Chapter 15

My eyes open, and I gaze up at the peaceful sky of blue, mixing with pink and orange clouds when it touches the horizon, and a soft and gentle breeze kisses my cheeks. Sitting up, I realize I'm dreaming, and I take the peace in. I take a breath of the sweet air, and choke.

The air sours, and I smell smoke and pennies. I rush to my feet and find bodies, hundreds, thousands, all lying in a sea of blood surrounding my small island of dirt. Blue creatures, alien folk, and human all lay lumped together in the gruesome image. A feeling of dread washes over me as I look around.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" I turn to see a woman with her raven wing hair in two intricately braided ropes running down her front, her body clothed in armor smeared with red, a ruined cape hangs half off of her shoulders and flutters in the gentle wind. She snickers, noticing how I can't form words.

"Yes, it is a lot to see but... isn't it beautiful? All of these creatures," she gestures with her red-stained sword, "All thought themselves mighty, all thought themselves to be the strongest, the best." She laughs, cruel and cold. "All thought themselves to be able to take me, to take us!"

"I- I didn't do this," I say, taking a step back, which draws more laughter from her.

"Darling, who do you think I am?" Her image changes shape, and her clothes and hair change. She matches the clothes that I had worn on the first day, her hair light brown and short.

"I'm you. And you will soon be me, and this," she spreads her arms wide, and the clouds circle overhead, a bolt of strange blue-green lightning shooting from them, "Will be us."

"No! No, it won't!" I try to run but I trip and stumble into the sea of red. I fight my way up to the surface and cough out the horrible-tasting liquid. She-I- stand sneering down at me.

"You're weak. Perhaps our new friends could sort you out?" She moves her hands and the water begins to churn. I frantically try to paddle to shore but something grabs my ankle. I scream, and go under, swallowing the blood. I kick and fight, dragging myself up to the surface. When my head breaks, I see the bodies all coming alive.

Every body, all with gaping faces, gashed and bloodied, thrash and drag themselves to reach me. I lock eyes with myself once more before I am dragged into the red.

I go down, down, and all the way I fight. I scratch and hit and kick, but it only causes more to be able to grab at me. My lungs scream for air and a blow to my chest makes the urgency worse. Nails tear at my flesh as I am dragged further and further down. The fight slowly leaves my body and I close my burning eyes and let them drag me down, farther, faster, then-

I sit up so fast I fall onto the floor in a crumpled mess. I throw off the huge fleece blanket and scramble against the wall, seeing I am alive and not in a huge sea of dead people and blood. Relief floods over me but quickly vanishes. The fishbowl glass has completely frosted over, and it appears in a few spots to be cracked. Even the blanket looks stiff. I drag myself to my feet and feel my chest, finding only a hole in my shirt where the blade pierced my skin.

I reach out and try to touch the glass, but I find my fingers to be a vivid blue. Even though they look like they should fall off any minute, I feel no pain. I swipe at the frost and clear a small part of the glass to find a sight that makes my stomach drop. My reflection shows my face is a patchy blue, and one eye is red.

"Frost giant," I whisper, and I start shaking. "Oh no. No nono." Memories flood back, of the knowledge of this world I have, of what I have witnessed, and what I have done. Falling to my knees, I let out a sob. Not only am I an over-juiced dangerous magic holder, but I am now dangerous to the touch?

This day keeps getting better and better.

Get up. The voice in my head says. If you really want to wallow in self-pity, then so be it. Or, you could get up and stop being sorry for yourself and find a way out.

Yet again, my inner voice is a voice of reason. Wiping my tears, I rise and face the glass. Closing my eyes, I focus on the energy within, then I raise my hand and reach out to the biggest crack in the glass. I focus on all the pain and anger over these past few months, and let it build up. I allow it to build up inside, to solidify and grow. It begins to feel sporadic, and I open my eyes and command it to flow through my hand and launch at the glass. Blue-green energy jumps from my hand to the glass, causing it to shatter into billions of pieces, raining all around me. As I step out, an alarm starts blasting and armed guards begin to fill the room.

