Waking up in the middle of a ditch, with a pounding headache was not the best way to start my day or night as I quickly found out.
"Step one for waking up in an unknown location: check your powers are working," I said to myself, shaking my hands as I saw the familiar purple flicker between my fingertips. "Check," I sighed, feeling my anxiety lessen. I wasn't sure why I had decided to make up steps in my head, even if I only had one at the moment.
After being fed up of walking, I decided to use the cover of darkness to conceal my identity and risk flying around until I saw some signs of life. The last thing I could remember was visiting the Cosmos, and from there it was all a blank, really.
Soaring up into the sky, I could see a halo of orange light emitting from what looked like Central City, given the dispersion of brighter lights and their heights. I figured it would be the best idea to stay at my own apartment tonight, rather than bother Barry with my presence at a time where he has a considerable loathing toward me.
I landed in the quiet alleyway next to my apartment building and sighed out of relief that none of my neighbour's lights were on in the adjacent flats. I quickly made my way through the corridors and rattled the key in the lock, making sure not the slam the door behind me in order to not wake up anyone else.
The only thing that I hadn't thought about, was the fact that I had no furniture or carpet in my apartment, meaning that I would have to make do with the fabric decorators dust sheets I had stuck down to stop the floorboards from getting paint on them and some large sponges I had bought to create an ombré effect.
I folded a few of the sheets to make the floor a little more comfortable and I gathered all of the sponges that I could find, before wrapping another sheet around it to create a pillow case and with the remaining decorator's sheets to be used as a blanket.
My makeshift bed was beyond uncomfortable, though, I would rather sleep badly than be put through the emotional discomfort of having a conversation with Barry at this point. I didn't know whether I was scared that he was going to break up with me, or whether I expected him to keep me around for the sake of it, given the level of uncertainty that surrounded the team. I assume he would want some sort of stability in his life, though, our relationship would hardly be stable.
I daren't think about all of the exciting adventures we could possibly get up to as Central City's justice-seeking duo. I didn't want to get my hopes up, after all, he could decide that I had crossed the line with keeping the biggest secret from him.
~
I needed to perfectly time when I was going to return to the West household in order to retrieve some of my belongings for a few days. I planned to wait a while outside in case I saw Barry coming or going from the property.
After waiting a few minutes, I saw Barry open the door to Eddie, which I thought was especially strange, given the tension between Iris and the latter as of late. I made sure to sit a little more flush to the chimney I was crouched behind.
It had been a fair while since Eddie had entered the house, and I was honestly getting a little creeped out since I was pretty sure they had never had a conversation of such length before.
The sound of a car, a Fiat 500, rolling down the street caused my ears to prick up as I carefully swivelled round to see Caitlin stop outside. I was confused as to why she may be visiting his house and decided not to call him, though, I wanted to get closer in order to hear their conversation.
As soon as Caitlin let herself in and the door closed behind her, I scaled down the side of the house I was hiding on, before creeping across the road to sit in the bushes beside the veranda so I could hear Caitlin rambling on about terminating polymerisation reactions, blah blah, until she made a point about Barry's strangeness.
"What's wrong with you? Is this about Emily?" Caitlin asked as I used the opportunity to sneak half of my face over the corner of the window to see Barry putting his coat on. "I really think you should let her explain all of this to you before you make any decisions or ask for anyone's opinion on it."
"Yeah, I, uh, I'll think about it," he vaguely replied, causing me to become more curious. I was tempted to have a look inside his head to figure out what he was feeling, though, I quickly shook the thought from my mind. It was his decision, and he needed to make it on his own without my influence on his brain.
"C'mon, let's get back to S.T.A.R Labs and figure out how to catch this Everyman," she replied, causing my eyebrows to rise in confusion. I must've been gone for a while for a new meta to have turned up and caused enough trouble that he needed to be captured. Though, I was even more confused as to why I couldn't see Eddie anywhere.
I ducked my head down from the window and quickly scuttled around the corner towards the back garden as I heard the lock in the front door turn and open. Once the sound footsteps had faded and the slamming of car doors followed, I waited until the small car was driving down the road until I entered the house.
It felt strange coming back into the house, for some reason. I felt as if I were in Barry's territory, even though I lived here too.
Strolling up the stairs and along the hallway, I stopped in front of Barry's room. Again, something felt off about the whole thing, until I realised what it was. His door was closed. Barry, being a creature of habit, always left his door open, unless he was getting changed.
I cautiously knocked on the door, in case someone was inside, but entered once I received no reply. Looking around, I noticed that Barry had been hoarding some of my things in his room, such as the picture of Eve and I as Glinda and Elphaba from the Wizard of Oz and a photo that he must've taken of me when I was asleep and a pair of my pyjamas.
I stopped my search for my belongings in his room when I noticed the small opening in his closet, which again was completely uncharacteristic. Barry liked his doors open or closed, not in between.
