He Struck me as Fast as Lightning

Chapter 1: Amelia

Amelia's POV

My life basically sucks. My parents are strict. My friends aren't friends. The line between reality and fantasy is becoming blurry. I don't know what's real anymore. All I have is Barry. But I can't tell if he is real. I think he is, but he could just be another piece of my imagination.

Let me start from the beginning.

My name is Amelia. I live in Central City. I've been bullied since fourth grade. My greatest wish has always been to have the power to out run my problems. My MANY problems. Whenever I get close to something good it slips out of my reach. Until recently I thought my luck would never turn around. Now that I've landed a job as a security guard at S.T.A.R labs, my luck seems to be taking a turn for the better. We are on the verge of turning on the greatest scientific discovery in the history of the universe, The Particle Accelerator. Some people think that there's too much risk, but once Dr. Wells has set his mind to something he is unstoppable. And I mean unstoppable. It goes online in one hour and the crowds are already passing the fire code. We've already locked people out. Dr. Wells is being interviewed and swamped with questions. I cannot imagine how overwhelming it must be to be him.

When the machine went online we all celebrated. It worked and we felt at the top of the world, until it didn't work. Something malfunctioned and we were all going to die in an explosion, if it weren't for Ronnie. Ronnie sacrificed his life to reroute the explosion to cause minimal damage. We had few causalities, but many were injured. Among the injured was Dr. Wells, who would never walk again.

A lot of damage was done to the labs. Most employees quit or were laid off. The only people left were Dr. Wells, Cisco Ramone, Dr. Caitlin Snow, who was Ronnie's fiancé, and an unpaid skeleton security crew. That crew included me.