(a/n: im sure the number 33 is my unlucky number or something, i swear ... even in the last book i got stuck on this chapter exactly when writing it. yuck. shoutout to my fingers for actually typing this out tho! dedicated to SharingIsntCaring for always leaving amazing comments keeping me motivated. if this is your addiction, it's at least a bit healtiher than drugs so i'd say you're fine <3 xo, cleo)
thirty three
FOR A BRIEF MOMENT I wondered where Declan was, almost instinctively relying on someone else for help, before I realized that wouldn't make gravity stop pulling us toward certain death any slower. It was like glancing at the world through a sludge of transparent oil, as everything seemed to move slowly – my eyes stuck on an errant piece of bloodied gravel, cascading through the air in parts of cracked, gray stone as if it were rain.
And as long as that split second seemed to be, it ended. The rushing sound of wind in my ears registered, the scrape of smaller rocks skittering over exposed skin – meanwhile I flailed, attempting to grasp something resembling a solid surface. Blood roiled in my veins as I spun mid-air, vision switching from normal to dark to black again as nausea twisted my mind. In the outskirts of my eye, I was able to see two other figures also falling: Xandra and Tetra.
It registered a heartbeat later, that one of them was unconscious, the other unpowered. Xandra's scream split the night, spearing through the sound of crashing, splintering concrete and rubble. The fall seemed impossibly quick now, the ground a fast-approaching spot of darkness. I swallowed, heavily, then rotated my arms so that I fell stomach-first, able to survey my surroundings.
The biggest piece of rubble from the walkway was an enormous chunk och both the walls, roof and floor, all falling in a sharp, edged heap. Just a few feet below that heap was Xandra and Tetra. Tetra – falling aimlessly, eyes closed in oblivion. Xandra – screams escaping her, so unnatural for the normally poised criminal, but now she was desperate. My hair whipped into my eyes as I shifted them to the ground, heart beating in my throat as I realized we were seconds from impact.
My eyes glowed vividly red, heart burning at the effort it took to dredge up my powers. I summoned them to me, once again a red comet in the night , and propelled myself through the air, until I neared the other two falling bodies. I caught Xandra's eyes, nearly entirely white. They were wide, terrified, understandably so. She shouted something, but the wind swallowed the noise. I avoided her gaze, saw the ground again. Seconds remained.
My hands burned brighter as I turned them, palms up, to the mass of rubble falling above us. Then I turned one of my hands around, until one palm faced the rubble, the other facing Xandra and Tetra. Xandra was desperately grasping Tetra's hand, attempting to keep them from being separated mid-air. I swallowed, allowed myself a moment to breathe. I heard one of Xandra's frantic shouts carry over the rush of air: "Do something!"
So I did. My entire body tensed as red light flared out from both palms, spearing into the dark night. One hand directed the light into a ball, the red light growing until it enveloped both of my companions, forming a sphere.
The other hand directed the light so that it grew into a large, flat wall. It expanded and stretched, pulsing with light as rubble connected with its surface. Milliseconds later, we slammed into the ground. The sphere of red light crashed into dirt, burning itself a few feet into the ground as its energy pulsed vividly, almost angrily. The impact shook me, pain radiating from my palm to my head. My mouth tasted like iron, and my heart was either beating too fast or too slow, I couldn't tell – at this point, I was functioning on survival instinct.
My other hand, directing the wall, shook harder as the mass of the rubble slammed into its surface. The huge heap of what had previously been the walkway made its impact hard enough for the wall to bow and bend. Its weight felt as if it transferred to me, my mind bending, snapping, under the pressure, and a pain unlike any other cascaded across my body, clenching a hard fist around my heart as its beating abruptly slowed.
I was suspended in mid-air, bright rivers of red power flaring out from either hand, but as that beating slowed, so did the vivid color of that light. The forces which had held me suspended in mid-air were quickly dimming, the physical exertion creeping up on me as a sudden numbness sliced through the steely concentration of my mind. The red sphere which had protected Xandra and Tetra gradually disappeared, almost melting away to reveal a smoking hole in the ground, where they both lay scattered – seemingly unharmed. Relatively so.
Forcing my other palm to move despite me not feeling my arm, I directed it to the wall, still buckling under the weight of the rubble, suspended directly above us. I clenched my teeth, and with a scream that made my already sore vocal chords cry tears of blood I pushed my hand upwards.
The wall folded on itself, then shot away from us, the rubble in its grasp. I'd only managed to push it away around a dozen feet, but all that remained to rain down on us was rubble and dust. The ground shook as the remains of the walkway fell to the ground, dirt shuddering and scattering as they came to a sudden stop.
The numbness was still spreading, and so I let my arms fall. With that, I crashed into the ground, unable to even move my head. My face was half smashed into the dirt, half turned to the horizon, where the lights of Dynamo glimmered, as if nothing had happened. To them, nothing had happened. I had succeeded.
With a mouth half filled of dirt, four limbs I barely could feel and blood running in rivulets across my face, I managed a small, small smile. A victorious smile, as my eyes burned. Not from the dust and rubble, no, but from sentiment. My mind was overloaded, unable to even process the moments which had transpired, but my sense of victory remained intact. The people of Dynamo would walk safe, as Tetra had been stopped. Now, Declan would get her to Python's or whatever government organization's headquarters, and she would be put behind bars.
