SPECTATOR
By MargaritaDaemonelix
Chapter 11
You can't move, can't breathe, can't speak.
The laptop is still stuck at ninety-eight percent. Out of all the times that this could have happened, you really wish it hadn't been now.
"Evangeline? Are you alright, dear?"
Eve looks like the entire world has come crashing down on her, which honestly isn't that much of a fantasy anymore. If the two of you are caught trying to escape, Adam could pull up all the files against you, he could search everything you own until he has enough evidence to convict both of you guilty for treason. You'd probably be executed, although being sent to a high-security prison in Lanox doesn't sound too out of the question either.
Her eyes narrow on her laptop as she points at it. You turn to realize that it's finally hit one hundred percent, and is processing the files.
Silently, Eve kneels down and begins to crawl over to beside you. Her hands are shaking with fear, but she manages to type out three words in the dead silence.
get your launcher
It takes you a moment to process, but you nod at her in acknowledgement and slowly stand up as she mutes her laptop and removes the portable hard drive. Every tap of your boot against the floor seems to echo through the room, fifty times over.
"Sir, Lady Nasod seems to be sick right now and likely wishes not to speak to anyone-"
"Look, that's my fiancee, not yours, so how about you fucking open the door for me?"
You grit your teeth as you take another step towards the door, where your Destroyer is propped up against the wall. Add could be right outside this door, and you could barrel through and take him out, be rid of him for good.
But that would sabotage the entire mission, and for what it's worth, Add doesn't deserve to die. Even if you did kill him, there's still a staff member outside, and they'd sound the alarm. Besides, would Eve be able to look at you the same way if you just murdered him? You pick up your Destroyer and heft it on your shoulder.
You turn around just in time to see Eve throw aside her battery pack and crack her laptop over her knee.
Plastic shards and glass pieces fly everywhere across the floor. Her boot is rumpled and has splinters of plastic stuck in it. Yet the hollow ring of the laptop breaking carries through the room.
"EVANGELINE! Goddammit, I'm going in!"
"Sir, no, please sir-"
Eve tosses the two large pieces of her laptop aside. "Good riddance," she mutters, cracking her knuckles and tucking a loose strand of her hair back. "Wait until he breaks down the door. Then we can catch him by surprise."
It's moments like this that you recall that Eve is a planner at heart. She's still standing gracefully, composed, but you know she's just as afraid of the possibilities as you are.
BOOM.
Add knocks into the door once, twice, three times. A screw pops out of the doorhinge. "Get ready," she says, taking one of her laser pistols out of its holster.
The moment you see the top of the door begin to fall, you charge.
Add seems triumphant for a moment as you plow into him before his expression turns into one of shock. The staff member screams as you sweep your Destroyer out in a wide range, catching him off guard and smacking him to the ground.
You scan over the donut-shaped hallway. While there's no way to see around the elevator, you can't hear any signs of other people.
As Eve steps across her fallen door and into the hallway, the lights go out and a siren starts blaring. The only source of light left on the entire floor is from Eve's table lamp, still standing strong despite the apparent lack of electricity in the rest of the building.
"Did you lock everything up?" You ask.
Eve nods. "Let's go."
She pulls up her tablet and begins to type, lightning fast. Soon, the elevator door in front of you opens. The two of you step in as the other side of the elevator splits apart, revealing the spiral staircase that supports the centre of the Altera Core.
The wall in the elevator closes again, leaving Eve's tablet screen as the only source of light left in the stairwell. Eve takes in a deep breath. "No turning back," she says, more to herself than to you. "No regrets."
"No regrets," you agree. "Now let's go."
It takes a while to start descending the staircase, especially since Eve's still wearing heels, but little by little, the two of you make your way down. "If we can get to the thirty-fifth floor," you remind her, "there'll be a service elevator we can go down. Then it'll be smooth sailing."
"We might have to edit the elevator out, though," she says, her face ghostly in the dim light of the tablet. "I'm looking through security cams right now, and I'm seeing people rushing about on literally every floor. We're going to be meeting some folks in the stairwell at some point. I'm working on locking them all out, but that's mainly because you need to step through the elevator to get through. If my brother regains control of the Core, I might not be able to stop them."
"Then reset the password!" You tell her. "Make a ridiculously long password."
