Hello my beautiful readers! I am really excited to share this chapter with you, you'll see why in a moment. I have some news for you guys, but I'll leave them in the end so you can enjoy the chapter first! Enjoy!

Chapitre Sept

L'éclair Rouge

Marie only knew that she wasn't hallucinating because she was taking her antidepressants. She didn't feel like going crazy anymore, but she was still scarred, even if scars can only do so much. What she witnessed on the mall was real and that probably only complicated things more.

And it wasn't just what she saw that disturbed her, it was what she felt. Marie was the type of girl that was always worried about being followed, robbed or worse, murdered, so she was always alert. Over the years she mastered the art of being aware of your surroundings, but she never felt like this before. It was amazing, but also overwhelming and Marie started doubting her sanity again.

She couldn't sleep that night. Being a night owl, she spent hours researching on the web, looking on something about the red streak. There were rumours everywhere and Marie was rather unsure if she should believe then. And there absolutely nothing that connected the stranger in red to a creepy green mist.

Disappointed with the results, she forced herself to sleep. Marie had texted both her mother and Paige saying she was extra tired and would sleep earlier, so they wouldn't worry over her lack of replies later.

Lying on her bed, her only wish was to don't have nightmares about the strange events of today.

But of course she had.

In the dream, she was onstage, the same stage that changed her life last December. Then the green mist appeared and Marie started suffocating. She tried to scream for help, but no one would hear her. Marie had never dreamed with her own death until that night. Of course, most of her nightmares involved falling from heights or being chased by zombies - she cringed every time the undead creatures were mentioned - but she never died in those dreams. Marie would just wake up very scared and then realise it had been just a dream. But this time she was stuck in it. The mist killed her and Marie fell into a void, incapable of doing anything.

When she finally woke up, her first reaction was to take a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of the air filling her lungs. Her second reaction was to check the hours: she had definately slept in. Almost 3PM. Glumbling, she rose from her bed and started her everyday routine: brush teeth, shower, breakfast, antidepressants, calling her mother, messaging Paige...

"Mom, I'm alright, really," she told her mother through the phone. "I woke up during the night and started reading a book. When I fell asleep again, the sun was rising!"

"But you're feeling fine?" Karen asked. "Are you feeling any pain?"

"No, mom. I'm physically and psycologically fine."

Karen sighed, sounding much more tired than usual. Marie knew she could tell anything to her mom, but how would she explain something she couldn't understand? She figured it would be better to wait a little longer, until she could place her thoughts and find a way of not sounding like a mad woman.

"I don't know why you're working, dear. I understand you don't want to stop dancing, but don't push yourself harder. Respect your limits, Marie."

Marie closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Even if she loved her mother endlessly, hearing her saying those words hurt. Before the accident, she wouldn't need to remind of her this; Marie could feel her body's limits and had learned to accept them and focus on the bright side of things. But now, stating her limits was a constant reminder of all the things she couldn't do, the roles she would never perform, the opportunities she had lost.

"You don't need to worry, I'm being careful, mom, I promise."

"I know you are, it's ju-" her mother was interrupted by a voice on the background. "Dear, my next client's here. We'll talk later?"

"Sure, do what you gotta do. And mom, don't forget I love you," she smiled. Marie knew her mother was smiling too.

"Never. I love you too! Bye!" Karen whispered the last word before hanging, leaving Marie alone with her thoughts again.

Thankfully, today's her day off - Marie doesn't know if she could focus on teaching after yesterday. So she decided to do something else, something she was procrastinating to do and definitely would take her mind off of green mists and streaks.

It's time to go to Iron Heights.

Marie has never been on a prison before. To be honest, she didn't even know how to there, but after a quick search on Google, she was on her way.

Iron Heights wasn't exactly close to her apartment, on the contrary, it was rather far. Marie would have walked there, but she was afraid of pressuring her feet or knee, so she hailed a cab. It was later than she planned when the former dancer arrived: the sun had set by now. The whole process of visiting someone in prison was aalso surprisingly fast. The guards took her personal items - basically her phone and necklace - and then she was in.

There was no one else in the room besides a guard standing by the door. Marie greeted him good night and sat on a simple black chair in the opposite side of the room. A minute later, he arrived.

He looked tired, more tired than she had ever seen. His eyes, usually so bright, were dull. His hair had grown too. Even if life as a prisoner changed his appearance, he still looked handsome.

"Marie," he sounded surprised as he started talking through the phone. "I... didn't thought you would come here."

"It's good to see your face, Damien," she replied. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to visit you."

Damien seemed confused by her words. "How are you? I mean, did you healed fine?"

"Fine enough to survive, but not to keep dancing," she smiled wistfully.

Damien just looked at her through the glass with a riddled expression. He used to say he was good at reading people, so what was he reading about her?

