Author's Note: Hi guys! Thank you so much for all of your lovely reviews, when I saw a few of the recent ones I just jumped onto my laptop and started writing. I love hearing from you guys so much and I noticed that I'm nearing 50 reviews! Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. So I decided to do a bit of a prize for the 50th reviewer. I'll tell you more later on. Thanks. XOXO- Skai.
Skylar's POV:
I hurtled my body through hallways and tried to avoid breathing. I didn't want to smell the sterile, hospital like smell I knew was lingering in the air. I felt alive, with blood thrumming through my veins and my heart pounding against my rib cage.
I felt hot and cold everywhere. Where I could feel heat underneath my skin I could also feel ice, combating the new substance. I didn't want to think about Ash, I didn't want to think about the fire that was swelling inside me like a lion waiting to pounce.
Thinking would just lead to heartbreak and emotions I didn't understand. Instead, I focused on feeling. I noticed the way my feet lightly skimmed the tiled floors as I sprinted. The way oxygen would always feel so frigidly cold as it entered my body with labored breaths and exit with warm uneven sighs.
My lungs swelled with air then expelled. My chest was rising and falling. It was so normal, such a human function it was hardly even looked at. But when terrible shadows prowled in the back of my mind, it was a welcome distraction.
Max latched a firm grasp onto my wrist, yanking me into a sharp turn down a different route. "This way's faster," she explained through her panting. I'm sure if the walls weren't all white, my vision would've blurred with my speed. However, my surroundings simply melded together into a world of white.
The sun shone painfully in my eyes as we found what we were looking for, a window. It wasn't very large, but just large enough we could jump through it with our wings tucked tightly against our spines. Max gave me a quick glance, taking in my bare arms and her jacket covered ones. Inhaling, she shoved an elbow into the glass. It didn't even crack.
Max hissed with pain, jumping away from the glass pane. "My gosh! What are those things made of? Steel?!" I would've laughed any other time. "Let me," I said pushing past her. My body was begging me to release all of the power, the flames, the ice, into the air. I did the only thing that felt familiar to me and placed my palms against the glass.
I concentrated the cold that chilled my body in such a strangely warm way into my hands. I kept going until I heard a small crack and the window was coated in frost. Grimacing, Max jutted her elbow into the window one more time. Only this time, it shattered.
Glass shards fell to the floor with lovely tinkling sounds, as if were a beautiful thing. Max didn't hesitate before throwing herself out the window. I would've checked to see how close the ground was if it weren't for the recent events.
I realized I didn't really care as I followed her. Wind rushed around me, cradling me in slightly chilly nothingness. I smiled as I released my wings.
It felt like stretching a muscle that hadn't been used in a while. Relieving as well as unbelievably pleasant and painful. I let my wings lift me up into the air with a sudden jerk.
Max was already hovering above me, her wings flapping around her body. Stars shone brightly above us and the moon was covered eerily with clouds. I flew up to her, "What do we do now?" She laughed incredulously, "I have no idea."
She sighed. "But I'll tell you what we can do, we can fly to a motel far away from here, and camp there until we figure out a way to contact the Flock."
"Sounds like a plan," I grimaced in pain as a scorching heat burned my hands. A small flicker of a flame startled me. I jumped back away from my own outstretched limb. Although it was pointless, you couldn't escape yourself.
"Ash really did give you her fire," Max's eyes were wide. "But," my voice was shaking, "how?" I'm sure I looked as confused as I felt. "My guess is the heat of her fire somehow managed to meld your guys's DNA. Well, no, not her DNA, her… fire. You said you could always feel your ice, like it was a coolness in your veins?"
"Yeah, that pretty much describes it," I replied. I was confused and scared, but also scared enough that I wanted to learn more. If I was going to face something, I wasn't going to confront it blind. Max continued, "Maybe the heat allowed her fire to transfer into your veins, along with your ice. If that makes sense. And your ice hasn't diminished, so my guess is that they're both strong enough to not fade in the other's presence."
It made sense to me, in a strange way. I opened my mouth to respond but instead I heard a voice behind me. It was heartbreaking to hear it again, but I still recognized it. It had a slight boyish lilt to it, but all it's innocence was gone. It was Will's, although it had grown not only deeper but also darker and more twisted.
I turned slowly. My body was paralyzed with shock. It was him, but with more beastly features and a menacing glare directed at me. I refrained from shuddering at the horrific sight. Wings sprouted from his spine and loomed around his frame.
"Will," I heard myself breathe. There were other eraser's around us, but Will held all of my attention. My Will, the Will who wore a white lab coat but had a bigger heart than everyone in the School. The will who gave me the antidote to stop the hallucinations the drugs induced. The boy who was kind.
