•••

My breath is heavy as my body falls numb. Cold. Nothing. The embodiment of emptiness.

What's happening to her? Ho-how do I help her through this? How do I stop this? Can...can I stop this? Or is it a moment of my life that I'll have to reply in my mind, wondering if I could have changed something. A single moment I could have done differently, to save her from the fate we sit in in this very vehicle. Is this what that person ment? That the hospital couldn't do anything, because it's not human, because a human body or mind could not achieve such things.

What is happening out there? What's happening to us?

Is it just us? Or is the world around this city also falling? Burning within.

Eliana's head turns to the side and something in her gaze shifts as her eyes set on an object out the window. She reaches her trembling hand toward me, her blooded fingers graze my own for just a brief moment.

"Nas..."

Through the fog that clouds my mind, there's a screech on the road we sit ideal in and then a clashing of metal, scraping together, melting as one. She's before me one moment, and then she's not. My body is flung to the side, my head smacking against the window, and a crack, my head or the glass, I'm unsure as I slump to the floor of the car, slipping between the seats. Nothing but the reds of the lids of my eyes, the muddled clanging of doors being slammed shut, the muffling of steps grow closer as I will my eyes to open. Colours consume me for a brief moment, thudding behind my skulls as it blurs together, forming an image of Eliana lying atop the seat, her breath shallow as her hand reaches down to me, our fingers grasping together.

From the corner of my eye, a reflective mask stands outside of the car door, his arms lifted to the air, the butt of his long pointed gun barreling for window opposite to the one I'd just cracked against. I tighten the grip around Eliana's hand. Shattering glass spits across our broken bodies as we lay spread across from the stiff, bulky figure. His gloved hand reaches in the through the window, unlocking the car from the inside and ripping it open, his other hand gripping Eliana's ankle and dragging her down the seat toward him as he pulls a rectangular object from behind his back.

Her fingers slip from mine as she is dragged from the car, until her body falls upon the gravelled ground beneath the hidden person's feet.

My chest burns as he grabs at the top of her blooded shirt pulling her upward slightly, shoving the same object the person had from a few hours ago. The long, glossy white object hovered just above her face as her head hung backward. The bright red glow shines over her tired features, hiding the crimson that sticks to her sweaty, pale skin.

With a flash, it turns a blinding green.

"She's one of them," the deep voice turns to the three bodies standing ideal behind him as he keeps ahold of her shirt as she hangs over the ground, limply.

My hands shake as I grip the seat, pulling myself forward.

Somehow the pain wrecking its way through my body, seems to wash away as something flows through my veins. Coursing like a ravaging river.

One of the people in the back nodded their head.

"Chuck her in the backseat. And make sure to place the band around her wrist, I don't want what happened last time."

In one swift motion, he sweeps her into his arms, a grunt being ripped from her as an anguish washes over her face, and begins to take her to the dull, green, army guard vehicle that is pushed into the side of our stolen one.

His back is to me as I push myself forward, trembling out of the seat and onto the burning ground. Slowly, l lift my body, a heat consuming me as I pull the cold metal handle from the grasp of my jeans, and aim it at the back of him.

One of them notices, their body going stiff as they reach for the gun strapped to their thigh with some black strap.

"Don't move," my words boom over the space as I shift my stance. It is now being pointed at them.

They halt, hand hovering over their own weapon.

"Let her go, and I won't shoot you," my gaze turns back to the man that had ripped Eliana from me, his mask revealing my broken, blooded body back at me as he stands there, with her hanging in his arms.

"There's one of you, and more of us. Who do you think is possibly going to win this. Because it's not going to be you."

"Maybe, but I can take one of you down with me, before you can take your shot." A hot breath blows past the cracks that have formed on my lips. "Are you willing to risk that?"

A part of his helmet slithers up, his eyes peeking through the mask. He stares at me for a moment, as if calculating me, before his eyes slip past my figure, focusing beyond me before returning, his gaze shaping within a second.

"For the order, yes, we're willing to give ourselves over to the hands of death. Soon, you too will fall before it."

My brows knit together.

"...the order?"

"The beginning to the end of your world. And she." He nods towards Eliana slung in his arms. "Is apart of our plan to set this society alight, and burn it from within."

Wha-

My body flinches forward, my foot clambering to balance myself as my back begins to burn with a fire. But it's not the scolding I typically sense within me, it's physical, inside of me. My hand reaches up to the side of my stomach, my fingers grasping at the thin singlet, a wetness consumes my gentle touch as my finger tips slide across my skin. I tilt my gaze downward, a bright red staining my hand. My head turns behind me, and through the now shattered window, a figure stands, gun firmly grasped between both nimble hands, a light smoke trailing from barrel. From behind the mask, a dark, feline gaze glowers at me through the vehicle.

Its them, the person that had spared my sister.

"Let go of me...Naseria." The words are faint. Far away. Or maybe they are close. Honestly, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure of anything, anymore. Maybe I never was.

The world around me tilts, falling down with me. Something slams into the side of my body with a thud, but it's numb, it's cold. I'm cold. My head lops to the side and something wet slips from my breath between coughs that choke up my from throat, a violent fit as I wheeze in breaths.

Eliana struggles against his hold, ripping at the odd clothes around him as he turns away again. Her eyes are wide and puffy, her mouth gaping as the sea streams down her red tinted cheeks.

"Naseria."

I wheeze in another breath, but the thick, choking liquid just gets stuck in my throat as I begin to gurgle on it.

"Let me go-Nas...please, let me go."

My mind begins to wander, the vision before me blurring together, a palate of stilted colours. And the screams of my sister. An image fills my mind, the one of her, when we where below the phoneline, ringing our Nana for the first time, shes clutching my leg, her eyes puffy as she looked up at me. The fear that had consumed her in the moment. Slowly, everything within me begins to drain, the being of who I am being washed away from this body, soon to only be left with a corpse of who ws once here.

The body of a broken girl who had failed to protect her little sister from the world.

It truly was my only reason for being here. To protect her. And I let it take her.

"Naseria, please."

The clanging of doors ring out, and the rev of an engine roars to life, and through the blended mess before me, the car speeding away from where I lay still on the ground, becomes clear. Two v's pushed together are spray painted on the back window of the tinted glass. Its the last thing I witness before I slip from the grasp of life, and plummet to the darkness below.

I inhale one last time.

"Eliana."

I will find you. I promise.

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Chapter word count // 1,418

Overall word count // 26,624

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THE END