Nightfall wasn’t always like this. Bitter. Cold. Aggressive. Never letting anyone get close to her. Sharpening her knives while she actively stalks her next target.

But like many women, she was wronged by a man. 

Not just any man. Brainwash. She refuses to use his full government name. Maybe it’s a part of her that wants to keep the two separate. Like Brainwash’s civilian persona was sacred and couldn’t dirty it with his superhero (borderline bad guy) alias.

No matter what she wants to think, they are the same person. 

She wonders what he thinks when he thinks of her. 

The vigilante that leaves the cheesy message of ‘Dead by Nightfall’ near her victims. But her victims aren’t innocent bystanders. They made choices that can’t be proven by the broken justice system.

If they won’t give out justice, she will. 

People love to look at villains and think that they just evil straight from the womb. That maybe the mother was also evil and it seeped into every one of the cells of the baby. 

The baby has no option. They are just evil. 

It’s almost laughable to think of herself like that. 

People make villains. They just don’t want to confront the consequences so they label people as bad. It makes them feel better. 

For Nightfall, she was made by Brainwash.

She grew up perfectly normal. A big family in the suburbs. Normal school. Normal friends. Normal girl.

Then she met Brainwash. It felt like a fairytale. Everything from the storybooks came true, the words jumping off the page to make this man. He opened the door for her, wrote her little notes, made her laugh so hard she cried, and loved her with his whole being. He was perfect for her. 

But like a plot twist, he turned out different than her mind let her believe.

It was a fairytale. Not realistic. Not real. 

It’s difficult to pinpoint before Brainwash and after Brainwash. She so wishes for him to come back, but she is an honest person. Even to herself. He isn’t coming back.

What hurts the most is that version of him may never have existed. 

He gained those stupid powers that let him into people’s minds, transforming him into something else entirely. It consumed him, continues to. 

The powers, the power they gave him, they are the only thing that matters to him.

He used to say that she made him feel limitless. Like anything was possible with her. Now, the powers are the thing that makes him feel limitless. Because he doesn’t limit them.

And he never will.

He would never smother them. Never jeopardize them. 

Who cares about her? As long as she did what he wanted. 

He made sure of that.

So yeah, she wasn’t always like this. 

Not that it matters anymore. Because she is who she is now. Can’t change the past. Can’t forget it. 

She lives on with her experiences, stacking into a wall where no one can get past. Almost impervious to the point that it is inescapable from both sides. 

Except maybe for the person who built it.

———

(Also, I’m so excited to have some news about Shadow Queen!! She was so present in the beginning of my experience on this app, so it was great to know she is doing ok. She has an Etsy shop that is linked in Shadow Mind’s bio! I’ll definitely check it out, and I hope you guys take a look!)