Month: August 2016

“You doing okay, Charlie?” Rachel asked, taking pained steps towards them. Zoe tensed, but didn’t move.

“You took your sweet time,” Charlie said, grinning.

“This again?” Zoe asked, a predatory glare directed at Rachel.

Rachel flinched, but didn’t back away. Instead, she took another step forward, her entire body straining with the effort. She looked closer to dead than when I’d first met her.

“Not exactly,” she said, waving the gun in Zoe’s general direction. “I had time to finish this.”

“You won’t get a chance to use it,” Zoe growled.

She launched herself at Rachel, but didn’t get far. Charlie wrapped her hand around Zoe’s arm, holding her back, and Zoe whirled back to face her, hissing.

“We’re not done yet,” Charlie grunted.

“Yes, we are,” Zoe said.

With a vicious cut, Zoe severed Charlie’s hand, pulling herself away and turning to face Rachel in the same motion. She charged.

Rachel was already aiming the gun, and all she had to do was pull the trigger.

There was no visible effect, not at first. Zoe froze, dead in her tracks, completely static. The air around her began to shimmer and warp, then tear apart, exactly like the rift that had first brought her to this world.

She began to squirm, twisting and fighting against it, but she couldn’t get away from it. The rift expanded, beginning to engulf her, and through it I caught a glimpse of a night sky, a city skyline that was entirely black, and a cold, dark feeling.

Zoe screamed.

The rift closed.

Zoe was gone.

Rachel let out a long sigh, dropping the gun. It bounced and clattered along the floor. Rachel staggered, but remained standing.

“Fuck me, I’m glad that worked,” she said.

“You okay?” Charlie asked, with genuine concern.

“I’ll live. You?”

“Fuck off,” Charlie said.

The two of them stared at each other, then laughed. It was an awkward, pained laugh, but at the same time, it was full of love. Rachel actually smiled.

“Alright, let’s get these out of you,” she said, gripping one of the shards with her mechanical hand.

“Actually, I’m kind of getting used to it,” Charlie replied, then winced as Rachel pulled the shard out of her.

Two minutes and more than half a dozen shards later, Charlie dropped to her knees, free from the wall. The wounds were already healing, and she stood up again, a little unsteady. Rachel reached out, balancing her.

“Your healing is getting faster,” she commented.

“You’ve missed a lot.”

After another awkward pause, Charlie centred herself, then pulled Rachel in for a hug. They held each other for what felt like a lifetime, then separated again. Charlie stared lovingly into Rachel’s eyes, then kissed her. I looked away.

“I’ve missed you,” Rachel said.

“Tell me about it,” Charlie grumbled.

“What the fuck,” I muttered, and both of them whirled around to face me, seemingly having forgotten I was present. They exchanged surprised glances, then walked towards me.

“Oh, you’re still here,” Charlie said.

“We should probably get her off the wall, too,” Rachel said.

“She’s not gonna try and attack me again, is she?”

“I’ve got her covered,” Rachel reassured her, recovering the dart gun that had neutralised my shifting ability before. She kept it pointed at me as Charlie unbent the desk legs that had pinned me to the wall.

Finally free, I tried to rub the wounds on my chest, but they were still open, raw and bleeding. I definitely did not heal as quickly as Charlie did. The blood loss was actually starting to make me feel a little woozy.

I looked up at the two of them, standing side by side, no animosity or fear between them.

“I’m so confused,” I murmured, feeling unsteady.

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Charlie said.

“I used you,” Rachel said, her voice tender. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” I asked, reeling. “You’re sorry?”

“Charlie was never trying to kill me. We just needed a convincing reason to get me close to Zoe.”

I remembered the condition Rachel was in when we first met. Weak, barely standing, shaking and frail. I remembered the fear in her eyes when she told me what had happened, the pain when she’d recounted the way Charlie had ripped the power out of her, and left her for dead.

“But, your condition…”

“Not Charlie’s fault,” she said.

“Partially my fault,” Charlie corrected.

Rachel shook her head.

“I submitted willingly.”

Charlie smirked.

“Guys,” I snapped. Rachel sighed.

“When we realised Zoe was trying to build a portal back home, we knew we needed to interfere. The last thing this world needs is more of what came through the first time,” she explained.

“But you, you helped,” I said. “She couldn’t have built it without you.”

“Oh, she would have eventually. And yes, I helped. I needed to understand how it worked, so I could build this.”

She retrieved the silver pistol-thing from the floor, the dart gun still trained on me.

“We’re going to send them all back home,” Charlie said, taking the gun from Rachel.

“Why?” I asked, still confused. My head ached.

“It’s better than killing them,” Charlie said.

“And now we have this, the rest should be a lot easier,” Rachel added.

I felt my stomach turn.

“And what about those of us who aren’t from that world?” I asked.

“Undecided,” Charlie said. “The Celestial definitely needs to be shut down. Miss Murder can probably be rehabilitated. And you…” She shrugged.

