Convergence - The Last Science #2.2 - Heroes and Villains

Interlude VIII - A Day in the Life of Jessica Silverdale

  The angel whipped around. She saw the monster. Jessica would have breathed a sigh of relief... except that she was having trouble forcing any air through her lungs. She felt so weak. Her body just wouldn't move like it was supposed to. Pain kept her rooted in place.

  The detective kept shouting, while the angry girl backed away. Her angel started funneling magic like the beginning of a tornado spinning into a howling fury, painfully different from the usual gentle breeze of her true spirit. Jessica tried to reach out and give her more, but she was so far away, and Jessica couldn't get to her.

  She was lifted into the ambulance, and the sirens started up again. She watched as her angel started to fight again—but Jessica wasn't at her side where she was supposed to be. The ambulance door slammed closed, and the car rumbled away, while the sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed through the metal box surrounding her.

  The paramedics kept working, trying to talk to her. She mumbled something, hoping they'd understand she couldn't talk but was still awake. They needed to know she was awake. She needed to stay awake.

  She needed to stay awake.

  She needed to—

  The crystals exploded. Every single one around the outside of the symbol she'd drawn on the floor in chalk, simultaneously. They shot in every direction, embedding in the walls, barely missing her by inches. Barely missing him, too.

  Jessica panicked, letting out incomprehensible noises of fear as she scrambled away. He ducked as a rushing sound filled the room, deafening her. Light flooded back into the room, where it had been pitch black only a moment before. She fled into the corner, curling into a ball, trying to hide herself from him. Somehow, his intrusion had fractured it. He'd shattered everything. She'd been so close to discovering something huge. She could feel it, just inches away from her grasp. It might have been nothing useful yet, but it would have been a breakthrough. It was a whole new area of magic, some facet she'd never explored. Just a few more minutes and she would have been done.

  Now, she was naked and broken, while her mind twisted into shapes that she couldn't understand. She shivered and tried to press herself deeper into the corner of the room, praying he'd just go away. She whimpered in fear, as sensation overwhelmed her mind. There was so much energy flooding through her skull, a torrent of unchecked magical power. She couldn't handle it. She couldn't control it anymore. It could kill her if she didn't let go.

  Someone shouted. A voice. Her voice, the voice Jessica longed to hear every minute of every waking day. I have to let go. If I don't, I'll die. I'll never see her again.

  Jessica let go.

  The rushing sound stopped. The flow of energy froze, like a river that suddenly turned to ice. It cracked. She reached out with her mind and tried to push it away.

  It shattered, and along with it, something in her brain. Something she couldn't remember, even though it had been there only a second earlier.

  Someone said something.

  Jessica slowly looked up, peeking through the curtain of hair covering her face. Both of them were staring at her, wide-eyed, terrified. She tried to say something back, reassure them that she was okay. She opened her mouth.

  I...

  They stared at her. Jessica tried again.

  I'm...

  Nothing came out. She didn't have the words to say it. They were gone. She knew they existed. They were out there somewhere. She reached for them, but her brain refused. It couldn't go down that path. It wouldn't let her.