"Barry?" I gasped, pulling the wardrobe doors open as his body was limp on the floor, his mouth, arms and feet wrapped in duct tape. Heaving his body towards mine, I clicked my fingers to try and see whether it would wake him, though, I decided a gentle slap would be more effective since he didn't respond.
"Mmph!" He groaned, rolling to the side as his eyes widened from the pain.
"Oh, please, I didn't hit you that hard," I muttered, rolling my eyes as I gestured for him to move his head towards me so I could remove the tape from his mouth.
"Ow, careful!" He yelped as I forgot to use any energy to soften the ripping off of the tape.
"Sorry," I muttered, not looking him in the eye as I continued to remove the tape that was binding his wrists together. "What happened for you to end up being gagged and tied up?"
"I have no idea, Eddie came and visited and that's the last I remember," he said, shaking his head.
"But I saw you leave the house with Caitlin?" I replied, raising my brow in confusion.
"Oh, God," he said, his hands wiping his face in frustration. "Our latest meta is a shapeshifter, so he must've come as Eddie, morphed into me and left with Caitlin."
"How do you feel?"
"My head hurts a bit, and I'm a little dizzy but it'll pass," he replied, shaking his head to get the faintness to leave him.
"Good," I trailed off, our conversation becoming a little awkward as we were still knelt down in his closet. "I guess you should get to S.T.A.R Labs, in case this meta tries to hurt anyone."
I didn't receive a reply from him, instead, I received a gust of wind in my face from him running off to the labs.
"Damn, that boy can hold a grudge," Eve tutted, as I could imagine her shaking her head.
"Piss off, Eve. I don't exactly recall when you gave me the advice to tell him about all of this, so I don't think you've got a leg to stand on."
"You need to explain everything before stuff goes down with Wells, otherwise he'll be distracted," she explained, causing me to groan in response before I blocked her out of my head.
Shaking off the guilty feeling, I made my way to my bedroom. It didn't really feel like my room, even if I had been staying it in for a few months. I was glad that I had very few items here, meaning that it would easier for me to move out. Remind me to thank that bonehead Mick Rory for torching all of my possessions.
Pulling out a few folded up cardboard boxes and taping up the bottom flaps, I used my telekinesis to pile my belongings into the boxes as I sat on the bed to carefully supervise my packing.
The idea of packing my belongings reminded me of the time when my family moved to the United States.
~ Flashback (A/N FYI not a pun) ~
"Mum! I don't want to pack!" Eve screamed, stomping her foot on the carpeted floor as she ran up the stairs and slammed her door shut. Emily simply rolled her eyes at her twin's outburst as she went back to her piano.
"Evelyn Isabella Stone!" Sandra shouted, running up the stairs after her daughter. Emily sighed as she got up from her piano, neatly tucking her stool in. She knew that the shouting match was only just about to start and that she definitely didn't want to listen to it.
"I've just about had it with you, Eve! This is happening, whether you like it or not," her mother shouted as the voice faded as a young Emily wandered down the stairs in search of her father.
Making herself a plastic cup filled with blackcurrant squash, she made her way out to the garage to find her father tinkering away at the old Aston Martin that he had been fixing in order for it to be safely shipped to the US.
"Hey, Daddy," Emily greeted, plonking herself down on the boot of the car as her father peered over at her from behind the raised bonnet.
"Don't sit on the car, Emilia," he sternly replied, as the girl hastily got off of the car, muttering a quick apology.
"Mum and Eve are fighting again. I couldn't hear my piano over it last time," Emily sighed, finding a new place to sit down.
"I think they're always going to fight over it until we're there and she's settled," her father explained, which Emily replied with a nod. "How do you feel about it all?"
"I like to be in America! Okay by me in America!" Emily sang, doing the hand movements to the dance with one hand as the other was holding her drink carefully which caused her father to chuckle at her. "Really though, I think we'll learn to like it."
"I think your mother is only excited to move so that she can get away from Mrs Peters next door," her father mused, smiling at her.
"I think she creeps everyone out," Emily replied, giggling at the thought as her father wiggled his eyebrows at her, forcing her laughter to increase in volume.
Back in the present, I was forced out of my thoughts by the subtle breeze that was pouring into my room from the open window, causing the curtains to blow around the window rather erratically.
Soon, I had managed to pack most of my room given that the majority of it was still in boxes from when I moved in a few months ago which remained packed due to my lack of spare time as of late. Though, the constant swishing of the curtains in front of my window was beginning to anger me to no end. I couldn't bear to close the windows since the temperature at the moment was considerably higher than normal.
Moving over to the window to sort of the blowing pieces of fabric, I peered out of the window.
My eyes narrowed at the figure that was blazing down the road, running at a breakneck speed until it stopped in the middle of the quiet suburban street.
It was him.
A/N
Hey guys, thought I would actually update this book lol my update schedule has gone out the window but I'm trying my best to get it back on track.
Also, sorry for the cliffhanger lool you'll find out who it is soon enough!!
See you on the dark side,
Charis xo