Scumbag Superpowers Short Stories & Novels

For weeks, my husband had been disappearing for two hours every night. One night, I tailed him to a strange pawnshop. Inside, he was holding my nightgown. “I want to trade six months of her life. Wendy’s healthy. She’ll be fine.” Then he pulled out my lipstick and handed it to the shopkeeper. “It's only three days of her youth. She won't notice.” The shopkeeper placed my belongings on an antique bronze scale, selling off pieces of my life as if they were worth nothing. I stormed inside to stop them, but my husband grabbed me around the waist and pinned me against the cold counter. He pressed a kiss to my cheek. “You know Aria’s been coughing up blood. How can you just let her suffer? She’s only in this condition because of me.” Then, without a trace of hesitation, he crushed three of my fingers. I screamed, the pain so intense I nearly blacked out. “All you have to do is put up with a little pain, and Aria gets an entire day of relief. Seems like a fair trade to me.” The bronze scale flashed red, drowning out my screams. Then one day, my husband brought our wedding ring to the pawnshop. “She's worn this ring for ten years. I want to trade it for another ten years of life for Aria.” But this time, the shopkeeper smiled. “A transaction this large requires an exchange from both parties.” He turned to me. “Now, what would you like to take from him?”

My fiancé had nearly tortured me to death, all because his first love kept turning him against me. Lying in the cold, dark basement, I made a bitter wish. If only I could switch bodies with Nolan Ralston. Then he'd finally know what he'd put me through. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in his luxurious bed, all sixteen feet of it. And there was Nolan, wearing my face, staring at me in shock. Before he could say a word, his precious first love let out a little cry and dramatically collapsed in front of him. "I was just trying to check your injuries. Why did you push me?" she whimpered, looking utterly pitiful. I watched Nolan's eyes widen, his indignation at being falsely accused written all over his face. I couldn't help it. A laugh escaped me. God, that felt good.

On my thirty-eighth birthday, my husband, Hugh Shaw, nearly forty, found the love of his life. He asked me for a divorce. "Mina’s only twenty. She’s sweet and kind, while you’re old and boring." I nodded at my own reflection, looking worn and lifeless. That explained Hugh’s strange behavior lately. He’d started caring about his appearance. He never left the house without putting on cologne, and he bought a bouquet of flowers every day. No matter how busy he was, the first thing he did when he got home was work out at the gym. Before the divorce, Hugh asked me, "Maya, you’ve been a housewife for seven years. Can you really bring yourself to divorce me? Don’t come crying to me later!" I smiled. "I won’t." Because that girl he fell in love with was me at twenty.

After my parents have passed away, I drop out of school and spend the next ten years working my butt off so that I can put my younger sister, Delilah Scott, through school. When Delilah scores a total of 1550 on her SATs, I can't help but shed happy tears for her. After holding a grand celebratory party, I see live comments streaking in front of my eyes all of a sudden. "I'm so excited! Today, Lils will be spending her first night with Doug!" The sight of the first comment leaves me stunned. At first, I think I'm just seeing things. But the second comment soon flashes in front of me. "This is all Lils' fault for getting into a fight with Doug right before their SATs! Doug got mad at her and ended up scribbling her name all over his exam papers, causing him to score a big fat zero on everything! Poor Lils is overwhelmed by so much guilt that she has secretly changed her application for her dream university to the community college Doug will be studying at! "Tonight, Lils will be giving her virginity to Doug just to comfort him! Once they start college, they'll be busy popping out babies one after another. After graduation, they'll inherit Lils' older sister's company right away and live happily ever after as a married couple!" The moment the comments vanish before my eyes, I see Delilah walking out of her room. "Trish, I'm sleeping over at my best friend's house tonight, so I won't be coming home."

When I was ten years old, I suddenly gained the ability to see red threads connecting people’s heads. Only those who had actually slept together would be bound by this unavoidable red line. Over the years, two extra red threads popped up over my father’s head, driving my mother to threaten to file for divorce again and again. Because of this, loyalty became the single most important thing I looked for in a partner. In the end, I chose Jasper—a modest, reserved man whose head was completely clean. On the night before our wedding, my bridesmaids hosted a bachelorette party. We played a game where whoever lost had to hand over their phone for the rest of us to snoop through. When it was my maid of honor Jean’s turn, she clutched her phone tightly, her face flushing red as she bashfully giggled. “Don’t look at mine! He wore me out so late last night. Those photos are definitely not fit for public viewing.” Everyone teased her for keeping her relationship so secretive, since no one had ever met her boyfriend. I was just about to step in and smooth things over when I suddenly saw a bright red thread stretch straight out from the top of her head. It wove right through the crowd and anchored itself directly onto my fiancé, Jasper. Yet, when he dropped me off at home last night, his head had been entirely clean. In fact, just half an hour ago, he had sent me a text. [Aria, I’ve saved myself for you for twenty-five years. On our wedding night tomorrow, I can finally have you. I love you!] I looked over at Jasper standing outside the door, staring at me with deep affection, and then back at Jean, whose face was glowing with passion. I raised my glass and clinked it gently against hers. “Jean, is your boyfriend’s last name Cook?”

I was born without the ability to feel pain. When I was three years old, my nanny got annoyed with my crying and secretly pinched my arm until it bruised. I barely reacted, but all ten of her fingers dislocated at once. When I was eight years old, my older cousin shoved me into a swimming pool. I choked on a little water, but she ended up on the pool deck, struggling as water somehow filled her lungs. Later, my family brought in an elderly man who said I was protected by a powerful spell. Anyone who deliberately hurt me would suffer tenfold the pain in my place. From then on, no one in my family dared lay a finger on me. At 24 years old, my family arranged a marriage alliance with the Gardner family. At the engagement party, Hayden Gardner's beloved, Bailey Burke, suddenly poured warm coffee over her own wrist. She looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. "Sienna, if you don't like me, just say so. Why did you bump into me on purpose?" Hayden immediately swept her into his arms and ordered me to apologize. Mom stood beside me, shooting me warning looks. She had warned me beforehand that Bailey loved to blame others and play the victim. Mom had told me not to get drawn into her games. Looking at Bailey's barely reddened wrist, the whole act struck me as unfair. So I held out my arm to her. "If you insist I spilled it on you, then go ahead and do the same to me." Bailey froze for a moment, then let out a scornful laugh. "You asked for it. I'll give you what you want." She turned, grabbed a full kettle of freshly boiled water from a server, and flung it straight at my arm. The next second, Bailey's smile froze.