Every Villain Has an Origin Story

Every Villain Has an Origin Story

Every villain has an origin story
mine’s written in sweat
on motel walls
that never asked for my sins

Every time I gasped “never again”
my hands were reaching
for the next wrong door
the next skin

Saints don’t come here
not to these sheets
not to this couch
where the ghosts pile cheap

I keep saying I’m better now
then some devil in boots walks in
and drags me in deep

I was just a kid under blankets
screen glow burning a hole
through the dark in my head

Found out early
if I hit the right nerve
I could drown out the kitchen fights
play dead

By the time they were trading
awkward kisses and drawing hearts
in notebooks at school
I was already chasing blackout switches
burning through strangers
like fuel

Fast-forward
that bar
ring on my finger
your perfume cutting through
my “better man” lies

You laughed once
and every promise I made to myself
curled up and died

Heat like a car crash
in a bathroom stall
phone lighting up my leg
like a flare I wouldn’t read

Turned the sound off
bit your shoulder hard
thought
if this totals my life
let it bleed

They sell lust like soft lights
and slow hands
a tidy moral
when the credits roll
they don’t show shaking in a shower at noon
trying to scrub the guilt
off your soul

There was a stretch
I stopped learning names
called everybody “babe”
just to keep the story straight

Body count on the sheets
ghosts in the cotton
stains in my head
I couldn’t erase or abate

I slept my way through friend groups
and bands
turned birthdays into breakups
with a text at two

Said I was freeing them from boredom
truth is I wanted proof
they’d risk it all too

Then there was you
the matching fault line
the relapse in eyeliner
“you up?” burning my screen

You walked past in a crowded room
and every sane thought died
stripped down to the obscene

You liked me ugly
liked me selfish
pinned to my worst
hands against the wall

Scheduling disasters like shifts
hotel keys
“just one more time”
you
me
and the fall

We could’ve walked away
blocked each other
grown up
let this fire finally go

Instead we kept hitting
that same red button
just to watch it glow

There’s a cleaner version of me
that writes
runs
breathes
sits with the ache
instead of knocking on your door

A version of you
that deletes my name
and lets the guilt hit the floor

But every time I try
to be that person
reach for something
to change this story

you hit my phone like a fire alarm
and the villain in me
takes the glory

Every villain has an origin story
mine’s a highlight reel
of bad decisions
low light
sound too high

Every “I love you” I meant
got buried under
“don’t tell anyone”
and “we can’t let this die”

Saints don’t come here
not to these rooms
not to this car
where we cut one more piece
off our lives

One more time
you say
and I swallow
the lies