Halfway Ether

ONE--ASH

Alright, people! This story is a collaboration between myself and the lovely @Hope-Adon. @Hope-Adon will be writing Ash's parts (with feedback from myself) and I will be in charge of Ryan's chapters (with Hope's input). We're going to be uploading on my profile, but make no mistake, this story is as much hers as it is mine (if not more so). We'll try to upload one chapter every Saturday, and we really hope you enjoy!

All feedback/voting/etc is always welcome, of course : )

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I’m an explosion of body parts coming together.

Born again into the world, limb for limb, bones and tissue and organs forming as they were. I can almost feel my cells rushing through my blood vessels. Almost hear neurons firing rapidly as my brain tries to get all systems back in working order.

But I know this buzzing and crackling in me is just a residual of being ripped from one dimension into another, and as soon as I think this, it all stops. All of it except my breathing, deep inhalations and exhalations, so loud in the silence.

There’s absolute quiet around me, like I’m caught in a still frame far above the clouds, staring up at what most be the most perfect inky-black night sky I’ve ever seen. The twinkling stars are so radiant, the moon big and round and slightly yellow. I wish I could show this to someone.

I have no one left.

The thought starts off a chain-reaction. First comes the pain, ripping through my side with renewed vengeance. Reminding me of all of the terrible things I went through.

And that’s when the Beacon’s effect fades and my body realizes it’s in no position to hold me suspended so high in the air.

I start to fall out of the sky.

Wind tears through my hair and clothes, stings my eyes, and roars in my ears. My fear is rapidly coming alive. I see the ground below, fast approaching. Too fast. I try to summon what feeble strength I might still have, but the injury has weakened me too much.

The Ether burns across my skin like a torch, vivid blue and green. I’m losing more than I can hold onto. More than I can afford.

As the clouds clear, something below me glimmers in the moonlight. A lake. My relief dries up immediately.Falling into the lake is so much worse than smashing into the ground. At least if I hit dry land, I might recover.

I can’t recover if I drown.

This is my last thought before my mind slips, darkness surging into the cracks of my consciousness. But I jolt wide awake as I hit the water. Ice-cold water fills my nose and mouth. I claw at the water as bubbles of air drift in front of my face, my legs flailing.

Which way is up?

Which way is up?

My hand scrapes the muddy bottom of the lake. I’m upside down.

Fire erupts in my lungs. I keep my lips clamped tightly but I’m fighting every instinct I have. Air. I need air. There’s no more air. I’m slipping away again, and I don’t have the strength to right myself. My body is failing me.

Just as I have failed the people I love.

Faces spin in my head, some I don’t recognize and others I know so well. All dead: mouths gaping wide open, eyes staring at nothing.

They’re dead. They’re all dead.

Sorrow and regret choke me worse than the water. It’s fitting that this is my end.

I don’t know if it’s possible to cry underwater, but I imagine the lake is all of the tears I have in me.

My lips part.

Water rushes into my lungs.