Eve thinks for a moment. "I'll string our names and birthdays together," she decides as she begins to type furiously. "Evangeline… Seraphina… Nasod… Eleven… Twenty-three… Prince… Chung… Seiker… Twelve, five!"
The tablet lights up pink in her hands, signalling that she's gained complete control over the entire building. "I'm in," she says, delighted. "The Core is now at my beck and call."
The two of you stop in the stairway as she begins to recall the emergency protocols. "Sirens are off, and power should be restored in just a few moments," she says. The lights flicker back to life before she can even finish her sentence.
"We need to keep going," you urge. "Can you break the main elevator? The one that gets to the stairwell?"
"I can drop it like a dumbbell and flatten my brother's fat ass, if that's what you mean," she says, continuing to run. "I'll see what I can do. Possibly send it to the highest floor and keep it there."
Pretty soon, you start to hear the screaming of the people inside the elevator as they shoot skywards. "Keep going, keep going," you tell Eve, who has stopped to listen to the screaming.
She nods, takes a step, and nearly topples over the side of the staircase as her heel gives way beneath her.
You catch her hand just before she slides over the edge and into the abyss. When you make eye contact with her, you can see the fear that radiates from Eve's golden eyes.
For a moment, the stairwell is silent, save for Eve's panicked breathing. "Thank you, Chung," she says, hoisting herself back up by your arm and turning her foot around a few times. "If I die tonight, I'd really rather it not be from falling down a staircase to my death. Too undignified."
"Aye," you murmur, forcing yourself to let go of her hand. In your giant gauntlets, her hands seem so tiny, so small.
Speaking of your gauntlets…
"Eve, I want to test something out," you say. "Just don't speak, okay?"
"Are you going to turn on your radio?" She looks genuinely curious, but she's hit it right on the spot.
"Bingo," you mutter in reply, turning on the radio via a knob on your gauntlet and messing around with it. Eve scans the gauntlet over with her tablet once. There's a sudden moment of ear-piercing static before the signal clears.
"Have you located Lady Nasod and Seiker Two yet?"
"We're getting signals between forty and thirty-eight."
"Good. Keep looking."
Eve grits her teeth. "At least we know where we are now," she says, furiously typing into her tablet. "Unfortunately, so do they. I can mess around with their system, but it'll take some time."
"Then don't bother with it," you tell her. "As long as we can get out on the right floor, we can avoid them almost entirely."
There's a number on the next elevator back door you pass by-number thirty five. "Here," you tell Eve, grabbing her arm and steering her towards it. "Can you open it manually?"
"Yes," she says. "There's a problem though. The elevator itself is full of people and approximately on the eighty-second floor."
As if on cue, the door opens to reveal the empty elevator shaft with its double pulley running down the centre. "Security cams show no one at the west elevator, though," she says, "and the elevator shaft actually runs around in a donut. If we can climb towards the west elevator, we can probably make it out of that door."
You squint for a moment at the darkness. The pulleys suddenly whirr to life, bringing an elevator cart up from heavens knows which floor.
Inspiration suddenly strikes you. "Eve!" You yelp, shaking her arm. "Stop that cart right at the floor below us!"
You must have startled her, because she nearly drops her tablet down the dark elevator shaft. The cart screeches to a stop at the floor below yours, right at the west end. There's a lot of screaming from inside. You hear someone inside turn on their intercom and report to Harrington. You don't have much time, and you need to get moving.
"Get on my back," you tell her, "I'll carry you over."
Eve shakes her head, putting her tablet back in her petticoat. "I'll only be a burden," she says. "I can carry myself over, thank you."
She reaches into the darkness and grabs ahold of the cords in front of you. "I feel like they're moving down again," she says. "Better hurry it up."
Without another word, she swings into the darkness, landing on the elevator car. "There's someone on the roof!" A scream from inside the cart as Eve's heels touch down on the surface and she begins to desperately plug cheat codes into her tablet.
You search your shoulder pads for a small button, which you punch. Instantly, the back of your armor begins to rise, folding and unfolding over your face, until you're wearing an entire visor. You look through the eyeholes, thankful for the night vision that comes with the mask.
You're not technically supposed to be doing this, but for Eve's sake, the military protocol you were born and raised to follow can go fuck itself.
The darkness in the shaft suddenly becomes a million times brighter. You can see the tiny wires and the gently blinking lights that line the walls. You can count every single bolt in the panelling, and every loose thread in the cable of the pulley.