"I am sorry, Marie," his voice sounded defeated. "I am so sorry for what happened to you. I swear I tried to catch you, but..."

"Damien, stop," she interrupted him. "Don't do this to yourself. I'm not here to blame you, how could I? You only tried to help."

"But..."

"It was dark, you couldn't see you were going."

He lowered his head, as if he couldn't stand looking at her eyes. Marie bit her lip, wondering if coming here was a good idea. She didn't wanted to upset Damien. Decided to leave before she could do more harm, Marie opened her mouth to say goodbye when Damien cut her:

"She was just twenty-two, Marie. Liz. She had a beautiful future ahead and I stole that from her."

Marie held her breath. "Damien..."

"It was an accident," he looked at her through the glass, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. "We where training one of the lifts, I touched her neck and she... I didn't even used force."

Marie swallowed the lump on her throat. Months ago, when she was starting to get better, another dancer called Liz Garner was casted to replace her in Le Corsaire's pas d'esclaves. According to what she was told, Damien was rehearsing with her and somehow snapped her neck. No one could understand what happened that day.

"I changed, Marie."

She nodded sympathetically. "We've all changed."

"No, you don't understand," he whispered, a mad expression taking over his face. "Something within me has changed. I am strong, Marie, stronger than I've ever been, and I. Can't. Control it." Damien's hands started shaking. "I think I'm going crazy."

I know the feeling, Marie thought, but didn't say out loud. She didn't need to freak him out more.

"You're not crazy," she said firmly, trying to convince both Damien and herself. "I know you're not. I believe in you."

"You do?" his eyes widened.

"I do."

Before they could move on with the conversation, another man came into the room. Figuring it would be awkward to talk about the weird occurrences happening in the city in front of more strangers, both Marie and Damien remained in silence.

"I think I should go," Marie mumbled in an apologetic tone. "I still need to find out how to go home."

They laughed slightly, probably trying to disperse the tension.

"Thank you for coming."

"Thank you for having me. I'll try to come back soon."

They said their goodbyes and Marie left the room. The other man, who looked slightly familiar to her, was talking to another prisoner.

She grabbed her phone and necklace and headed to the exit - or what she thought was the exit - when a strange yet familiar sensation washed over her.

There was something wrong with the air here, just like at the mall yesterday.

This time, Marie followed the feeling because she wanted. This was her chance to prove to herself that she was not going insane.

The guard that had kept her items was dead, just like the one inside the room. Marie knew this because she couldn't sense their breathing.

When she arrived in the room, the green mist had was already spread around. Marie sucked all the air she could muster and entered the room. The other man, the one she thought looked familiar, was still alive, but suffocating. The prisoner he was visiting was screaming for help, hitting the glass, but seemed unharmed. Marie started shaking her arms as if swaying flies, trying to disperse the poison. The texture of the air seemed to change, turning thicker, malleable. Her fingers started curling like she was dancing, and in a way, she was. The mist was uncontrollable, but the air answered to her command, sending the intruder to the other side of the room. The green mist reassembled as if it had a life of its own, quickly fleeing through the vents. Marie couldn't afford to waste time to think about what had just happened, she needed to find a way of keeping this man alive. She kneeled beside him, unsure of what to do, but before Marie could try anything, she felt a sharp sensation, like a knife cutting the air. Faster than she could blink, the man in red appeared on the other side of the choking man, injecting something on his neck. Then he turned his gaze to the man on the other side of the glass and his face started to shake madly. He looked at Marie next and the only feature of his face she could see was the shade of green of his eyes.

The man on the floor recuperated his breath, his voice hoarse as he spoke to the red lightning. "Go get him."

The red streak disappeared again, leaving that sharp feeling in the air. They know each other?, Marie was thinking, completely dizzy - because of what she has seen or what she was feeling, she didn't know.

"Are you alright, sir?" she asked to the man on the floor.

"Yes, I'll live," he answered breathlessly. "Wherever you did, it scared that away. You were very brave."

"That was probably the only brave thing I've done in my whole life, but thank you, sir," she nodded.

Other guards entered the room and rushed to help them. "I'm fine, help him," Marie gestured to the familiar man trying to rise from the floor, but they were much more insistent than she imagined. Soon, she was at the hospital being checked by the doctors, making sure she hadn't inhaled the gas. They all asked questions about what happened, questions she wasn't sure how to answer, so she kept her answers as vague as possible.

It took longer than she expected, but they finally discharged her. Marie's battery was dead, but she could see by the color of the sky that it was almost dawn. She had a class today at 10, so she hurried to leave the hospital and find a cab.

She was walking through a corridor when she heard a voice calling her. "Hey, are you the girl who helped Joe?" a young man in a blue sweater asked. Joe happened to be the detective that was attacked on Iron Heights, she learned.

