COLLIDE ― ❝in the chaos, we found each other❞
IN WHICH young Veronica Parker is assigned to a case involving a little girl with mysterious powers, but unbeknownst to her will also be forced to face her past and try to combat what may be the end of t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
PRESENT DAY
IF THERE WAS one thing Veronica could never fully fathom, it was how there seemed to be no end to the torment in which life seemed to like making its souls endure.
She pondered if this was how it would be for the rest of her existence. Fight after fight. No room to catch her breath. Her bones were so sore, and her legs felt more like lead, the marrow that runs through them worn thin.
She was, simply put, tired. Not physically, at least in the current moment. But, she was numb and couldn't quite seem to find the right words to even begin to figure out how she was feeling.
Dick and Jason were chatting away in the front seats, occasionally including Evelyn as well, but their voices were dull and muted to her, falling on deaf ears. She didn't care to pay much attention. There was only few things about Zucco she would catch, mainly his name, which was enough to cause the weight on her chest and breathless panic to arise inside her once more.
She closed her eyes.
Breathe, Veronica. Breathe. You faced this once before, you can do it again, right?
The only thing she could really do was convince herself she could.
She cast a glance over to Dick then, and pondered how he felt about it all. Sure, he'd never exactly been face-to-face with the deadly acid per se, but it had withered away everything he once knew, turned wholesome things rotten and tainted with misfortune. His whole life had changed—quite literally—in the blink of an eye because of it.
A part of her wanted to just pull him into her chest and hold him tight, let him know he was cared for, not alone. That she was there and wouldn't leave him again this time. That she understood and wanted nothing more than to share the burden of this. That he had instilled, cemented and carved his way into her heart and there was no way she could part herself from him again without physically ripping that exact heart in two.
That, above it all, living a life without him in it wasn't something she could think possible anymore, nor was it something she even wanted to imagine.
The realization of it hit her like a blow straight to the chest.
She ignored it. Rather, tried her best to.
But, try as she might she knew it deep in her bones.
She would just have to refuse to admit it to herself.
His eyes met hers through the mirror in the centre of the windshield.
She gave him an emphatic smile. His gaze softened, and then his focus was back on the road once more.
