Improved (hopefully) chapter 2.
Please let me know if there's something wrong or that you think could be improved.
I sat at the edge of my bed, tense. Phone on hand, I took a deep breath and let my power run wild, but instead of the stream of information that such action would normally provoke, all I got out of it was my head being gently stroked with a sledgehammer, I shut off the flow as fast as I could, but the pain didn't go away immediately.
Cold sweat ran down my back and the urge to throw up invaded me. Him, me, it, the voice in my head that had accompanied me at every waking moment for the past two years had been silent all day and, without him, all my knowledge of the future was gone, I could still felt it, but it was far away and out of reach, difficult to concentrate on. Only the essential of what was supposed to happen tomorrow remained, and the idea of some crucial bit slipping my mind at the only time that it really mattered because of it was frightening.
I looked at the date on the screen of my phone ―19:22-2011-January second―, the last Endbringer had been just a month ago, so it couldn't be that. This definitely had something to do with Taylor's trigger, but something like this had never happened before, the only things that gave me total blanks and disrupted my connection with Archive were the Endbringer attacks. I didn't just go completely blind everytime some triggered, so what was different this time?
I touched my shirt and used my power on it, concentrating on making my mind up about using it tomorrow in school.
Fabric, cloth (Shirt): Touched by Damian Hofstadter (AS[archive]-Guest): Investigation; Touched by Damian Hofstadter (AS[archive]-Guest): Use;….Touched by Taylor Hebert (-[-]-Subject of interest):…
Fuck.
Okay, I needed to calm down and think about this. I took a deep breath and tried to relax, then I used my power once again, this time on more of my clothes and some random items in my room, the tension in my body decreasing slightly with each one.
I could predict Taylor, but the data about her status wasn't visible to me, and my phone just gave me a total blank, the odd thing about that was that it was just my phone, every other thing gave me normal results, and the status of everyone except Taylor was accessible, so I had to be right about the relation with her trigger, but the phone was still a mystery.
Was it just the fact that I had given her my number? If that was it, I couldn't say I regretted it, seeing her every day at school the past year, even with the knowledge that someone got her back (even if reluctantly), was soul-breaking, and it hurt seeing how just a small act of kindness affected so radically her mod for the rest of the period ―the small smiles when she thought no one was seeing her, the defiant glares to Emma and Sophia―, I didn't dare to think just how bad she would be without my interference, and in the end, she was going to trigger at the locker one way or another, so no real damage to the plan... right?
I sighed and closed my eyes laying on my bed, trying and failing to shake off of myself the feeling that I had messed up somehow, then I felt an extra weigh on the bed and a short pair of arms embraced me tightly.
"Ash?" I said to my sister without opening my eyes.
"Mh?"
"What are you doing?"
"Why brother, I'm just hugging an ungrateful dork?"She replied with a mocking tone.
I opened my eyes and looked at her. Her short, dirty blonde hair tied up on a loose ponytail and her green-brown wide eyes filled with mischief. "You're way less funny than you think," I said, but returned the hug with one of my arms nonetheless.
"Are you okay? you seem kinda upset." She said, totally ignoring my commentary. "Did you forget to do your homework for the holidays again or something?"
I frowned, "Not funny."
Her grip on me tightened "Sorry."
I sighed "…S' okay" It was, I knew she didn't mean it. Unlike me, she was a good person.
I shut my eyes once again without letting go of my sister, I yawned and slowly drifted off to sleep.
The next morning I pretend to have slept in for half an hour ―I needed to make time until the second period―, and got out of my bed to my already-dressed-for-school sister on the frame of my door, demanding her breakfast.
"Oneft, bwo, wu shud bwe mbowe…" She began with her mouth full of scrambled eggs, then paused for a moment as I stared at her, and then swallowed, "More responsible, that's it, I could have starved to death!" She fixed me with a 'serious' glare, then she took a sip of orange juice without letting her eyes off me, some of the juice slid down the corner of her mouth. Adorkable.
It was a shame that I couldn't appreciate it correctly today, Archive was still out of service, and if I screwed then everything was going to hell… I shook my head when I noticed her giving me a worried look, "Sorry sis, I suppose I was just more out of it than I thought yesterday."
"Of course you were, I almost had to use a crowbar to get out of there!, I tried to wake you up to let me go and all, and you didn't even notice!, next time I'm gonna just kick you out of your bed!"
Lie, she would even let me overslept again. Though she didn't know why, she wasn't stupid, and she'd noticed how overworked I seemed lately. I forced myself to smile at her in gratitude for her concern and ruffled her hair, there was no use on seeming an ungrateful prick. She quickly got her head out of my range of attack, buzzkiller.
"Take care, Ash, tell mom that I left her some food ready on the microwave."
She smiled back, "Will do." Then she took another mouthful of eggs.
All that remained of my good humor vanished as I made my way up to the third floor, and my heart sank when I heard the muffled voice of Taylor claiming for help between aching moans, because that meant that she had not triggered yet, and by extension, that I still couldn't interfere.
I took the phone out of my pocket and used my power on it, again, it was giving me nothing.
I grimaced, and I was going to try it again when someone bumped into me from behind, making me drop my phone to the ground. I turned around to see whoever it was. A tall, blond boy with a problem of acne and a look of deer in the headlights looked back at me.
It took me a moment to recognize him without the knowledge of Archive, but I couldn't be more surprised when it finally kicked in just who he was: Greg Veder was in front of me.
This wasn't supposed to happen, right?, He hadn't been present for the trigger of Taylor, she had begged for help and no one had responded, of that much I was sure, so why was he here now?.
"Veder?" I asked with wariness evident in my voice. "What are you doing here?"
He flinched and took a step back, almost tripping on the stairs behind him, "Da-Damian!, I- I was just!―" He froze for a moment and gulped audibly, he seemed like he would turn his back on me and run at any moment, but then something changed in his eyes, and, while still hesitant, he steeled himself, and spoke once more.
"I-I'm going to help Taylor." He told me, staring me right in the eyes.
I arched an eyebrow, and he flinched again. I needed to get him out of there before he interfered with the Trigger.
"Taylor?, is she the one in the locker then?" Smooth, Hofstadter, smooth.
He straightened, "I don't know what Emma or Hess told you to keep you here, and I don't… I do not want problems with the Empire―" The fuck was he talking about?
"―But… Taylor is a good girl, a-and she doesn't deserve… that" He said looking at the row of lockers on the wall behind me. "And―"
The world loosed focus before he finished, everything going to black for a moment and then…
I heard my ringtone coming from the ground and Veder was giving me a strange look, then the phone was silent for a moment and started to smoke.
I turned my head to look at the locker, there's no sound coming out of it. I ran to its side, and as I get close, I had to actively try not to cover my nose to maintain both hands-free so I could take the tweezers that I packed yesterday out of my backpack, Greg caught up with me not a second later, looking bemused.
I struggled for a moment with the safe of the door before it finally gave in, and then Taylor was in the ground, surrounded by used tampons and pads, the stench intensified. I grimaced, then looked at her hand and froze. A prepaid phone was melting on her skin and was rapidly covering the totality of her hand. I touched her face gently and discovered that she was freezing.
I turn to look at Greg, who was looking at her with a horrified look of bewilderment. "Call to emergencies!" I told him as I undid my jacket and used it to cover her and her hand.
He didn't wait for a moment before taking out his phone and started pressing keys.
"And Greg."
He stopped to look at me.
"If you tell someone about this," I told him while gesturing at the part of the jacket that was over Taylor's hand, "You're a dead man, clear?"
His eyes widened slightly, he nodded frantically and then turned to look at his phone once again.
You fucked up. The voice in my head said.