“You can’t be the one who decides this,” I said, shaking my head. “You just, you can’t. It’s not…”

“Fair?” Charlie offered. “No, I suppose not.” She smiled. “But who’s gonna stop me?”

“Don’t give her ideas,” Rachel muttered.

“I will,” I said, determination filling me. “I’ll stop you.”

“I told you,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

“Stop me, then,” Charlie said, unconcerned. “Power talks. You have plenty. So stop me, if you can.”

“I will.”

“Good luck,” Charlie said. “Let’s go, Rachel.”

Rachel looked like she was considering shooting me with a dart, but it was obvious I was too weak to stop them from leaving. They walked out together, Charlie’s hand wrapping around Rachel’s. I felt confused, and full of anger.

“Well, that is not what I expected,” Envy said, appearing out of nowhere the moment Charlie was out of the room. “At all.”

“We have to stop her,” I said.

“Well, you know what we need, then.”

“Haylie.”

“Precisely,” she said with a grin.

A thousand thoughts ran through my head. Veronica, warning me not to give Envy too much power. Zoe, and her stories about Haylie, her certainty that Haylie was good. All of the anger that had driven me, and the fear it would consume me.

Slowly, every one of them was replaced with the image of Charlie, that smug arrogance of hers forming an impenetrable shield as she bent the world to her will. An unstoppable force of nature.

“Let’s do it, then,” I said.

Envy smiled, but there was no love in their eyes. All of a sudden, I couldn’t move.

“Actually, I don’t think so,” they said.

“What?”

“You’re weak. Too weak. You’re holding me back.”

“What?” I repeated, fear gripping my throat. I couldn’t move, my head was filling with cotton, and I couldn’t think.

“I’m strong enough now that I don’t need to pretend,” Envy said. “You’ve outgrown your usefulness. Your body is mine.”

They approached me slowly, their fingers pressed against my chest. I could feel them, cold and hot at the same time, pulsing with energy and power. With a smile, they pushed.

It was gentle, no more effort than you’d use on a light door. I stumbled back, out of my body, out of the world. Everything around me grew dark, and I fell.

I fell, and I fell, and I fell.

And from a distance, through a thousand windows, I watched my own body smile. Envy’s smile, not mine.

I’m sorry, Veronica.

 

Next: Epilogue

Thanks for reading this far. I hope you’ve enjoyed the story up to this point! It’s probably pretty obvious that this isn’t the end. Consider this more like a season finale. We have an epilogue later this week, then a five-week break, during which I’ll be publishing a bonus story arc, titled Roxie: Dying In Five Easy Steps. After that, we’ll be starting Volume 2 of Impact Day, titled Dead Girls Don’t Cry, which is a prequel story of a comparable length. It’s a story about Charlie and Rachel, and the events that led to Impact Day.

Anyway, if you’ve enjoyed the story so far, consider supporting me on on Patreon, so I can afford to keep writing it. Additionally, you can buy the complete collection on Gumroad and on Kindle. It features a bonus chapter that I’m not releasing online!

See you later this week!

~Snow

Zoe pulled her hoodie over her head, and tossed it to the side. Beneath it, she wore a thin tank top and a sports bra. She looked entirely unharmed.

Charlie shrugged out of her coat, tossing it to the side. Her shirt was ruined, and she tied the scraps of it around her chest, an ineffectual binder. Clothing aside, she also looked unharmed.

“So, we finally get to meet,” Zoe said, comfortable but wary. “Face to face.”

“And what a pleasure it is,” Charlie said dryly.

I strained my neck to try and look through the doorway, but I couldn’t see anything. I feared the worst for Rachel.

“You made a mistake, coming here,” Zoe said.

“Maybe.” Charlie shrugged. “Guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

“I know what you are. I’ve fought something like you before.”

Charlie reached behind her, pulling out a knife sheathed in the small of her back. She ran her finger along the blade of it, drawing blood, and licked it off her finger before it evaporated.

“See, now, that intrigues me. I’d love to hear more,” she said, licking her lips. “Unfortunately, I’d rather beat your face in.”

The pain in my chest had faded to a dull throbbing. It occurred to me that I could probably pull the metal bars out if I really tried, but somehow I just couldn’t muster the energy. All I managed was a weak groan.

“You doing okay there, Sabrina?” Zoe asked, keeping her eyes on Charlie.

I’m pinned to the wall by a pair of metal spikes, how do you think I’m doing?

“Please be safe,” I said weakly.

“Don’t worry, I can handle myself,” she replied, smirking. Charlie raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

My eyes darted to the back room again. I had to ask. I didn’t want to hear the answer, but I had to ask.

“Is Rachel…?”

I couldn’t even finish the sentence. Charlie’s attention shifted, focusing on me for a second, then back to Zoe to hear the response. Zoe noticed.