"Yes, that's me. I'm Marie," she shook the stranger's hand. "How did you-?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Knew it was you? There's not many girls in Central City with a hair like yours."

Marie smiled back, looking for something witty to say when she noticed that this guy's eyes were really familiar. The realization hit her a moment later. Red lightning, red lightning, red lightning.

She knew that acknowledging that out loud was a really bad idea, but Marie couldn't stop it. The words seemed to flow out of her mouth. "You're the red lightning."

His eyes widened. "What?! No, I'm-"

"You are," Marie insisted, taking a step back. "There are not many boys in Central City with eyes like yours," this would have sounded much better if the situation wasn't so tense.

He opened his mouth to say something, probably to deny Marie's claims, but realized it was useless. Not again, Marie thought as she felt the air shift again. She blinked, and when her eyes opened again she was standing outside the hospital, away from the people. There was no one she could scream for help here.

Breathless, she stared at the red lightning's face, her eyes almost popping out of the orbits. This is not a good moment for a panic attack.

"Look, you can't tell anyone," the red lightning looked almost as frightened as she was.

"How... did you-?"

"I'm fast, okay? No reason to panic."

This seemed to awake Marie's senses. "No reason? You have any idea of how many creepy things I've seen in the past two days? A green fog killed a woman on the mall, then almost killed a detective and you, who happens to be a... I have no idea what you are! That's it, I'm going crazy!"

"No, no, you're not crazy!" he tried to calm her down. "I can explain everything, but you need to swear not to tell anyone. Can you do that?" he put his hands on her shoulders. Marie nodded, regaining her composure.

"My name's Barry. Barry Allen. And you're Marie, right?"

"Yes, t-that's me," Marie frowned, remembering the last time she heard this name. "I know who you are... you were struck by lightning, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was! The lightening changed me, it made me..."

"Faster," they said in unison.

Marie ran her hands through her hair as Barry continued. "But I wasn't the only one who changed. The particle accelerator explosion affected others too. We call them meta-humans."

Marie had many questions. "We" who? There where others like him? And most important, was she one of this meta-humans? Was that why she was so sensitive to the air?

"The man you met today was one of them. We call him the Mist."

"That was a man?"

Barry nodded. "A meta-human that can turn into poisonous gas."

"What did you do with him?"

"My friends and I, we have a prison of sorts, for dangerous meta-humans. He won't hurt anyone ever again."

Silence reigned for a couple of seconds until Barry started talking again.

"Joe said you did something with the mist... like you could control it?" he said lightly, encouraging her to tell him more. When Marie didn't answer, he continued. "Are you a meta-human, Marie?"

There was nothing Marie wanted more than saying no, but after Barry's words she wasn't sure if that was the case. Maybe she was a meta-human and then what? Barry and his friends would throw her in their "meta-prison"?

"You just told me that you have your own special prison for meta-humans and now you want me to tell you if I'm one?" I don't even know what I am, she wanted to say.

Realizing his mistake, he quickly tried to make amends. "No, no, it's just for dangerous meta-humans. Like... super villains?"

Marie eyes him suspiciously. "So, you won't arrest me?"

"No, Marie," noticing her hesitation, Barry took a step forward. "Are you a meta-human?"

"...Maybe. I don't know," she sighed. "I can feel the air. The texture, the thickness. I knew were to find the mist because I could sense his presence, like an intruder."

"How long have you been feeling this?"

"Two days, since the incident at the mall."

Marie was so tired that she could sleep on the ground. She just wanted to go home.

"My friends and I, we can help you," Barry offered. "You can learn how to control your ability."

"I... just want a normal life, Mr. Allen," she mumbled, exhausted. "And my bed, too."

She couldn't stop noticing he looked disappointed.

"Sure. I'll give you my number, you can call me if you change your mind."

"Uhn, my battery's dead."

"Here," Barry grabbed his phone and passed to her. "Put your number, I'll call later so you'll have mine."

Marie typed quickly, revising it to make sure it was the right number. She wasn't sure if sharing her phone was a good idea, but she knew his secret, hopefully he could keep hers.

"Thanks for clearing things up," she handed his phone back and straightened her shirt. Marie would do this whenever she felt nervous.

"You're welcome, and thanks for helping Joe," she just nodded sheepishly, ready to leave, when Barry called her again. "And Marie... I won't tell my friends about you."

Marie released a relieved breath. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," he threw her a smile.

As she turned her back and went to find a cab, Marie couldn't stop wondering if she had made the right decision.

So, from now on I'll try to post every Saturday. Of course, there might be some random updates through the week but I think it's safer to stick with one good update per week then promise more than I can give. I'll do my best to keep the schedule! And tell me what are your thoughts on this chapter! It is so important to me to know what you think!

See you next Saturday!