You reach out and grab the cable in front of you. Taking in a deep breath and holding on tightly to your Destroyer, you push off from the edge of the doorway and swing a full two hundred and seventy degrees around the cable.
For a terrifying moment, you can't find anything in the darkness. Thoughts of death by broken elevator cable and death by falling thirty five storeys fill your mind, but your boots scrape past the elevator car, and you grip the cable just a tighter as you swing towards it-
And land next to Eve with a thump. She's closing the door to the stairwell just as the west elevator door in front of you opens. "Visor on?" She looks amused. "You must be preparing for the chaos outside."
In the moment when the people outside realize they're at the wrong door, the adrenaline takes over for you.
The first wave of people rushing towards you are, of course, staff members. The thirty-fifth floor is mostly staff accommodations. You really don't want to hurt them, but you knock them aside anyways with your Destroyer, sweeping it out in a low circle to avoid smacking anyone in the face.
The second wave is less friendly. A group of Adam's guardsmen are shoved into the mix, wielding batons and tasers. You knock a taser out of one guy's hand as a baton collides with your face, causing the controls in your visor to flicker out for a moment as you try to regain your ground.
You're toppling backwards into the darkness, back into the shaft, when someone pushes you back to your feet. You blink the spots out of your eyes to see Eve dancing through the guardsmen, a laser pistol in one hand and her tablet protectively clutched in the other. Even though her heels seem to twist painfully with every step, she still carries herself with grace and dignity as she fucking obliterates them.
Behind you, the door slowly rolls shut. Eve shakes the hair out of her face and grimaces at their twisting forms on the floor. "Is this what my brother thinks of me?" She snarls, "Incapable of handling myself as a woman?"
The loudspeaker above you begins to blare. "Attention, attention. Lady Nasod and her bodyguard have been found on floor thirty five. All troops deploy to floor thirty five."
You grit your teeth. "We need to keep going," you tell her. "The service elevator is through the staff quarters."
"Try not to cause any unnecessary damage," she replies, already typing away into her tablet. Your heart is pounding against your chest, but you slam into the door with your Destroyer nonetheless, causing wooden splinters to fly everywhere as you charge into the staff quarters.
There's a scream as someone throws their coffee in the air. You turn your shoulder forwards and plow through the unfortunate staff members in your way. Eve is right behind you, heels clicking as she literally stomps her way through the chaos. "Through that door!" She yells, swinging her foot out at one guy in an apron.
The elevator opens when you show up. A few confused-looking chefs peer out, only to be knocked aside by Eve, who rams them towards a nearby wall. "Move it!" She barks, dragging you into the elevator just as the doors close behind you.
"I'm turning off my brother's access to the cams, loudspeakers, every form of communication," she says as the two of you catch your breath in the elevator. "I'm looking through all the cams, though, and there are people congregating near this elevator on nearly every floor below ours, particularly near the bottom floors."
"We need to get to about the twentieth floor," you recall off the top of your head. "Then we head for the spiral staircases. We leave from a storage room near the west wing."
"Affirmative."
The two of you ride in silence. "You may want to prepare some ammo," she warns you. "I can see armed forces at the front of the group."
"Already locked and loaded," you reply. "Do you want to stand back and watch for this one?"
"I'll have my pistols at the ready," she says, "just in case someone can't keep their hands off a lady."
Her sarcastic tone makes you think of her brother's cold words, but you prepare for combat nonetheless. The visor comes back down around your face as the door opens.
As expected, people begin to flood in, but you launch yourself at them, shoulder and Destroyer turned towards them. Knives and sharp things are all flying everywhere, but you don't take particular notice of them. You sweep under a person's feet with your Destroyer and release a few timed explosives. "Eve!" You yell.
She's cleaning up behind you. "Right there," she yells back, stepping on some guy's head and running up your back, launching herself into the air and landing on her feet somehow in front of you. "Move out!"
The two of you only make is about ten metres ahead before the explosion rocks the ground at your feet. Screaming fills the air. You can't tell whose.
Once again, the floor is filled with the pounding of your boots and the clinking of her delicate heels. You still feel awful about giving her such high heels when she clearly can't run in them, but Eve carries herself with grace and glides across the floor like an angel. "In here," she says, kicking down a door. "I'll lock it once we go in."