That boy was gone. He gave me a wicked grin. "Hi, Sky," he displayed his now sharply pointed canines. "Miss me?" "What did they do to you?" The question was directed to myself more than it was him, but he answered.
"You know exactly what they did. I'm an eraser," his face hardened with an emotion I couldn't place. The look seemed foreign on his monstrous features. I didn't have time to contemplate it, for moments after he lunged for me.
He attempted to pin my arms to my side with his strong, bony hands. I shrugged off his attempt and darted out of the way. He reached for a small pouch resting on his hip.
It was obviously meant for small objects, like paper clips and coins and maybe, at most a baseball. Instead, the handle of a gun hung unfittingly out of it's drawstring top. He gripped the gun and pulled it out, pointing it at my head.
Max was struggling with two other eraser's to my left. The gun was close enough I could see his finger resting lightly on the trigger. "You know what hurts a whole lot?" Will asked. I shook my head compliantly.
"A bullet to the stomach, or leg, that hurts pretty bad too. But what hurts even more is being left behind. Do you know what you did? You left me. You escaped and didn't even look back." "Will I-," I started. "Don't!" His voice wavered. "Don't make excuses or apologize. Because you know what I did, I asked to be this way. So that I could hunt you do, repay exactly the pain you caused me. But I wish I hadn't. Skylar, I wish I hadn't, because now I have something in brain screaming at me to kill you."
Tears streamed down his face. They were human tears, and his humanity seemed to seep out of his body, wetting his face. "I'm going to listen to it," he told me. "Please don't." It was all I could say.
"I will." The two eraser's Max had been fighting plummeted through the air towards the ground, incapacitated. Noticing the gun shadowing over my face, held by Will's shaking hand, she rushed towards us. Taking my opportunity, I pushed his arm aside, the gun firing but the bullet flying past me.
Max grasped his wrists and pressed them against the small of his back. I caught the gun, fumbling with it as I darted below us to where it fell. When I had it firmly placed in my hands, I braced my body for the recoil.
I rose up to Will and Max. "Don't make me have to do this," my voice was cold and calculated, everything that I wasn't feeling at the moment. I didn't want Will to die, I wanted anything but. He outstretched his neck. His snarling face nearing mine. I had my answer.
My finger pressed down on the trigger. A small bloody trail dripped down his face as Max released her hold on his body. I looked away from where I knew I would see his corpse lying awkwardly on the grass.
Suddenly, the handle of the gun heated up to a scorching degree. I let out a sound of pain and dropped the gun.
I clenched my jaw and tried to steady my hands. I wanted to tell myself excuses, anything that would make it go away. Anything that made me think of something else besides the look on his face before. It wasn't an emotion foreign to me. It was one so familiar it was like seeing an old friend you had never hoped to see again.
It wasn't anger or malice or even evil, it was sadness. It was sadness that ghosted the face of the monster he was. Because he was a monster, he had been. But it didn't make me feel any better.
I faced Max, hoping my face didn't betray how I felt. Max simply remarked, "You knew him. I'm sorry." And surprisingly, that was what made me feel a little bit better. "Thank you."
We flew in silence towards the cover of the trees. The tall evergreen tree's needles pricking my skin as I brushed past them. I felt myself relax at the warm feeling of being surrounded on all sides by trees. For a few moments it was easy to forget my fire, Will, and what we were going to do. Because I didn't know what to think about any of them.
Rustling sounded from up ahead. Max halted and raised a hand, signaling for me to do the same. Out from the cover of the trees, emerged the Flock.
Nudge's face was ecstatic. Angel and Gazzy exchanged a look, Angel's face read: I told you so. Iggy, even though blind, seemed as if he knew we were there. He smiled.
Fang's widened and I swear I could have seen his entire face soften as his eyes landed on me. I looked back. "I hate to tell you, but you guys are little late," Max laughed but it was obvious it was forced. But for the sake of the situation, we all smiled and laughed quietly.
Author's Note: Hi guys! So about the little prize for the 50th reviewer, I'm just doing a little thing where the 50th reviewer can give me a plot idea, can write a paragraph or a bit more for the next chapter, or can create an OC for the story. The rules are, no lemons, it has to make sense with the rest of the story, and has be to appropriate for a few of the younger readers, no cursing. Then let me start off by saying, thank you all so much for reviewing and following and favoriting. It is seriously the most amazing feeling for me when I get to read your reviews. Also, please don't wait until you're the 50th reviewer, that defies the whole point and I'll do another little prize for every 50th review. Thanks, sorry for the freakishly long author's note and the wait for me to update the story. XOXO- Skai.