It was...

My old H.I.V.E five communicator! I smiled. I had thought I had thrown it away, but apparently he had kept it. I switched it on. I felt pure nostalgia. The display setting was still on the one I had last used, „locating". I saw two dots beeping very close together. Probably See-More and Kyd.

OF COURSE! I hit my forehead. Kid couldn't run there but that didn't bean Kyd couldn't be there. And I knew Gloomy aka Raven couldn't do it either because she, too, moved through things. I had to talk to Kyd.

I stood up. „I'll sure be back", I said to the alien and ran down the streets. Our old secret lair wasn't too far, and that was exactly where the two dots were. „Hold on, girl, hold on, help is coming", I thought, as if that could help in any way. I ran for her life.

Hailey's POV

Tears were running down my cheeks. I didn't know which feeling was stronger; the pain or the desperation. My arms felt numb. The fact that the bar was slightly vibrating didn't help much. On the contrary, it just nourished the numbness. I breathed heavily. It was hard to get air with the arms up. Like I had been nailed to a cross. Only with less Romans.

I inhaled deeply. Thinking was a good idea. A good idea to get my mind off my hands. My hands that urged to let go. My survival instinct that urged to hold on. My intellect that debated whether I should just let go or savour the last seconds of life. My heart that still believed a wonder could happen, I could be saved. Although maybe my heart was just another facette of my intellect's many personalities. I had so many viewpoints. If every one of them were a person, my head would be more crowded than the square beneath me.

Why didn't they go away? Did they really want to see me die so badly? Did they have a desire for blood and gore? Were they all sick freaks who enjoyed a good show of girls getting all over the place because the long drop disintegrated them upon impact with the ground? I was angry.

But then again, they might all be thinking of how to free me. Maybe a few of them were doctors, hoping to get to me in time. Maybe some of them hoped they could catch me. Maybe they all just wanted my best. Wanted to give me hope by showing me they hadn't given up on me yet. By being there in my hour of passing away.

I didn't know if it had been an hour, it sure felt like one.

Once upon a time in Jump City.

Only it wasn't my father's life that lay in my hands, it was my own. That was better.

I breathed again deeply.

Rid me of all my emotional pain. He said he would do that. I remembered being totally creeped out that night before my window. He had forced me to inhale something that left me paralyzed. He had carried me to his car and put me on the backseat. And like the good villain he was he monologued his entire evil plan to me. He had heard I had been kidnapped so he decided to rid me of my trauma. Me and my loved ones, because he assumed they would be shaken by the kidnapping, too. That was why he had hung me here. He wanted my loved ones to come out so he could eliminate them later.

He was crazy. But I supposed it all made sense to him.

Although he did have beautiful eyes. A beautiful green. Something to drown in. But as much as I tried to like him for that, it just didn't work. I was always repulsed by him. In any other situation I might actually have found him attractive, but not as my tormentor.

I breathed deeply.

My hands began to slip. I grabbed the bar even harder.

Patrick Veirloom. Corner Soka street/ Dullygon alley. Apartment number 31. 25 years old, brown hair, tanned skin and the beautiful green eyes I couldn't bring myself to like.

He had told me all that since I wouldn't be able to tell anyone anyway. At least so he thought. He and the better part of my brain. The bubble was soundproof so I could scream as much as I wanted, nobody would hear me.

So I didn't.

I didn't want to waste my strength and breath on screaming. There was nobody to hear it anyway. Nobody who cared. Nobody.

I drew my breath in again.

My hands were slowly gliding off.

I was playing a game against time, and I was losing. Losing that goddamn game. I was ing because I was too weak. I couldn't hold myself up long enough now. I couldn't fight Patrick back then. I was just useless. It was all my fault, if I had been stronger I wouldn't be in this mess. After all I was only here because I had been naive enough to think anyone in their right mind would throw little rocks at my window. That anyone in their right mind would care about such a pathetic little insect.

I hated me. I hated myself with every fibre of my body. The hatred was so strong I could almost feel it pulsating through my veins. I wanted to make myself suffer. Let me feel the pain I had bestowed upon my life. I would draw out my death as long as I could. I would make myself hope for rescue only so my hopes would get crushed when I finally died. Oh yes, the sweet taste of crushed hopes. My crushed hopes.

Oh, how much I hated myself. If only those hands would never fail.

I gripped the bar harder.

I wouldn't let go. Not in this life. Not in this goddamn life. Not while I still had anything to say. And I did have something to say. I could tell myself what to think. I could tell myself what to imagine. And most important of all, I could tell myself what to do. And what I wouldn't do was letting go. I would hold on or die trying. Nothing could bring me down, nothing-

My right hand slipped.

My left hand wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, I wiped off the sweat on my clothes and tried to bring my right hand back up again. But that didn't work.

My other hand slipped and I fell.

Darkness surrounded me, welcomed me.

It was over.

I had won.

...

Warm...

Warm and comfy.

Was this... heaven?

Was it... hell?

-

A/N: I struggled so hard not to make this a total cliffhanger. Belive me, it's harder than one would think. Oh god, it was really hard. So please enjoy my effort. „Becoming Insane" by „Infected Mushroom"