"Get your tablet," you tell her, looping your arm around her waist and taking off. The door closes behind you and clicks shut as you run down the stairs. Eventually, these stairs do end up merging with the ones in the grand hall, but if you can slip out either in the chaos of the soiree or the darkness of the abandoned hall, you can get away just fine.
Eve's eyes grow wide. "Chung, duck!" She screams. You heed her word just in time to see a pipe burst in hot steam over your head. "I think the lack of control over the Core is causing the systems to go haywire!"
"There's no time," you tell her, gritting your teeth as you struggle to keep her and the Destroyer on you. "We're probably close to the floor with the grand chandelier. We can avoid the exploding shit there."
"What if we get electrocuted?" Snaps Eve, kicking aside a fizzing wire as she brings herself up and begins to look at her tablet from behind your head. You shift your grip to support her weight, though she's not particularly heavy. "I'm going to shut off the grand chandelier. We'll use the light from the wall sconces, though it'll be significantly less illuminated."
"That's fine by me," you grunt. "Found the floor."
The lights that had been radiating up the staircase suddenly go out. You blink as you adjust to the relative darkness, though your visor helps. You can make out the features of the glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling, with beautiful etching made by Empyrean artists. It's still a little too far out of your reach, though, and you don't exactly have an extra hand.
"Eve, I need you to get on my back," you tell her, . "I can't carry you and the Destroyer with both hands and go down the chandelier at the same time."
She shakes her head and slips out of your hold. "We'll go together," she says. "I need to stop being a burden on you."
You want to stop, to argue against her, but she's already tucking her tablet back into her pocket and pulling out something else. "I brought a really long piece of ribbon," she says, tugging it out. "I don't know why I thought of it, but I suppose it comes in handy."
She reaches out towards you. You're confused until she grabs your Destroyer from you. As fragile as she may look, Eve is incredibly strong, and holds up your launcher as she threads the ends of the ribbon through it and ties it off. "There," she murmurs, slinging it over your shoulders. "Now you have two hands to hold onto the chandelier instead of one."
"I'll go first," you blurt out, though your voice wavers in the awkward silence that follows Eve's gentle gift to you. "It doesn't seem right for the lady to go first in this situation, does it?"
"We'll go together," she repeats, almost like a mantra to herself.
You catch the fear in her eyes almost instantly.
Nodding, you reach out and grab the slick glass of the chandelier. You take in a deep breath, and step over the railing.
Fortunately, you don't fall like you expected to. Instead of crashing like a rock to the ground below, you grip onto the glass, fingers locked in the holes between each crystal. "Going down," you tell her softly. "Wish me luck."
Carefully, you move your other hand a foot below , slowly shifting your weight down to your new grip. The chandelier creaks under your weight, but it doesn't seem to break in any way. There's no way you're ever pressing your luck like this again.
Eventually, your even pattern of exhaling and moving down brings you to the bottom of the chandelier. There's still a drop of about a flight of stairs or so. You've been trained for this, though, and you let go of the glass, tucking yourself into a somersault as you hit the ground.
You stand up and dust yourself off to look up at Eve. "Coast is clear," you shout. "I'll catch you."
Even from nearly three stories below her, you can tell that Eve is trembling. "I… I don't want to fall, Chung," she says, her voice very small in the now empty hall.
"I won't let you fall, I swear," you remind her. "It's like rock climbing. Remember that time we went rock climbing in Hamel? Just hook your fingers into the lights and climb down, little by little. Don't look down."
She's silent for a few moments, as if weighing her options. "Can't I take the stairs?" She says.
"There are people on the floors between mine and yours," you tell her. "Eve, I can and I will catch you. You need to trust me."
You watch in awe as Eve breaks every barrier that's ever held her back and reaches out to the chandelier.
It takes a painfully long time, but Eve inches her way down the chandelier. She seems to clutch onto the tip with her entire body, shaking the glass structure from tip to base. "You need to catch me, Chung," she says desperately. "You need to."
"I'm right here, Eve," you remind her. "I will catch you. I won't let you fall."
She takes a few deep breaths. Then, she lets go of the chandelier.
You're almost too stunned to move when she drops through the air, but you react in time to move your position to scoop her into your arms as she comes near you. The two of you crash to the ground, your Destroyer and ribbon rolling free.
