a/n: this is for my sister, who talks about heroes day and night and night and day. i hope this manages to make you speechless; i'm praying for a quiet afternoon. ;p
The rain was falling down in a rhythmic tempo.
Peter could feel each drop of cumulonimbus' being wetting him, awakening him, reminding him: this is what you risked. Right from the very first kiss, this is what you risked.
He could see rainstorms in her eyes.
-
Elle smiled at him, showing off proudly her aligned teeth. 'Peter,' she said simply.
Peter tried to free himself from her electromagnetic ropes. He tried so hard to think of someone else's power that could free him from her clutches. He tried so hard not to remember the first time Elle came to him late at night to whisper in his ear, 'Hey, Peter' and giggled against his cheekbones and pulled away before his lips could claim hers and closed the door behind her.
'Let go,' he said, jaws clenched.
Elle came closer to him, closing the distance between them in the vast field. She placed a finger lightly over his chest, giving him a slight jolt. Peter closed his eyes at their contact. She smiled at him again, mouthing the words, 'I have a job to finish.'
Elle inched in closer to Peter and whispered softly to Peter with her purple lips, 'I have to kill you.'
-
Peter could see Elle involuntarily shiver from the cold of the rain. 'The body does strange things to protect itself. Homeostasis,' he suddenly heard his high school teacher's voice.
'Don't worry, it's going to be fast and painless.'
'Why are you doing this?'
'My daddy told me to. It's my job,' she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Peter snorted loudly, 'I thought you were better than that, Elle. Honestly, listening to other people telling you what to do? A little low for you to stoop to, I think.'
Apparently hitting a nerve, Elle advanced on Peter, spitting out the words, 'don't talk to me like that, you ungrateful bastard. I could've killed you weeks ago.'
'What's stopping you now?' he challenged her.
Elle spits in his direction from where she was standing but her slight blush doesn't escape his notice.
Goosebumps greet his skin.
-
After Elle was done connecting wires to his chest, she took a step back and admired her work. 'Here's how its going to work, Peter,' she said in a sweet tone.
'Those wires there are located right above your heart. These wires here,' she paused, showing him the wires with multi-colored insulators 'are for me to play with.' She ended with a genuine smile on her face.
Peter looked away. It hurt too much for him to see her smile. Imagine that, he was moments away from experiencing a full-frontal myocardial infarction and he was thinking about her smile.
He laughed. Myocardial infarction – he hadn't thought about that term in a while. His job as a nurse seemed so distant now. He missed being in control of his life, yet he missed being so out of control of life.
He missed being pleasantly surprised at Elle's antics, missed rolling his eyes at her ridiculous statements, he missed the sight of her smiling at him for absolutely no reason at all, he missed Elle's sigh of contentment when he kissed the corners of her mouth in the morning sun.
'What are you laughing at?' Elle asked, a frown placed between her eyebrows.
'Nothing,' he answered simply.
Unsatisfied with his answer, she stepped closer to him, peering into his eyes, she said, 'I'm going to miss you, Peter. You've been a good pet.' And then, she leaned in and pressed her lips softly against his. Before Peter could even attempt to deepen the kiss, Elle sent an electrical impulse to him.
Peter's already racing heart started to jolt when he heard the sound of her laughter. He started to smile, trying to remember the vibrations of her voice box.
Her laughter died away, carried by the dry wind. The rain had stopped now, he could feel the sun's rays upon his neck. It was quiet, and the last thing he heard was 'Goodbye, Peter.'
After that, Peter could almost hear her electrical current flowing through wires from her fingertips right to his heart, shocking his sino-atrial node in mid-heartbeat. Unable to neither contract nor relax, his heart merely stopped pumping blood to his elbows, his toes, his brain, depriving his organs of much needed oxygen.
As the sun began to rise from the horizon, his pulse became silent.