Better bars. A less shitty prison than last time, at least.
The lights from Dynamo's skyline was interrupted by the sudden flashing from flying objects. In my painful deliriousness, the thought of extraterrestrials crossed my mind, before the flashing red and blue lights signalled paramedics, or police. Small, whirring shapes crossed the night sky, and the hum of helicopters soon reached my ears as they crossed the Pyrth river quickly, blades slicing evenly to propel them forwards across the shadowy waters.
A small tear escaped the corner of my eye as I watched the glimmering lights from buildings scatter across the dark surface of the river. The uniform helicopters rushing towards us was something I shoved to the back of my mind, as the numbness continued spreading. I attempted wriggling my fingers to no avail, and instead a sharp pain emanated from my head. Soon the lights turned from sharp to smudged, nothing more than blurry splotches on an old, folded map.
The previously static skyline now seemed to move, as if it were floating into the river, and with the lights moving, shifting I attempted shaking my head to clear my vision, but it was to no avail. Instead I was rewarded with another sharp burst of pain, one I wanted to groaned at, but I couldn't. I felt as if the air was slowly squeezed from my lungs, one molecule at a time, and my body attempted to convulse in a desperate attempt to breathe, but I remained frozen. Instead my mouth dropped open, head spasming as it slammed into the dirty over and over and over again, sharp rocks digging into my skull, ripping into skin.
The previous numbness was quickly replaced by an intrusive pain, one I imagined was what burning alive should feel like, as it seemed pure energy was running rampant and turning on each and every one of my pain receptors, sending signal after signal as they all fired up, the pain growing and registering. My own powers continued firing that energy, and with a sudden, panicked realization I knew my own powers were turning against me.
In the dark night, I lay there, amidst the rubble and dirt, perfectly still, yet every nerve of my body was on fire. The remains were perfectly still, the whisper of wind entirely silent, the whirr of helicopters growing closer – yet inside I was screaming, but my body refused to obey. My very own nerve cells, synapses, seemed intent on turning up the pain gauge to the max, and the pain in my brain was unbearable.
Unaware of how much time had passed, how much time would pass before I could get help, my hands attempted reaching for anything that was sharp enough to relieve me of this pain. If Tetra wanted to come end me now, I would gladly take her up on her offer. It seemed it had drilled its way into my own head, unable to be stopped.
Reality flickered in and out of focus, my ears barely registering the thud of boots, a worried face as it loomed over mine. Free air brushed my skin as my mask was ripped off, and through the haze in my mind a familiar face registered, and a name surfaced: Vector. Declan.
"Breathe, Charlie. Please, breathe." Shaking hands grasped either side of my face, pressing softly into my dirty and blood-streaked cheeks, disturbed by the tracks of my tears. Declan's mask was pushed up to his forehead, unveiling worried, frantic eyes. "Come on, you can do it." Those hands, those shaking hands currently holding my face, swept their thumbs across my cheekbones as he urged me to breathe through that unyielding pain.
I can't. I wanted to speak, shout – anything to relieve this pressure, this pain, but I was chained to my mind, a prisoner of my own powers. I can't.
My mouth opened as if to obey, but closed in a gasp instead as my body shook. Declan moved his hands, pressed them into my upper arms in an attempt to keep me still. Bright lights shot across our faces as the helicopters neared, the paint on their sides – depicting a snake – visible from our distance. It barely grazed my mind, as my focus latched onto Declans' calming voice, though I heard his tone shake, waver as he was unaware of how to help me.
What seemed like hours later, another voice joined the mix. Sawyer, I wanted to say, help me. Yet I remained mute, helpless as my brother ran over, tears and anger mixing on his face as he said my name, gently pushing Declan away as his arms went around me.
"My sister. Little sister. Charlie. Charlotte." Sawyer pressed my head into his shoulder, his chest shaking as I attempted breathing. He leaned back, held me by my arms, looking into my eyes, "Come on, breathe."
It didn't work. A sheen of red passed over my eyes instead, and when I next opened they had turned completely red. The pale white of Sawyer's face matched that of the moon, and he desperately called over medics. Red light shot out from my fingers as my powers rebelled, and the pain kicked up a notch.
The medics were hesitant to approach, unwilling to touch my volatile self. My vision flickered as Sawyer shouted something at them, fury coating his voice. Declan had snapped his mask back over his face and rose to his feet, staring at the medics. Their eyes went to the masked hero, who spoke only a few words, words I didn't hear. After that, they were eager to rush my way, as Declan brushed a hand across my forehead.
"It'll be OK, Charlie. I promise."
The pain obliterated my conscience, and the numbness finally overtook me as reality fell away.
≄
a/n: DAMN damn damn ! only like one or two chaps left. how we feel about it? as i mentioned in the beginning, i think number 33 is my unlucky number, this chapter just wouldn't come to my mind, but i finally got through it. i would like to thank trina lovell on youtube for her endlessly entertaining film commentaries, who made me happy despite my writer's block. i would also like to thank easter chocolate, for being its lovely self. shoutout to the duck who lives in our garden, too. love you dude.
__qotc__
__how do you think this will end ?? ? ? ? ? ?__
as always, love you all lots.
::GOAL::
40 votes, 30 comments
:: A LIL LOWER THIS TIME CAUSE' I SUCK A LIL'. LOVE Y'ALL::
xo, cleo