StarFall (Completed)

Ch. 32 - Run (Part 1)

The ringing was all I could hear still. I watched on as the queen's expression fell to something more sour, as if a foul taste were in her mouth. The other me gazed back with bewilderment.

The path I made was one of broken stone as I inched my way towards the queen. The ringing filled every part of me as I raised a hand and shattered the crystal structure into dust.

"Foolish girl, you truly believe you can stop me?" 

She spoke but I heard not a thing. I stepped forward, and with the same hand I crumbled her stone throne into rubble.

She seemed angry, and terrifying, but also afraid. Afraid of me.

She raised her arm up to the sky as I reached into my pocket. I felt around for the bullet Miller had made, that he gave his life to leave for me. I pulled it out and held it firm in my hand. I could feel the coolness of it radiate throughout my body. 

The moment she spoke I thrust my arm forward and opened my hand. The bullet shot through her mouth and out the back of her head so she may never utter another word again.

She gurgled and strained to speak as she grabbed her throat. She raised her arm up once more as the bullet pierced from behind her, pulling through the middle of her forehead. Her eyes looked up at the gaping wound as she tried to speak. Her body fell to the ground as I neared her.

She waved a hand up at me, begging. I couldn't feel a thing as my vision went black.

                                                                                    ************

She stood there, glaring at the nameless queen on her knees. Not moving an inch. Even as the queen turned to dust and blew away.

I urged my legs to run, tears flowing from my eyes as I neared her--as I neared me. Though I was unsure why I was crying.

I placed my arm around her and tried to pry her away from her spot. "Adeline, come on. We need to get moving." I pulled on her and pushed against her. She would not budge.

I bit my lip and paced back and forth as everything around us began to fall and turn to dust. I stopped pacing and stood before myself. "Forgive me." I slapped her hard across the face.

She snapped out of it enough for me to move her.

"We need to get going, come on." I grabbed her hand and led her from the circle. We rushed through the once lush fields that had now decayed. The balls of light that once danced for me had grown black and turned to ash.

I kept my focus ahead of us as I peered back to make sure she was still running along with me. Her head down. Her expression solemn. I couldn't even imagine what she was going through right now. Though, somehow I felt every bit of it. But it was not my pain. I did not earn it. He loved her, not me. Even though I was her and she was me.

The ground cracked open behind us as we ran faster. She spoke not a word to me as we neared a cliff at the edge of the domain. The outline of a creature came into view.

"Bobby," she said quietly.

I looked back at her before looking again at the ever-growing beast before us. It towered over us, at least twelve feet in height by the top of its head. And sitting on its back were an old man and what looked like..."Madison," I said.

"Oh god, there really are two of you." She groaned.

Yup...Madison. 

We neared the beast and came to a halt, winded and trying not to look back at the massive erasure of everything behind us. 

"Climb aboard, quick, quick, quick." The old man hurried us along.

We pulled ourselves onto the back of the beast and held on tight. As the ground quaked and crumbled beneath our feet the beast leaped through the air. Crossing the chasm that stood between us and salvation. We held our breath as everything seemed to slow down. Closer we came to the other side as the queen's domain turned to rubble and fell from sight into the abyss.