Love-Love || OLD DRAFT

eight - eight

“Gee, thanks. It’s a birthday gift from my new friends.”

“New friends?” I repeated.

“Yup. You should meet them, Gravel. They’ll like that.”

I knew who those ‘friends’ were and fear crawled up my throat. “What did They tell you, Roux?”

“Who’s Roux?” She didn’t bat an eye.

I let out a breath and stretched out my hands in a peace gesture. “You want me to apologise? I’ll apologise.”

Garnet laughed, breaking me off. She took a few steps towards me and the fake mirth vanished from her face. “You always think everything’s about you, don’t you? News flash, it’s not.”

“Look, Garnet,” I said, “I don’t know what They told you –”

“Oh, they told me a lot,” she hissed and instantaneously, a glass cage broke and gallons of water rushed in from both sides. I braced myself for the impact but before it could touch me, the water came to an abrupt halt in a clear warning. “They told me all the things you’ve been hiding from me, Ridge,” she spat out my name. “Explained to me why we had to keep paying Them, keep listening to Them; why I had to keep listening to you. And you know what the single answer to all these questions are?”

I said nothing.

“Make a guess,” she hissed and took a step back.

I clenched my fists at my side.

“You’ve always been too selfish, Ridge. That’s the answer.”

Water crashed in from all sides, nearly crushing me. I barely had the time to take a deep breath before I was plunged into the water and thrown against the hard, polished floor.

The water washed away and Garnet stood towering over me.

“I’m not gonna fight you,” I said.

“Am I the only one who’s getting the déjà vu?” she said. “Because I remember you saying the exact same thing to Linden.”

I had to keep reminding my lungs to suck in air.

“And yet you still went against him –”

“He had lost his mind, Roux,” I forced the words out, almost tearing my heart out in the process. “You know it as much as I do –”

A hand-shaped stream of water came and wrapped itself around my throat as my sidekick glared daggers at me. “Say that again and I will rip your head off.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “You’ve grown into such a badass. Lin would’ve been proud.”

“Oh yes, he is,” she said with a smirk and my whole body froze. I could barely feel my own heartbeat. “And I know he’ll love it when I take you to him – with or without your head.”

“Roux, They’re lying,” I croaked. “They’re simply trying to mess with your head. Lin’s dead and you know it –”

I saw Garnet flick her wrist and an overwhelming amount of water pressed down on me. I felt the pulsing of earth two floors below me, itching for me to ask their help. I only had to will a small affirmation and the earth rose up, bursting through the concrete, and flung Garnet off her feet.

It was enough to break her concentration. I pushed through the water and jumped down the hole on the floor created by the slab of earth. I felt some of my strength return as I landed on the ground floor, closer to home.

I heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking and this time I was prepared. I willed the earth to rise out and form a wall around me just as water came crashing in, ruthlessly beating against my shield.

“They told me you just had one job,” I heard Garnet say. “One job and we’d be free. And yet you –”

The water pressure was increasing by the second and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold it for long. I looked down at my feet – I could escape if I wanted to, but then what? There were certain things you could never escape from. My current situation was proof enough.

“You refused to help Them, Ridge. Why – because you have some stupid schoolboy crush on Super Storm?”

Her words were so out of the blue that it made me lose focus – for a fraction of a second – and that was enough for Garnet to overpower me. I was swallowed by the gushing water, its current flinging me against the ground, the walls, and the glass cages containing more of that wretched water.

I was having trouble holding my breath as I felt the oxygen slipping. I clenched my hands to call for the earth but I couldn’t feel anything – not the ground, and not even the fire.

I struggled to swim through, to reach for air but all around me was water. The fear gradually settled into a calm as I realised how much of a fuck-up I must’ve been to make my own friend be the person to kill me.

“You’ve always been so selfish, Ridge,” was the last thing that echoed through my mind as everything went black.

...

A/N

dun dun dunn.... what do y'all think?!

STAY. TUNED!!! XD