bella clayton.
outfit. sentinel. #772222
xxx the sun's starting to light up
xxx when we're walking home
xxx tired little laugh, gold lie promises
xxx we'll always win at this
The calm that had come from her conversation with Luci and Luci’s powers had long gone. Without the calming, grounding presence of another human being, the noise was loud again. She was sitting on the floor, curled into as much of a ball as she could manage, her head on her arms, her eyes squeezed shut to stop any light from coming through. Light hurt, sound hurt, everything hurt. The voices were so loud, and there were so many thoughts that she didn’t want to hear. Thoughts of violence, thoughts of anger, she couldn’t separate them from her own thoughts any more. Did she want to do those things? Had she already done them? Or was she just surrounded by awful, violent people?
She’d sent texts, or at least she was pretty sure she had. Maybe that had been somebody else’s thought as well. But after texting Kit, the time she’d been waiting felt like an eternity. She’d texted Mikey too, something along the lines of “powers bad, plz help.” When she felt the buzz of her phone in her hand, moving her head and her hand to look at it was almost painful. She had to squint at the screen to be able to make out the text. It was from Kit, that much she could see. Texting would take too much energy. Maybe it would be easier if she went and found him?
Then she moved too fast and felt, once again, like she was gonna throw up. Moving was a bad idea. She folded herself back up and took a photo of her view, sending it back to him. She felt like she should send an actual text too but the room was swimming far too much for that. She sank her head back onto her arms and prayed that somebody else would find her soon.
kieran gallagher.
xxx these are the eyes
xxx and the lies of the taken
xxx these are their hearts
xxx but their hearts don't beat like ours
When Kieran came back to the room, he was sitting on the floor, his head leaning back against the pillar. His whole body hurt, but it was the usual post-power ache; looked like he’d managed to avoid getting shot at least. His vision was still blurry but he could just about make out somebody beside him. They put a hand on his arm and spoke to him; a familiar voice, perhaps the one he wanted to hear the most. He smiled instinctively, a soft smile that betrayed his relief at seeing Cameron of all people. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. He glanced down at his hands, seeing the too familiar sight of blood on his hands. “Nose bleed but no nausea, I’ll take that much,” he said, glancing back at Cameron and grinning again.
Now his vision was cleared, he could see something looming up behind them. Not something, someone, in an unfamiliar suit and with their eyes set on Cameron. Without even thinking about it, Kieran grabbed his knife and lunged towards the figure, his knife plunging into the figure’s thigh. They stumbled back, giving Kieran the chance to get his hand on their leg and dig deep again. He didn’t have time to think, didn’t have time to use the control he usually tried to use. And so their would-be attacker turned to dust before their eyes. Kieran sank back to a sitting position, not looking at Cameron. He hated people seeing him using his powers like this, seeing how horrified they could be. And he couldn’t even blame them for feeling like that.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m fine again if you wanna go… rejoin the fight or whatever,” he said. He wasn’t fine; he’d still need another while before he felt okay to stand unassisted, and his hands were shaking. But he knew people didn’t want to stick around after seeing that.