I should be dead.
I believe jumping off a skyscraper would result into death. Especially when the inevitable fact that nothing is going to catch you clearly seals your horrifying fate.
For a mere second, I was flying. Crazy right?
Gravity did its niche role and my body was dropped like an anchor. I guess it was nice how I would die facing the blurry twinkling midnight sky; my back to the ground and my gaze directing into the sea of stars. My limp arms were spread apart, making this the perfect position for heaven to take me.
Expecting my whole life to flash before my eyes, a dark shadow filled my vision. Funny. I didn’t think there was a past memory where someone was falling towards me. Was this normal? My thoughts to be normal while falling to my intimate death? I didn't understand. I didn’t think this was how it was supposed to work. Wasn’t I supposed to be screaming? Where was the bone chilling fear? Or heart thumping panic?
It was like a dream. Where you couldn’t control what was happening. And something else was.
The blurs thinned and my vision was back. A switch was flicked in my system. It dawned on me I had instant control now. And my natural human reaction wasn’t far behind.
My throat was parched as the brittle Sahara sand. I was unsure if my deafening scream was audible because of the mono buzz ringing through my ears. Then I heard a voice.
It was vague and I blinked, the fact I was falling not helping the situation. The dark figure was approaching closer. “Levi?” I thought I croaked. I slowly made out his whipped brown hair. His arms were spread and he was dropping while facing me, his back to the heavens. I wasn’t surprised his attributes didn’t have a drop of worry. I desired his indifference view on death. He was used to it; he was surrounded by it every day. It was almost like he was immune to it.
My heart felt as if it was defrosting and the numbness was vanishing. It was pumping now. Faster. Harder. Thud, thud, thud. Too fast. Too hard. The buzzing noise increased and my lungs ached from my bloodcurdling scream.
It was hard to comprehend what was going on. This was all happening so fast. But my mind was processing it so slow. Thud, thud, thud. I blinked twice, regaining my vision. Thud, thud, thud. My heart rate felt like rapid fire. Thud, thud, thud.
Levi was shifting his weight as he approached closer towards my flailing arms. A metre away, I caught his honey eyes grow frantic. My stomach plummeted at his reaction and my throat burned.
Suddenly, Levi’s body draped over mine. Warmth rushed up my stunned body. His hard abdomen pressed against my queasy stomach. His lips were oddly soft as they nuzzled on my ear. Thud, thud, thud. He whispered a soft hush-hush, “Shhhh.....”
My breath hitched and the scream immediately died in my throat. His voice was dominant yet calm, and I shivered from the strange change. “Wrap your arms around my waist.” I didn’t hesitate and hugged him tight, squeezing my eyes shut as well. There was a chance I might have broke his ribs from my firm grip. His arms remained spread. He said those six words I had been secretly waiting for since this life changing journey happened:
“Everything is going to be okay.”
The problem was, judging by our current falling-off-of-skyscraper state, I hoped the next following second, I could believe him.
With his arms and legs widened, I inhaled his distinctive scent as we both dropped towards our sealed fate. In his position, he was like a fallen star. And I was holding onto my wish for endangerment. Go figure. I dug my face deeper, nuzzling along his neck. Fear was balled up in my chest. Thud, thud, thud.
I didn’t know how long it went for. Maybe forever. Then his smooth voice brushed against my ear again. “It’s over,” he whispered. I softened my grip, but held on. Slowly, I turned my neck to what awaited below. My backbone tensed.
Gravity froze itself.
Now we weren’t moving. We remained suspended in the air. The human ants had grown, scurrying faster as they carried on with their normal night. Amazed, we had only descended half the height of the building. “H-how?” I uttered.
He rumbled a deep chuckle. “See. I told you it wasn’t that bad.”
I found my hands strain its grip, crushing his waist. “What’s going on? Why aren’t we moving?”
He met my gaze, and shocks went off at my neck. An inch apart, I found my eyes stuck in his honey irises, his sweet voice telling me to lean closer. “Watch this,” he said, and shifted his gaze to his wrists.
