Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction inspired by the movie. I do not own any characters featured in the movie, nor any of the plot. This is all just for fun :D
Chapter One - Fractured Reality
Her lungs were bursting as the splinters of her latest attempt at escape fractured the reality around her. A treacherous sob slipped past her lips and rang into the cold night air; it made her want to laugh, but the exhaustion dragged the humour back down where it belonged.
Staggering, all sense of balance and normality nowhere within her grasp, she threw her arms out to find something stable to hold on to.
Smooth, perfect glass under her fingertips. Unwelcoming and incapable of consoling her aching mind and body, but quite unable to reject her as she sagged against the large display window. She was outside an electronics store, and the streetlamps flickered around her like they sensed the urgency in the air.
Her eyes were blurry from tears. She would have held them back before, but anger, fear and tiredness had finally broken her resolve. Salty lines streaked down her face, betraying the truth, that all she had was crumbling around her, that she was losing.
Her knees already bled from the last few times she had fallen, but the pain she felt there was not enough to claim her. She had felt worse, and darker, harsher fates awaited her if she did not find it within her beaten body to keep moving.
She wanted to Jump, but realised she had not the energy nor the destination. They were behind her, chasing her, at that very moment tracing the pathway of her last movement so that they might find her there, collapsing in the cold winter night in a some God-forsaken town she did not know the name of.
"Reminds me of home." she mumbled to herself, eyes focusing on the distant formation of a building she somehow recognised.
Without meaning to, and using strength she had thought long stolen from her, she Jumped from her pitiful breakdown spot and lurched into the space just outside the building. She gasped and stared at the letters carved from golden-painted metal, fixed on the grey stone and reading 'Sengleton High'.
"Home." she whispered, the word steaming into the chill atmosphere as though it were a physical thing. She marvelled at what lay before her, though her mind was still refusing to accept she was really there.
She heard the horrible sounds behind her, felt her heart hammer to a sudden stop inside her chest. She made herself whirl round and face it, though her body screamed for her to flee. The Jump was building deep in her core, but she fought it with the insane need to see for herself what destiny had sent.
She had Jumped a long way beforehand, and the scars were now fading away, but it had been long enough. The first Paladin stepped through with a flash of bright green light glittering out from the wounds reality tried desperately to mend.
His cold eyes, like chipped ice, found her without hesitation, seeing her even through the darkness and over the distance, like he was drawn by some internal compass, like he felt her there.
For a moment they gazed at one another, bound by opposing stares, captured in this short bout of time when it was just the two of them. Their thoughts seemed to echo over the space between them, each resolutely aware what the other was thinking. Betrayal and sorrow seemed to vibrate around them, the night singing with the splintered remnants of their shared past.
She let the tears come, a part of her wanting him to see them. He had to know, had to see what was happening inside her. She never wanted this, but the reckoning had come and punishment hunted her down in the guise of the young man she had trusted - still, stupidly, trusted.
She wanted to see agony reflected back at her in his glare, but he was too far away. That thought comforted her, but she wondered, if she was closer, would it make any difference? Or would she just see that harsh, vicious face of the hunter, chasing down his prey?
As the second soldier stepped out of the Scar, she formed what felt like her last words, or maybe the last thing she would ever have a chance to tell him.
"I'm sorry."
The Jump flooded through her even as he raised his gun and fired. The bullet rushed through the air, eating up the space between them, desperate to bury itself in her flesh and wrench her life and soul away, to silence what she had become.
The first crack appeared as she began to Jump, and her eyes widened as moonlight glinted off the tiny speeding bullet…
End of Chapter One
Thank you for reading Chapter One! This chapter is quite short, I know, but it is intended as just an inticing (hopefully!) opening, and all future chapters will generally consist of a much larger word count!
Please review if you'd like, all comments are welcome and appreciated.
Look out for Chapter Two, coming soon!