06-30-2019, 05:11 PM
It took a moment to untangle the desperate crawl and choked words, before the suffocating realisation dawned as Cay reached out for a scarred and broken heap by the wall. Blood seeped through Natalie's jeans where she knelt, still warm in a way that heaved her stomach before she wrenched her attention away from the dead girl. Her chest contracted as she watched Cay paw for signs of life, plucking the strings of an old melody like the vestiges of another life entirely. The girl sobbed and called her brother's name, and Natalie's jaw hardened.
Anger rose from somewhere deep and primal and relentless. Her nails dug rents into the flesh of her palm.
She did not allow herself to consider the possibility.
Neither of them could move him unconscious. They clearly needed Jensen, but couldn't afford to wait; not with the building aflame. The first tentative fingers of smoke began to roil against the ceiling, and soon the corridors beyond would be night black; even if he knew where to look to find them, it was too dangerous to try. Hope punctured as she crawled through the clean air to the wall. A locked security window hung above; a consideration for a moment's time.
She pressed a hand to Cay's shoulder as she knelt beside. Her gaze skirted away from Jay's face. She refused to dwell on the blackened skin, or the raw oozing mass of his forearm; a fan to the fury robbing the gift of power. Frustration sank the ability further, hammering desperation in her chest as the moments trickled like sand. It was the silent promise of retribution that finally did it, settling enough determined calm to sear the light into her grasp. "Stay behind me. But watch the door for me, Cay." Though whether the teenager was aware enough to listen to the advice, Natalie was unsure. She didn't pause to spend the currency of time they did not have to spare. Fortunately she had never been squeamish. Necessity absolved concern for any discomfort the press of her palm might resonate, as she wove familiar threads ready to sink invisible deep. Her muscles already corded, unsure of how ruthlessly he might wake. If it even worked.
Anger rose from somewhere deep and primal and relentless. Her nails dug rents into the flesh of her palm.
She did not allow herself to consider the possibility.
Neither of them could move him unconscious. They clearly needed Jensen, but couldn't afford to wait; not with the building aflame. The first tentative fingers of smoke began to roil against the ceiling, and soon the corridors beyond would be night black; even if he knew where to look to find them, it was too dangerous to try. Hope punctured as she crawled through the clean air to the wall. A locked security window hung above; a consideration for a moment's time.
She pressed a hand to Cay's shoulder as she knelt beside. Her gaze skirted away from Jay's face. She refused to dwell on the blackened skin, or the raw oozing mass of his forearm; a fan to the fury robbing the gift of power. Frustration sank the ability further, hammering desperation in her chest as the moments trickled like sand. It was the silent promise of retribution that finally did it, settling enough determined calm to sear the light into her grasp. "Stay behind me. But watch the door for me, Cay." Though whether the teenager was aware enough to listen to the advice, Natalie was unsure. She didn't pause to spend the currency of time they did not have to spare. Fortunately she had never been squeamish. Necessity absolved concern for any discomfort the press of her palm might resonate, as she wove familiar threads ready to sink invisible deep. Her muscles already corded, unsure of how ruthlessly he might wake. If it even worked.