“Dead? Quite possibly,” she said. “Her ego got the better of her. Kind of like this one, hey?”

Charlie’s grip on her knife tightened, the darkness in her eyes returning. I could see the fury forming on her face, spreading throughout her entire body.

“You killed Rachel,” she said, her voice dead.

“Jealous?” Zoe taunted. “Or just upset you’ll never get that piece of you that she stole back?”

Charlie’s death-grip on the knife intensified, to the point where it actually snapped, the blade clattering to the floor. She didn’t even seem to notice. Her attention was now fixated on the back room.

“Rachel, you idiot…”

That wasn’t just anger. Beneath the rage and fury, there was pain there. There was love there.

“Oh, this is precious,” Zoe said, laughing. “You still care about her?”

Charlie snarled, an inhuman, monstrous sound.

“You’re going to regret every second of pain you inflicted on her, you wretched beast,” she growled.

The rage wasn’t even directed at me, and I felt a chill. There was something dark about it, a cruelty and viciousness that seemed to reach beyond that of anything any human should be capable of. Something that seemed to come from beyond Charlie herself.

“Irony abounds,” Zoe replied breezily, seemingly oblivious to that sensation I was feeling. “Alright, let’s do this. I’m sure Sabrina’s eager to get down off that wall.”

Unsurprisingly, Envy was nowhere to be seen. The moment Charlie had turned violent, they were gone. Charlie seemed to be the only person that scared them, and not just because of the danger she posed to me.

Charlie attacked first, a blur of movement that was difficult even for me to follow. Her fist slammed into Zoe’s stomach, and I watched as Zoe buckled, shock apparent on her face. Charlie kneed her in the chest, sending her flying backwards. I heard her bones crack from the other side of the room.

Zoe recovered quickly, turning her momentum into an evasive manoeuvre, putting distance between her and Charlie. I could see the cogs turning in her head, processing new information, preparing a strategy against Charlie.

She moved like lightning, darting across the room. Charlie’s retaliation was too slow, and Zoe’s nails sliced through her neck and shoulder. Charlie’s elbow collided with Zoe’s head, but Zoe rolled with it, carving deep gouges across Charlie’s stomach.

Charlie snapped Zoe’s wrist. Zoe sliced Charlie’s neck open to the bone. Charlie shattered Zoe’s kneecap. Zoe ripped through Charlie’s stomach. The entire exchange was brutal, difficult to watch, impossible to ignore. I felt sick to my stomach.

They were picking up speed, bouncing around the room and breaking everything in sight. Every time Charlie attacked, it seemed like Zoe would learn and adapt, and gain the upper hand, but then Charlie just switched tactics, taking Zoe by surprise all over again.

Charlie wrapped her hands around Zoe’s throat, slamming her against the wall, and I could see her fingers digging into the flesh, threatening to cut through. Zoe dug her nails into Charlie’s forearms, pulling her knees up to her chest and kicking Charlie away with enough force to knock her to the ground.

The force of it ripped Charlie’s arms off at the elbows, and though they started to grow back almost immediately, Zoe seized the opportunity to strike. She was on Charlie like an animal, cutting and stabbing, forcing Charlie backwards.

Charlie staggered back until she hit a wall, and with nowhere else to go, she tried to fend Zoe off with her feet. Zoe backed away momentarily, only just long enough to collect a handful of long metal shards from the floor. With a pointed glance at me, she struck, driving them through Charlie’s body, one by one, pinning Charlie to the wall in a grim mirror of what she’d done to me.

Charlie strained against the metal, but couldn’t build up enough force to get herself free. She struggled to grab shards and pull them out, but they were too sharp, and cut up her hands, the blood making it impossible to get a grip.

Satisfied Charlie was pinned, Zoe took a step back again, out of breath for the first time I’d ever seen her. She wiped blood from her mouth, wincing from the pain of her still-healing wrist.

“You were saying?”

“You fight like a demon,” Charlie said, but the rage was already subsiding. She seemed almost human again. “How appropriate.”

Zoe walked over to another shard of metal, picked it up, and drove it into Charlie’s thigh. Charlie grit her teeth, bracing herself as Zoe twisted the metal.

“And I’m going to show you just how demonic I am,” Zoe taunted, practically whispering the words in Charlie’s ear. “I think I’ll keep you in pieces, tiny little pieces. And your head, I think I’ll keep it in view of Rachel’s corpse. So you never, ever get to forget that she’s dead.”

Charlie strained against the shards again, but only managed to cause herself more pain. It was difficult to watch, and I found myself wincing in sympathy. Nobody deserved that. Not even Charlie.

“Who’s dead?” a third voice said, echoing through the room. Three heads turned to the back room, where a hunched, bleeding Rachel stood, murder in her eyes. A silver pistol-like device hung loosely in her hand, blood dripping down it.

 

Next Week: Strong Enough Now That I Don’t Need To Pretend (Finale!)