"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" You murmur, lifting your visor to kiss her forehead as she trembles.
You're worried, though. This drop was only about half of what the drop from the broken staircase at the base of the Altera Plateau. You've always known about her fear of falling, but you didn't know it would be this serious.
Then again, Eve is very talented at hiding emotion.
"We need to keep moving," she says, wiping away a tear as she stands up. "Where to next?"
"There's a side staircase we're going down," you recall. "Fifteen floors down to ground floor."
She tries to smile. "Lead the way."
You can't help but smirk. "Of course, milady."
You bring your visor down once more and pick up your Destroyer, wrapping the ribbon around your arm to secure it. You run, and Eve is right beside you, heels still clicking.
As you're going down the fifteen flights of stairs, windows start popping up in the wall beside you, showing the night sky outside, as well as some other troubling things. "Hey Eve, what's that white hexagon supposed to be?" You ask, stopping and pointing at it.
They're erupting out of the ground, beginning to build up from a single point. You wonder if it's a wall designed to keep you in.
Eve is silent. "I have no clue," she says. "It's spreading outwards. We should probably beat it out and get away from the building while we still can."
When the next hexagon pops up, you grab Eve's hand and run. There's a good chance that those things are hostile, and if even Eve doesn't know what they are, then you might as well be trapped in the Core forever.
The remaining stairs seem to fly away like dust, but every step you take is hollow. There isn't any purpose for them, aside from leading you downwards. You hear the sounds of your pounding feet, but you feel like you're walking on a breeze that travels a million miles away the moment you step down.
"Just outside that door!" You gasp as the two of you drop to the bottom floor. You're officially on the first floor of the Altera Core, at long last. Eve slams into the door and it crashes against the wall, but you're through.
The storeroom is empty of all human life. There are a few robot patrols that point their weapons at you, but Eve's fingers fly across her tablet and they ignore you once more. The two of you run through stacks and crates of all sorts of foods and supplies.
"There!" You yell. The truck hangar door is closed, but you run up to the control panel and pry off the lid. There's always an emergency switch or some sort of servos that can open the door, you've found. After all, the Core is a huge building that houses nearly half of Altera's population. In the event of an emergency evacuation, all doors must be able to function with or without authorization.
Sure enough, there's a small red button labeled "EMERGENCY OPEN" in bright red lettering. You immediately jam your thumb into it. The hangar door squeaks, but lifts up.
Eve grabs your Destroyer and drags you out before the door has gone up completely. "Hurry, we might be able to beat out the weird things," she urges.
You rush on ahead of her.
bzzt
For the record, you're glad Eve isn't as brash and impulsive as you are. You run visor-first into an invisible wall and crash to the ground from the impact. "Chung!" Screams Eve, kneeling beside you.
As the two of you look up, the web of hexagons unravels from your impact point. "We're too late," whispers Eve. "The force field has already been raised."
She puts her face in her hands. "FUCK!" She screams, shaking all over. "FUCK MY BROTHER AND HIS STUPID FORCE FIELD!"
"Eve, Eve," you tell her softly, though your heart is in your throat. This can't be the end, can it? "We still have time. You can deactivate it via your controls."
"I don't have time!" She wails. "The force field isn't actually a part of the Core! I'd have to get into my brother's private servers to take it down, and I don't have the time! I can't build a password algorithm on the spot, I can't take down the force field, I'm USELESS!"
"EVANGELINE SERAPHINA NASOD, LISTEN TO ME," you shout, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to look you in the eye. "You are not useless. You are capable of so much more than this. Tackle the problems you can face. What can we do to stall for time until you can take down the force field?"
Eve's silent for a moment. You wonder if you scared her with the sheer volume of your voice. "We can lock everyone else in the Core for now," she says. "Yes. That'll be a good idea."
She opens her pocket and takes her tablet out again, plugging in her own password and pulling up her control panel. "The Core is now under complete lockdown," she mutters, selecting a few boxes and pressing "save". "I can probably set up the algorithm to unlock the force field now."
"If you're done crying, sweetheart, I'd like to take over the Core again."
Your uncertain smile instantly turns into a feral snarl as you turn to face Add. He's just leaning against the hangar door like it's no one's business. "I've been told you've reset it to a forty-nine digit masterpiece, Evangeline," he drawls. "Hand over the password."