I watched as his hands were clenched into a ball. Suddenly, he opened his palm and we shot towards the building like a magnet. My breath was barely caught as I felt our feet hit the glass window. The science of this put my body into shock.
“Wonderful, isn’t it?” he said, placing his hand on my lower back.
Bravery slipped into my system and I removed my hands from his body. Glancing at my feet, they remained rooted on the complex window. Thud, thud, thud. I took a step forward. I felt a little weight drag on, but I didn’t fall. I lifted my gaze, a smile dancing across my lips. “I-I’m walking on a window. I am standing horizontal on a vertical window!” I jumped, the distance of air I got the same to as if I was jumping on the ground. I threw a light laugh, unable to grasp this phenomenal disclosure. “H-how is this possible?!”
He seemed amused by my reaction, and stretched a grin. “It’s all about censors.” He tapped my forearm. “The tracker in your blood consists of not only a GPS, but a liquid censor as well.” He showed me his wrist which held two silver bracelets. “If I flick these on, whoever is in my close range that has the liquid censor in their blood will be affected by the gravity switch.” He pointed to where we stopped in mid air seconds ago. “I purposefully placed our transparent gravity boundary at that exact spot so we’d stop there. And carry on the gravity throughout the external part of the building.”
“Why couldn’t we just take the elevator?” I questioned, the shaken jitter from the drop adding onto the strange excitement and hilarity of the subject.
His grin widened, already beginning to walk down the building. “Because the elevator would take too long,” he spoke casually. It was convenient with the midnight sky out, the indigo ocean of stars used a blanket to hide our appearance from any viewers on the ground. “And running vertically on skyscrapers are more fun, don’t you think?” he asked while turning.
I walked beside him, and smiled. “Totally.” My face fell towards the lengthy gap between us and the ground. “This is going to take us a while though.”
He ignored my comment and began to pick up the pace. Hustling behind, the wind picked up and my ponytail was thrashing side to side. We pumped our legs faster, our arms slicing through the air. Thud, thud, thud. Soon, I left his pace and went quicker, zooming down the windows. Gravity was pressed against my back, the feeling similar when sprinting downhill. Thud, thud, thud.
He then was an inch ahead. The human ants increased their size. The sound of angry shouts and car honks amplified. My lungs thinned, and I propelled the speed of my legs. Our feet were silent, our toes gingerly bounding off the glass. Energy was swirling down my thighs. I had him by a metre. Thud, thud, thud. His hard breathing was audible. Thud, thud, thud. I was gaining closer towards the ground. I had him by another metre. A smirk pulled at the corner of my lip.
Something unexpected occurred: I felt his presence vanish.
I didn’t understand how. But I felt it. It resembles the feeling when your instincts say you’re being watched. You just feel it. You sense it. I sensed the heated chatter among the pedestrians, the intoxicating car fumes, the sweaty crowds from regular shoulder contacts, the violent wind nibbling on my skin and breezing past my ears. But I could not sense Levi’s presence.
Skidding my heels to an abrupt halt, I spun and located him darting in the left direction. So caught up in what I thought was a race...I didn’t realize where we were going. Mentally smacking my brain senseless, I caught up with Levi seconds later. Quickly, we reached the edge of the window surface and I copied his movements as we ran onto the other side of the building, the side that led to the ally instead of the sidewalk.
The ground was almost ten feet away. Levi took two swift steps, and leaped off the glass. I mimicked his actions and leaped as well, landing onto the cement a second after. Pain shot through my thighs for a split second before disappearing. Oddly, my breath instantly settled to a normal rate. My chest was just pumping a little more rapidly. That was it. I should have been exhausted.
But instead I felt alive. I didn’t understand.
As the night was still young, our black facades nearly made us invisible. Casper stood by the ally wall and headed over, surveying our unharmed conditions. His raven hair was wildly untamed as was Levi’s, his t-shirt slightly riding up his abdomen. He spoke with a chuckle, “How did it go”—he looked at me—“How was jumping into Nothing?”
