Part Eight: A Villain Origin Story

Jamie used to cry himself to sleep as a little boy, never really sure why but knowing the dark meant he wasn’t safe. Mornings always found him damp with sweat and tears, uncertain of when or how he fell asleep but grateful that the sun was back. It was a night like this at his friend’s house that laid the foundation for a fraught relationship with his father.

It’d been a good day; there was pizza and cake at Joel’s house, and his mom even let them have soda (his mom never did). They watched Hercules on DVD with his parents until it was time to go to bed. This particular night found him brushing his teeth and putting on pajamas in slow motion, his limbs uncooperative as emotions filled his belly. He would later learn he suffered with anxiety, but at ten years old he had no words, just feelings that he couldn’t express. Leaving the bathroom to enter the confines of a sleeping bag didn’t improve anything; saying goodnight to Joel proved to be the tipping point and Jamie began to cry uncontrollably. Worried, Joel got his mom, who managed to call his parents citing a “stomachache” as the reason they needed to pick their son up at 10:30 that night.

The car ride was silent; Jamie’s father, at that time an intimidating 6’4” and 300 pounds, stared straight ahead, waves of anger radiating off him and making the pint-sized Jamie feel small and ashamed. When they arrived home he ran into his mother’s waiting arms, tearful and grateful, when they were both slammed to the floor by his father. He’d broken the chair on which the pair sat, finally setting his anger free. He called Jamie a loser, an idiot, an embarrassment; his mother an enabler who gave him one pitiful scrawny child he was better off without. When she opened her mouth to speak, he raised his hand as if to hit her and she yelled for Jamie to go to his room. He could still hear them fighting even with his head buried under his pillow. It was that night that changed everything. His small fists balled tight, he vowed to never be weak again.

And for the first time in his life, Jamie slept like a baby.