”

“And what’s that?”

“I-“, Kris stopped, hesitant, then shrugged. “I like killing people. “

Nik knitted his eyebrows. Kris killed  people for a living, Nik saved them.

“You?”

“..Huh?”

“What do you do?”

Nik shrugged. “I travel to different planets. I like saving the people there.”

Kris raised an eyebrow. “Yin and Yang, I suppose.”

“Mmm hmm.”

There was silence for a moment. Neither minded it- on the contrary, it was welcome.

“Would you like to continue?”, Nik inquired a few days later. Much as he had enjoyed his stay on Mars, he could feel the familiar restlessness well up within him, that ardent desire for black skies and new planets and grateful people.

“Cant.”, Nik could hear the sadness. “My ship’s broken.”

“Mine isnt.”, Nik turned and looked at Kris, realizing even as he spoke the weight of his own suggestion. He was allowing Kris to enter his spaceship, the one part of him that had always been his own. They belonged together, the spaceship and Nik.

Kris stared at him, hope briefly touching his features before it was schooled away. “No.”

“Why not?”, Nik didn’t even bother trying to hide his disappointment.

“Cause it’s wrong, okay? It’s twisted and stupid to like killing people and I need to stop!”, Kris threw his head in his hands, fingers scrabbling at the curls as if they were a lifeline.

Nik left it at that, lying back down in the dust and staring back at the butterscotch sky.

More days passed in a sort of haze. The desire to save was almost crippling Nik now, and even Kris could do little to help. The sky had helped, till then, but even butterscotch could only do so much.

Kris was of little to no assistance. No matter how much Nik begged, Kris absolutely refused to come away with him, still claiming that if he came, he couldn’t resist killing, and that was just wrong.

“But killing is the only thing you really like, isn’t it?”, Nik demanded one day, impatience gripping him.

Kris wrung his hands. “Well- yes, but that doesnt make it alright!”

Nik was beginning to think Kris needed some serious saving, too. He knew that was wrong, just wrong, though- a friend should allow one to decide when they needed to be saved.

But could Kris figure out when he’d fallen too far?

The butterscotch was beginning to drive Nik mad. It beat at his eyelids, wormed its way into his head. So infuriatingly calm and soothing, everything Nik couldn’t quite be anymore. He needed to help others, and was that really so wrong? Why wouldn’t the Universe let him?

Why wouldn’t Kris let him?

Cause he’s mad, the niggardly little voice in the back of his head whispered. He’s fallen too deep and cant pull himself back anymore.

No. Nik shook his head. He needs to decide.

But can he?

Nik growled and clasped at his head, looking about frantically for something, anything else to focus on.

Kris, red, more red , butterscotch. Ugh.

Can he?

No, no he cant.

The adrenaline that burst from his gut in response to his decision was enough to convince Nik. He turned to Kris and shot him a smile.

“Kris.”

Kris turned toward him, his eyes inquiring. Nik smiled at him.

“Your life is horrible, Kris. Too horrible. As a friend, I have the responsibility of saving you.”

“What?”

“Oh, come on. You cant even do the one thing you like, man. If you don’t call that horrible, I don’t know what is. You need to be saved!”

“Saved? Nik, what the hell do you need that gun fo-”

The bullet had hit Kris before he could finish his sentence. It was a clean shot, through and through.

Nik checked Kris’s pulse before leaning back, satisfied. “I’m going to miss you, Kris. But at least I’ll always know you’re in a better place.”

Abruptly, he stroked the corpse’s forehead, pushing away the loose hair before jumping up.

“Goodbye, buddy.”

Oh, that was relieving. Saving people was fun.