"What's in it for me?" Growls Eve. "What benefit do I have by giving you control over the building again? I'd rather spend an eternity locked in limbo than go back to that hell."
Add shrugs. "I can unlock the barrier for you."
Unlock the barrier
You turn to Eve. Her eyes are just as wide as yours. "I know, my pretties," chuckles Add. "Sounds like a nice idea, doesn't it? I did have a hand in constructing this barrier. I can override the code for it whenever you want. Just hand over the password and no one gets hurt. I'll even give you two a few minutes to make a run for it before I reset to Core back to its defaults."
Eve's eyes are pleading with you. "Can we trust him?" She whispers. "This is the only shot we have at survival."
"Your call, milady," you murmur in reply.
She stands up, and you stand up with her, Destroyer in hand. "I will reset the password of the Core," she tells him. "In exchange, you must unlock the barrier for us and speak nothing of our escape."
Add laughs. It's a dry laugh, with no real humour. "Oh, trust me, your brother already knows of your adventures," he says. "I'm just doing this for a friend who could use some allies."
He sticks his hands in his suit pockets before laughing. "Silly me, how could I put my phone in there?" After rummaging through both his pant pockets, he draws out a thin phone, about half the size of Eve's tablet. "Barrier goes down in one minute," he says. "Password, please."
Eve's mouth is pressed into a thin line, but she opens her own control panel. "Password has been reset to the word blink," she says. "B-l-i-n-k. Five letters."
Add smiles, focused on his phone. "Good," he says, his phone screen lighting up purple. "The barrier will be going down in a few seconds. You will have a twenty-second frame of time to get out."
He looks up at the both of you. You're ready to leave, but his curious gaze catches you. "Eve, Chung," he says. "Godspeed and good luck."
The barrier fades with a buzz, and without a single look back, you run away from the tower you've called home for the past ten years.
He stands there for a while, watching them disappear into the darkness. At this hour, Altera shouldn't be this dark, but after his fiancee shut down the Core, power stopped flowing to most of the city.
Well, former fiancee, he should say. As he carelessly leans against the side of the building, messing around with his phone, the chief of her brother's guard shows up, with at least a dozen armed men in tow.
"Where is Lady Nasod?"
He smiles as he thinks of the last time he had to help in an escapade like this, six, nearly seven years ago. He wasn't caught last time. Maybe he's nearing the end of his career.
"She's finally free to kick your asses."
Your theories about your fiance have been proven, then disproved, within the same half hour.
On one hand, you know for a fact that he's a creep and you most definitely don't want to marry him under any sort of circumstances. On the other hand, you now know that he has motives other than earning power in Altera. What does he mean by "a friend who could use some allies"? Are they fighting for the same cause as you are? Has Add been part of a rebel alliance all along, right under your brother's nose?
The sheer thought of such a thing makes your vision swim. "Let me take a breather," you tell Chung, who's still running at your side. "We're getting close to the border, aren't we?"
"Yes," he says, pausing next to you. "We're probably in the shopping district right now. Eve, I know we don't really have the time to do this but-"
"I know," you say quietly. "Who the hell is Add Kim?"
The two of you are silent for a while. "He probably got captured by the guards, didn't he," says Chung. "Is he some sort of undercover agent that's been working in Altera for, what, five years? Just to allow us to escape?"
"I don't know," you admit. "We need to keep moving. We haven't even passed the peach tree yet."
Just past the immediate shopping district lies a small garden park. At the centre of said park is the peach tree where you'd directed your birds. "Moby! Remy!" You call out. "Return to me."
There's just the sickeningly sweet scent of small wildflowers and the eerie silence of the Alteran night for a moment. You wonder if Moby and Remy are lost, or your brother has caught them and intends to use them to lure you back-
But like a pair of twin lightning strikes, your birds emerge majestically from the peach tree, your bags still clutched in their claws. Remy coos at you as she drops your bag into your waiting arms, making purring noises and landing on your outstretched arm.
"Hey, Moby, yeah, I love you too buddy," says Chung beside you. You turn around to see him struggling to put his bag on while Moby pecks at his visor. "Eve, can you call off your bird?"
"Moby," you tell him sternly. The peregrine falcon chirps and flutters off Chung's shoulder pads to hover next to Remy. The two birds look at you curiously, as if awaiting further instructions.
You take a deep breath. "Let's go," you tell them, all three of them.
