I was going through my old writing files when I came across the blurb and the first 200 or so words of a YA superhero comedy novel I had scribbled down. Since I won’t be touching it any time soon, I’ve decided to share it with you. So here, have the hastily-written beginning of My Hero, His Villain and Me.

When you find yourself hanging by your ankles over a vat of acid as often as I do, the time you used to spend panicking and terrified is now just time to think. In my case, about why on earth that happens so damn often.

People think I’m just the damsel, that it is my job to be kidnapped and used as bait to start yet another epic fight between hero and villain. And while it does kind of suck to be reduced to such a role, in my opinion it’s better to let everyone think that than them really knowing the truth. The truth of who I am, what I am and what I can do.

“What’s the matter, Mary?” The voice pulls me from my thoughts.

I open my eyes and instinctively look up. The motion is small but still enough to send me swinging slightly, just like a pendulum. My shadow skims the surface of the pool of acid just a few scant inches below the tips of my long, thin, mouse-brown hair.

“Mary, Mary,” says my captor, seated in a chair safe distance from the edge of the acid-pit. One leg is crossed over the other, giving me hints of the red lines in the soles of his boots as he bounces the foot up and down impatiently. “I don’t expect you to scream any more, but it is too much to expect a little banter from you before your hero shows?”