I fisted my hand on my hip. “You call your gravity switching boundary thing ‘nothing’?” I asked, crossing my arms to hopefully ease my pumping chest.
Levi made a deep laugh from his throat. “Yeah, it scares the newbies when we say Nothing is going to catch us.” Casper and him exchanged familiar grins and I narrowed my gaze.
“That’s not nice,” I mumbled, and the boys scoffed another laugh.
“Who said we were ever nice, darling?” Levi smirked as Casper checked the hundred profiles on his necklace. The gang leader took a step, and I found myself frozen as his warm hand glided across my heated cheeks. He tucked a loose hair strand behind my ear and I stiffened. His voice was laced with such a wicked tone; it was as if the devil was already in my presence.
“We Snipers fight for what is right. But everything that’s right isn’t always good. We are no angles. We do cruel, malicious things to restore our proper hierarchy. Us being at the top means a balanced society. And if anyone plans on messing our balanced society, they become our bitch. We’re about to eliminate those that fucked our hierarchy and balance.” A darkened glare cast over his facial features. “The people we are killing deserve this. They have threatened and mocked us. We are to show them the dominance of the Snipers. We do not show weakness. Weakness means being vulnerable and we are not vulnerable to anyone.”
The bravery jitters sneaked past my mouth. “Including Romane?” I smirked.
He roughly let go of my chin. “Especially Romane,” he hissed. The North American leader’s name was soaked in potent hatred, his jaw tightening a tad. He moved past me and Casper tagged beside, leaving my shaken wits and I to catch up.
“The games have now begun. Who’s our first target?” asked Levi, leading us onto the busy streets. Hong Kong was well alive with abundant citizens rushing all over the place. No one gave us second glances, everyone set on their own priorities. The car honks were as bad as concert speakers and the strong smell of fried food stands stunk the place.
Casper checked the profile screen, shrinking it with the pinch of his fingers so it was barely viewable for any nearby lurking gazes. We hopped onto the rusty red public bus and stood, grabbing onto the handle from the top bars as the bus jerked forward. He read from the screen. “Dominic Axel. Works for Max and double crossed us”—he lifted his head—“twice. Him and ten other targets are wandering around Temple Street Night Market.”
Levi made a sly grin. He revealed a gun from his pants, hiding it from observant eyes, but flashing the hint of metal towards us. “Can’t wait to take a dip into this massacre blood bath they so wonderfully prepared for us.”
Although I should have felt queasy about his affection for murder, I was distracted by an abnormal sensation. I squirmed an uneasy feeling building in my stomach. Crossing my legs to stop the weird stir, I wrapped the safety handle tighter around my fingers.
Capser lifted his shoulder and said in a breezy tone, “Hey, based off of our current health states, at least we all drank the harmless serum. How about that, Levi?” He frowned at his friend’s failed response. “Levi?”
I shoved my shaking hands deep within my pocket and discovered Levi studying my face, and then body. The safety strap strained as I took a step back. “Stop eye raping me.”
A laugh burst from Casper, but Levi didn’t even twitch a smile. He weighed my appearance again. His lips were pursed to a tight line. “How do you feel right now, Jessie?”
His hard look closed off any positive vibes and I answered sharply, “I’m fine.” The squirm in my stomach increased, I gritted my teeth and uncrossed my legs. It wasn’t pain that stirred, but a bizarre, freaky swirl that continued to rock.
He reached to touch my neck, but I swatted him away. “I said I’m fine.” Vibrant tingles crawled up my arms. Another rush of heat shot up my neck.
Something awakened among him, and he grabbed my other wrist from my pocket. He checked the pulse. Casper pouted, leaning close. “What’s wrong?”
Levi’s stunned eyes flashed to his friend. “Fuck. She fucking drank it.”
†††††††
Bazinga!!
What did Jessie drink? The poisonous serum? RBR? The drowsy one?
First person to guess it right gets the dedication ;)
*That chapter wasn’t edited*