(Chapter 35|Wide Awake)
"PLEASE, SHE BARELY EVEN TRIED."
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Tranquillity. A state of being peaceful, calm and without violence. For Katherine, it was an exceptionally rare feeling that she had only experienced in her earliest memories.
Katherine Hargreeves' first encounter with her abilities came at a young age, believe it or not, on the day she was born. She remembered it vaguely, a flash of blue electric light covered her newly-developed vision. And for some unknown reason it made her feel tranquil.
Present day tranquility was a one in a million chance, but right now as Katherine lay sleeping on her childhood bed, she wavered on the edge of tranquility.
Her surroundings became clear as her eyes fluttered open and nostalgia encased her mind. Katherine felt reenergised, as she pulled the covers from her warm body, sending chills across her bare arms.
The speedster slid her legs over the bed and placed her shoe-less feet on the wooden floor, even though she didn't remember taking off her own shoes, she could see them on the other side of the room.
She reached into her jean pocket for her phone but found it missing, instead it was placed on the bedside desk, as the light appeared on the phone she picked it up and answered it, placing it to her ear without checking the caller ID.
"Hello?" Katherine spoke as her voice cracked groggily.
""What the fuck, Kat? I've been calling you all day." The concerned voice of her best friend yelled.
"Why? Is something wrong? I can be in there in 15?" Katherine asked, jumping up from her bed and running over to her shoes, pulling them on, with the phone lodged between her ear and shoulder.
"-No. No! Everything's fine." Meredith rushed.
"Oh?"
"I was calling to check up on you, see how the end of the world things going, you know?" Meredith muttered, the sound of the TV audible in the background.
"Well, we know who causes the apocalypse, at least we think so. His names Harold Jenkins and get this? It's Vanya's boyfriend!" Katherine gossiped.
"No. Fucking. Way. Why does all the shit go down when I leave?!" Meredith gushed.
"Hey, did you talk to your mom?" Katherine asked, changing the subject as she walked over to her vanity and took a seat.
"Well, we're doing good, we both apologised, obviously I couldn't tell her the world's about to end but I'm using the days we've got left." Mer's breaking voice pulled on Katherine's heartstrings.
"Don't say shit like that. We've got the whole academy against this catfish motherfucker and I promise that I will stop the apocalypse. Even if it kills me."
There was silence on the other end of the line, as cold tears welled in the Flash's eyes, it was a noble speech and she meant every word. If it came to it, she would lay down her life to save the people she loved.
"I-I know it's s-s-selfish of me, but I don't want you to die to save th-the world." Meredith's voice cracked as Kat pictured the heartbreaking image of the river of tears cascading down her best friend's cheeks.
"Well, uh, neither do I but.......It's mine turn to be the real hero. Goodbye, Mer, I love you."
And without waiting for a reply, Katherine hung up the phone, placing it down on the vanity as she wiped the stray tears from her cheeks. Grabbing her hairbrush, she ran it gently through her curls, trying to keep them in their almost perfect state, that had been flattened by her sleep.
Katherine could sense the presence of another person at the floorboards creaking outside her room and a sudden knock came from the door. She focused her senses on the doorway to find an unexpected visitor.
"How are you feeling?" Allison asked.
"Much better, thanks. Must of used up my energy carrying Five. How is he, by the way?"
"Healing, he'll be outta bed in no time."
"That's good to hear."
The silence that followed was awkward, between Katherine assuming that Diego had carried her to her bed and taken off her shoes and her worrying why she was still sitting at her vanity and not strangling Harold Jenkins.
"Uh, Diego and I are leaving now, we're gonna check out Jenkins' Grandmother's house, see if that's where he's keeping Vanya. You should stay here, rest and maybe watch over Five." Allison rambled, earning a number of different unpleasant looks from her sister.
"If you really think, I'm gonna sit on my ass whilst some father-killing maniac is probably raping our sister in his Grandma's house, then you would be mistaken." Katherine stood up from her chair, grabbing her phone from the desk and slotting it into her back pocket.
"Well, I cant stop you, come at your own risk." Allison held her hands up to surrender.
Katherine gave her a confused look as the speedster brushed passed her in the doorway, the pair walking down the stairs together, taking simultaneous steps.
"You know, you could just rumour me, dumbass." Katherine scoffed.
"Yeah, I know, I just didn't really want it be stuck with Diego." Allison chuckled.
As the sisters arrived downstairs, they were greeted by Diego, dressed in his usual dark attire with his current accessory of a blue sling that was still holding up his arm.
He looked up at the pair, from the entrance hall, holding the jacket Katherine had thrown earlier and for a moment Katherine almost forgot she was trying to save the world, the sight of him taking her breath away.
"Couldn't talk her out of it?" Diego asked Allison, who shook her head in response.
"Please, she barely even tried.....Apparently, she didn't want to be stuck with you." Kat whispered the last part, shrugging her shoulders as Diego handed her her jacket, pulling it over her shoulders.
"And why is that?" Diego smirked, taking Katherine's hand and playing with her fingers in his own.
"Maybe some people don't find you all that appealing." She returned the smirk.
"And what do you think?"
"I mean, you're alright, I guess."
"Oh, it is that right." Diego nodded through the symphony of the couples chuckles.
"Ew. Will you guys give it a rest? We have a world to save." Allison complained holding the open door and gesturing for the two to exit.
Diego's face turned a marvellous shade of beetroot red, whereas Katherine had a wide smile plastered on her tanned face as the two, strutted past Allison into the open surroundings of the city. As Allison closed the Academy door behind the trio, Katherine instantly felt a surge of paranoia, for she knew the road to victory would not be an easy one and success does not come without set backs. Now, looking at the world around her with only two possible outcomes for how this would end, the homely feeling of tranquillity was permanently erased from Katherine's mind.
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