Now is the part that we never planned out! I scream internally, looking around for an exit as the guards yell at me to get on the ground.

Then I spot it: a vent that had been blasted open by my...hand missile?

Gonna have to come up with a better name than that, I tell myself as I make a mad dash for the vent. Bullets start to fly and I manage to make it to the vent without being shot. Getting on my hands and knees, I scramble through the vent.

"She's in the vents!" someone yells, and I crawl faster. Despite my slight time advantage, it's only mere seconds I have alone before someone dashes into the vent behind me.

"Stop!" A female voice shouts behind me.

"Holy shit!" I wheeze, breathless, and turn a corner. We twist and turn through the maze, but I can't shake her. An idea suddenly hits me, and I beg it to work. I twist myself around a corner then flip myself around to face the direction she is crawling from. Placing my hand to the floor of the vent, an entire wall of ice forms, thickening and spreading to the point I have to move to avoid getting stuck in it. I can hear the woman in the vent behind the wall, shouting for me to stop and calling our positions as I make my escape.

A few minutes of maneuvering through the vents and avoiding contact with people, I manage to make it to a vertical shaft that at the top, it opens to allow the sunlight through the blades of a fan. Bracing myself against the sides of the shaft, I push/climb up, only cutting myself twice with the screws. When I reach the fan box, I'm shaking and sweating.

Should have exercised more when I had the chance, instead of sitting on my lazy butt and looking at memes every spare moment of my life.

Glancing down, I notice the trail of frost I had accidentally left going up the walls. Looking back to the exit and my potential freedom, I brace myself harder as I move my hand to touch the metal mesh, causing the blades to begin to freeze up. I put my hand back on the shaft's wall, then raise my leg, tucking it against my chest and place my foot against the now-frozen fan box, and kick as hard as I can, causing the fan and its metal mesh to go flying outwards.

"Fuck yesss." I whisper, scrambling out, falling onto the gravel-covered roof. I lay, sprawled on the rocks, and watch the clouds for a moment before getting up. Making my way to the edge, I adjust my shirt and brush off the dirt that had accumulated from the vents. Looking down, I have to be at least three stories up.

"What to do..." I mumble, then a whooshing sound begins behind me. Whipping around, I am met with Mr.Stark in full armor.

"Hello," he says, landing, walking slowly towards me. "Kid, let's talk." I glance from him to the edge and back again.

"No funny business, I promise you. From what I can tell, you probably know all my tricks." I run my hand through my hair, trying to steady my spinning head.

"Look, kid. We all have our accidents, just come on inside and we can talk this through. There are people that can help you." I feel tears run down my cheeks and say, "I'm sorry I can't. I-"

"It's okay, I promise. No one got killed, the doctor is almost fully recovered," He takes a few more hesitant steps towards me, causing me to back up until the back of my knees meet the ledge.

"That," I hesitate, taking a shaky breath, "I can't. You saw what became of the people that killed my parents, and you saw what happened to my parents! I can't let that happen to anyone else."

Once more I find myself crying over people that aren't my parents, but the longer I'm in this world, the more I feel they are.

"Listen, please. Come inside and we can work-"

"Work things out?" I interrupt, feeling slightly angry, "Yeah, and maybe I can set off another explosion and kill someone! Cause it seems I didn't the first couple times, I guess third time's a charm, huh?" I snap, frightening myself with the harsh words. He's stalling. I need to get out of here.

I throw myself backward and the rush of air overwhelms me. As I plummet to my ultimate major injury or death, he comes blasting off the roof. As he reaches for me, the green cloud consumes me once more.

"No!" He yells, his hand extended to me, but the cloud closes in faster than he can fly. For a moment, the cloud holds me and I feel safe until it disperses and I fall into a heap onto muddy grass.