Humility

This is a side-piece for "The Secret", which is a comic I'm doing to get better at drawing, mostly. It's incredibly terribly drawn, although I might post it up when it's done. This is one of five (if I write them) what-happened-to-the-others shorts (there are actually six of them, Secrecy is the main character of the comic).

Humility

                You five have been chosen. You represent virtue and the light; and you must fight the darkness. Keep your vows; Charity, Celibacy, Temperance, Patience, and Humility.

                “You’ve won!” yelled Jane as she burst into the room. “I’ve got the final results right here!”

                Jane raced to Victoria’s desk, and slammed a sheaf of papers down on it. Victoria calmly picked the results up and began reading through them, while Jane stood there grinning and almost vibrating with excitement.

                Jane was Victoria’s campaign manager for the school captain elections, a very excitable girl who’d forced her way into the role ‘so that next year I can win my campaign!’ Her straight black hair had more rogues this day than usual – it looked as if her excitement extended right through her body, causing random hairs to poke up at odd angles.

                Victoria was quite the contrast to her campaign manager; her hair was ash-blonde, well-kept, slightly curly and stopped short of her shoulders. She was also, always, calm and composed. Well, almost always. Her heart was beating rapidly as she read the results – confirmation that a full seventy-one percent of the student body had voted for her. Next year, she’d be the school captain.

                “Yes,” she exclaimed, leaning back in her chair. “It looks like our hard work has paid off.”

                “Oh, you did amazing. In the end you were the only real choice, the others were nothing in comparison,” said Jane, beaming.

                Victoria rolled her eyes at the praise. “Only thanks to my amazing campaign manager who appeared from absolutely nowhere,” responded Victoria.

                Jane wiggled her head from side to side a bit. “If I’ve learnt one thing doing this campaign, it’s that there’s more to becoming school captain than having a good scheduler and poster-slave. The speeches, the debate, all the big things – you did those yourself and you did them amazingly. You kicked ass!” enthused Jane, smiling.

                “Mmm,” agreed Victoria, giggling a little. Jane had been a gift during the campaign – her assistance was the only reason Victoria had had time to do her schoolwork on top of running for school captain – but she was right in saying that Victoria had done the important things herself. The debate especially had gone spectacularly well – all her opponents had been goaded into saying some very, very stupid things.

                “I certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations,” continued Victoria.

                “I still can’t believe that your friends didn’t think you could do it!” said Jane.

                “Well, I’ve proved myself now. School captain! I can hardly believe it,” said Victoria, leaning back in her chair.

                “It’s something to be proud of,” said Jane calmly, but still smiling broadly.

                “Yeah,” said Victoria, her thoughts caught up in what she would do next year. She did feel proud of her achievement. Intensely proud, and rightfully victorious.

                A sudden crack from her necklace shocked her back to reality. She sat bolt upright in her chair, her eyes wide open. “Shit, the vow!” she muttered worriedly, her hand grasping at and gripping the shattered necklace through her shirt.

                Victoria’s strange actions made Jane smile. But it wasn’t an amused smile. It was a vicious, evil smile. “Finally, that took forever. Then again,” Jane said, looking at her watch, “I’m actually right on time.”

                “Right on time for what? Wait, what?” asked Victoria, confused.

                “Penny dropping in 3, 2, 1,” said Jane.

                “Oh shit!” said Victoria, tossing her chair backwards as she rapidly stood up. “You’re – you’re–“

                “An agent of the dark spirit,” said Jane. The enthusiasm she had been showing moments earlier was completely gone – her voice was cold and deadly calm.

                “What are you going to do to me?” asked Victoria, backing away from Jane. There wasn’t much room for her to back up – the room Victoria had been given for her campaign (one of Jane’s machinations) was tiny, and normally used as a storage room.

                “Well, I was going to kill you. But you’re actually a good leader – I wasn’t spouting hollow praise before. I expected to have to do everything, right down to falsifying the election results. Except you did it – the debate was a masterstroke! I honestly thought you vow-holders had to be good people, but that was pure evil genius right there. So I have an offer for you, straight from the dark spirit himself,” said Jane.

                “W-what?” asked Victoria.

                “Swap sides. We’re not so bad, really. The monsters you and the other vow-holders fought weren’t made by the dark spirit – they just appear around here naturally. We, his agents, do the occasional murder or bit of torture, sure, but that’s the price of true power. And I know power is something you want,” said Jane, a twisted smile back on her lips.

                Victoria attempted to calm herself. “I… do, but what kind of power?” she asked. She felt a bit lightheaded, and she was scared witless, but it was the truth. The reason she had gone for school captain was because it was an important position, because it put her over everyone else, a position of power over everyone. She had spent months suppressing that part of herself – at the urging of the light spirit – and had even considered withdrawing from the election. But she hadn’t. It hadn’t been about the pride, it had been about the power; which was strangely enough the only reason her vow of humility had not broken already.

                “The power you just lost, but with the knowledge to enable you to use it properly. And later, if we are victorious, more. A lot more,” said Jane.

                “I’ll need to fight the other vow-holders though, won’t I?” asked Victoria.

                “Of course. If any of them are still alive. I was right on time; the other agents probably were as well,” replied Jane, sounding very pleased with herself.

                Victoria mulled over her choices for a little while. Joining up with the bad guys beats dying, and power beats no power, she thought to herself. “I’m in. I never did like the others very much,” she said, her choice made.

                “That’s excellent, ‘captain’. Follow me,” replied Jane, heading for the door.

                Before following, Victoria tore the shattered necklace from her neck and tossed it on the desk nonchalantly. She was a vow-holder no more.