With your best friend running at your side, and your two hunting falcons ripping through the air beside you, you've never felt so alive, so energized, so free. There's no limit to your energy, only your own free will. Even the pain in your feet simmer down to a dull throbbing, only a minor nuisance in the grand scheme of things.
You pass by the old buildings that you grew up looking over-the movie theatre, the shopping mall, the grand library. Each one seems to hold so much in your heart, but when you look at the freedom just waiting for your beyond the edge of the plateau, they melt away like snow.
The colours of the night blend together into a hazy mess of black and white as you and Chung stop at the fire escape staircase. "Is this the only way down?" You ask, peering over the side. The Plateau is still daunting to you, as much as you hate to admit it.
"Unfortunately, yes," sighs Chung as he breaks open the lock with his bare hand. "C'mon, we're almost free."
"STOP, YOU TWO!"
You can't say that you're not surprised at the sound of Adam's screeching behind you. "Go, go, go!" You scream, turning away from the massive clump of people following your brother and literally jumping down the stairs after Chung.
You've always hated going down stairs with heels on, but running down a wooden staircase is no better. There's a small handle along the side of the plateau, but you skim your fingers across it and a splinter finds its way into your glove. You can't help but swear under your breath as you keep running.
Even though you have a headstart on him, Adam doesn't have any gear on him, and he's catching up. You take another step forwards and nearly tumble off the staircase. "Focus!" Snaps Chung. "The drop is just up ahead!"
Drop?
You dig your heels into the wooden planks as Chung dives off the end of the broken staircase, rolling to a stop in the clearing at the edge of the forest below. "Jump, Eve, it's just like the chandelier," he yells.
You're paralyzed, and suddenly all the energy drains out of you once again. Your feet sends spikes of pain shooting up to your elbows. You can't move. This is way more than the jump from the chandelier. "Chung, I can't!" You choke out. "I can't jump."
"Evangeline."
You turn around, already assuming a defensive stance. Adam is slowly making his way down the staircase, step by step. "You shouldn't have listened to him," he purrs. "What is he to us? A minion? A child? Eve, you and I are high Alterans. We have royal blood flowing through us that Seiker cannot hope to match."
"EVE!" Shouts Chung below you. You want to move, escape from this misery, but you just can't.
"Ignore him, Evangeline," says your brother. "Come back to Altera and we'll rule Elrios as proper leaders. The Morpheus Project will allow us to control all of Elrios once again. I'll even bring back your little maid. How does that sound?"
The Morpheus Project.
Wasn't that the reason why we decided to leave?
To protect Elrios?
You face your brother once again. "I am sorry, Adam," you tell him, letting go of the railing. "I will return to Altera as its rightful ruler."
Just don't look down.
"Someday."
You let your exhausted feet relax, and you topple over the edge of the staircase.
You can hear Adam still screaming above you. The stairs and the stars seem to blend together with the night sky. Below you, Chung is yelling, but you ignore it as the wind envelops you and your skirts billow out, like the falling petals of a white flower.
For the safety of Elrios, I must leave Altera.
But in the end, was it worth it?
A/N: And I am done. Thank you, folks, for following me through to the end of the first book of Blink, and to the end of my Nanowrimo.
While progress on part two has not begun yet, I assure you it will begin very soon. I'm actually taking on a 30-day Pokemon challenge first on my tumblr, so if you're interested in that I'm margaritadaemonelix
and now for the special thanks!
- Special thanks to user EternaPhoenix for reviewing on legit every chapter mad props to you bro shhh what ch 2 there is no ch 2
- Special thanks to user Zadred212 for starting a potato cult? also mad props to you
- Special thanks to user InfinityEls for also starting a cult? mad props bc your first review made me laugh like a maniac at like midnight
guise seriously don't start cults read the orange papers 101 reasons to not start a cult
- Special thanks to guests Hello Stranger and The Guest, as well as users Amy Valikie and Ducky and Izzy for leaving lovely reviews and making my day! mad props to y'all too!
And of course, thank you to everyone who has read my story! Should I mention that we've hit 1000 views? WOOT in any case to celebrate and to keep y'all on your toes in the meantime I'll start working on the oneshot collection.
Once again, thank you for all your support, and I'll be sure to see you soon! Any questions or concerns, drop me a review or a PM!
~MargaritaDaemonelix
