Unravel Me | Arrow [ COMPLETED ]

chapter twenty seven

NOTE: Violence and blood during Malcolm's point of view. Not horribly graphic, but still potentially triggering. Read with caution. This is not a chapter for Laurel fans.

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"Oh, darling, throw damage from afar, hollow me out

And turn me down to someone we both can't love now"

TUSKS - 'Toronto'

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Cali was having some very strange dreams.

They were strange in the way that most dreams were - an underlying sense of fuzziness, with certain parts repeating in a way that felt totally natural in the moment, but upon reflection were quite peculiar.

But even more strange were the things that usually didn't matter in dreams - emotions, sounds, sensations. In stark contrast, there was almost nothing visual. A white wonderland of empty walls and empty hallways, echoing only faintly with things she really should remember.

Her face was paralysed, she could feel her expression frozen in eternal peace. Her chest, though, bubbled with emotions that were so vast and unyielding that a scream got trapped in her throat.

The first was fear. Ice cold and brittle, climbing up her airways and clinging to her vocal chords. It sounded like an angry ocean, slamming against her innermost muscles. Bones snapped, the sound like a gunshot, and her fingers spasmed by her side like she'd been the one to pull the trigger.

Ambition, while not strictly an emotion, was a fiery feeling that quickly and efficiently stripped the fear of its power, warming the cold ocean inside her until it was bubbling. It felt like mercury in her veins - if she knew what such a thing was to feel like. Both impossibly hot and freezing at once, it loosened her facial features enough that she could inhale sharply through her nose and grimace at the smell of her father's old cologne.

At once, rain began to fall somewhere to her right, a sweeping anguish that flushed the impossible sensation of winning somewhere beyond her reach. Water built in her lungs, aching and miserable. Every now and then, her head would break the surface and air would cram itself down her throat. She'd open her eyes and see more white, blurry faces leaning over her, and then the sadness would well up again and drag her back down.

There was nothing to do except surrender herself to the tugging of the emotions that weren't hers, nothing to do except give herself over to experiencing things only the extreme, all while staring blankly at an empty hallway with white walls.

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Oliver found Tommy and Laurel where he expected to find Tommy and Laurel - sitting side by side in Cali's hospital room, murmuring quietly to themselves. The sight sent a sharp pang through his chest, and he inhaled sharply, forcing his lips into a somewhat friendly smile.

"Hi," he said softly, and Tommy startled somewhat, automatically sneering as he turned around. Upon seeing Oliver, the look faded into something much more civil.

"Oliver," he greeted. "How-How's Thea? I'm sorry I haven't been around much."

Oliver shook his head. "It's fine, Tommy, you've got your own sister to worry about. And, uh, Thea's doing fine, for now." He glanced at Laurel. "That's actually what I'm here about."