Tables turn
Glow did nothing at first.
She simply stared at Ray before slowly walking closer to him until she stood right beside his bed instead of at the foot of the bed where she had been.
"You're right," she whispered low enough for only him to hear, "I'm here to put a lease on you but what can you do about it? You're a dog and there's a lease, refuse to take it and you'll starve. Do I need to remind you that you have no powers? Along with a disabled body?" Glow said gently allowing her words to sink in and for him to see that he was the truly delirious one.
"SHUT UP!" he yelled back in anger, his eyes brimming with tears.
"I swear...I'll make sure that everyone knows the truth about you and how Horati killed my mother," Ray said in a clearly anguished voice not at all worried about the fact that he was completely paralyzed, unable to stop the anger he felt from blinding him from seeing anything else.
At this point, even Jirena, Glow's assistant looked uncomfortable watching the scene in front of her, as she and the other person that stood beside her couldn't help but shake their heads while taking a couple of steps back since they weren't sure of what was going to happen next.
But instead of exploding Glow simply sat on Ray's bed, after gently pushing his legs aside without any resistance, watching his face scrunch up in anger at how close they were to each other.
A hint of pity was evident in her eyes as she stared at the boy in front of her that was bandaged from head to toe, with his brain most likely being the only thing functioning well, as the machines and wires connected to him were in charge of running his faintly beating heart.
"And how are you going to tell everybody? You can't even move," Glow said leaning towards him like a caring sister or mother would, before slowly raising her hand to touch a tube that had been connected to Ray's nose that was constantly supplying him with oxygen, before she gradually began to squeeze it with just enough force to stop Ray from being able to breathe.
The beeping of the machine slowly increased in tempo, until there was a soft wailing noise in the room as she watched Ray slowly begin to gasp for air through his mouth.
"You could die and no one would care. No one would know and you would have died for nothing. Sign the papers I give you and you get to walk out of here alive and well with no debts, say no and you'll be wheeled out of here in a body bag and I'll still get what I want." Glow sighed even as she already began thinking of a plan B whereby she could get someone with a face-changing ability to pretend to be Ray before meeting an unfortunate accident where he again dies.
"Nod if you understand me," she whispered to his face.
But Ray was stubborn.
A few more seconds passed as he struggled to breathe on his own, through his mouth. However, the more he tried the more pressure he placed on his barely functioning lungs.
Tears unwillingly pooled in his eyes from both the physical pain he felt and the mental grief of what he was about to do.
A few more seconds went by as he slowly started to lose consciousness, his head nodding instinctively on its own, grasping his only hope of survival, before jerking his head upwards in relief the moment he felt the oxygen rush back in through his nose while he did his best to sniff back the tears sliding down his face.
"Now who's a good boy?" Glow said speaking in the same way she would talk to a dog, annoyed that she had wasted more minutes than she bargained for in the room.
She got back on her feet, dusting away some invisible specks of dust from her clothes before she turned to look at Jirena who quickly stepped forward with a single sheet of paper in her hands and a small video recorder looking back at Ray and telling him the exact words to say, a little glad about the tears in his eyes which were the exact effects she needed for the video.
"Thank the government for providing the necessary care to nurse you back to health. Thank Horati for protecting your neighborhood against the villain that attacked it…," Glow began, completely ignoring the way Ray clenched his jaw, hard enough for her to hear the scraping of his teeth against each other at the mention of "Horati's" name.
"Thank me, of course... for taking the time out to be here with you at such a delicate time. And make sure to remember to smile," she said looking straight at him, gesturing quickly at him to begin.
"Perfect!" said the last person in the room apart from Glow and Jirena, in charge of taking the video and the only one without a tie, and a slightly scruffy appearance.
He was glad that the first five times they tried taking the video was worth it, since by the sixth time the boy was too tired to keep any expression of anger on his face, staring into the camera with almost lifeless eyes and a small enough smile for him to consider the video acceptable.
"I can edit any parts that don't turn out well," Hartz, the video director thought while slightly wondering why Madam glow even made the boy go through it in the first instance when with a single picture he could have taken care of it.
"Great! Then we're almost done here…" Glow said moving over to his bed with a single sheet of paper and placing it in front of Ray's eyes for him to sign.
Curious, he had just barely begun to read it when he discovered how the entire thing was simply about him agreeing to the fact that his mother was killed by Farlorn the villain, who was later killed by Horati.
Before he could even move his lips to speak, the paper disappeared from right in front of him, before watching his hand, which he couldn't feel be colored with red ink.
His fingerprint was stamped multiple times on the paper and the bandage that covered his hands was wrapped back around it before the blanket over him, was put back in its place.
Burning with renewed anger, Ray knew that there was nothing he could physically do, unable to do anything else but curse his powerless existence as he simply waited there for the evil woman to leave now that she had what she came for.
However, what she did the next second, shocked him to the bone.
She moved her face directly in front of his own, staring deeply into his eyes, before she began to speak softly to him in a way that only he could hear.
"I helped you so you can't help but like me and now you trust me," she said, her eyes glowing softly with a strange light, a tiny smirk lingering on the edge of her lips.
Ray instantly found himself nodding and smiling at her in response, happy tears falling from his eyes recalling how "Madam Glow" the hero in front of him made time out to visit him and also help him with his hospital bills.
The moment she stood up to leave and bade him goodbye, Ray vigorously nodded his head with a bright smile on his face.
"Thank you for coming, come again if you can," he replied in a happy tone as Jirena and Hartz who stood the closest to the door instantly understood what had happened and sighed with relief.
With a kind smile on her face, Glow nodded, turned around, and walked out of the room followed by all the people that came in with her when she entered.
"Such a kind woman!" Ray thought just as the door of his room closed behind them, instantly recalling the grief he felt over the death of his mother.
Still, he continued smiling as thoughts of Glow's shining face and kind personality kept on swirling around in his mind.
This continued for a few seconds more until his eyes still gently fluttered close about to take a small nap when a loud bell sound rang deep within his head and big black letters appeared in his mind.
*Ting*
{BASIC DEATH SYSTEM ACTIVATED}
>Basic influence skill on host(50% neutralized)
His eyes instantly popped open in shock only for him to be even more surprised to discover that the words in front of him remained there and didn't seem like it would be disappearing anytime soon.