The sensory and magic deprivation distorted my reality in ways that were new. Blurry hallucinations of Gray and Slate would appear to free me, only for them to work together to break each of my ribs one by one. Glitchy visions of a half-dead Peri wavered in and out from across the cell, but I could never move to save her. And sometimes, Valik appeared. I didn’t know whether he was real, either.
My essence always sought something to feed from, only to have it denied by Grim’s power. I thought I kept coming across the essence I sensed the last time I was here. The one that made my soul feel like jagged shards floating in stasis. But even in a subconscious state, I veered clear, feeling a tug on my essence the closer it approached.
“Chrome, wake up.” The voice sounded as if it came from the opposite end of a tunnel, reverberating in my head and bouncing around my skull.
I groaned.
“I need you to listen to me. Get up.”
The urgency had me trying to crack an eyelid open. The weight of the universe pressed on them as I fought against it. A blurred shadow of a man knelt before me. Probably another hallucination.
“Chrome…”
“Hmm?”
“Look at me.” Warm fingers gripped my jaw and forced my attention to the masculine voice. “That’s it. Just open your eyes, my boy.” The familiar voice was oddly soft.
The hazy human outline of the man wavered in and out. When he came into focus, Valik stared down at me, a worried expression distorting his smooth features.
“Don’t let them break you.”
A fist clutched my heart, twisting, squeezing, and wrenching the life that clung inside of it. Warm moisture burned my dry eyes. “They…” I whispered, empty. “Already have.”
“No, they haven’t.” The voice wavered in my brain. “Chrome! Listen to me!”
I drifted off again, feeling my life force slip away from me faster than I could close my eyelids.
I was dying. My body couldn’t handle it anymore. It was tired of fighting. Of fighting for someone else. What was the point of battling to stay alive if only to serve those who would continue to use and abuse me? When I couldn’t be the superhero for those I cared about most? For her? Much less myself. Wouldn’t it be easier for everyone if I were dead? It would probably be a much a safer world.
My eyelids shuttered, my last breath seeping from my lungs. At least I wasn’t alone in my final moments. Valik had arrived just in time to offer me that much. It wasn’t Gray, Peri, or Slate, but at least I had someone here.
“Fuck…” Valik cursed into my mind.
For the first time in my life, except when I kissed Princess Gray, I was featherlight. Gratitude engulfed me, so lucky for the time I was granted with her before I had to leave this world. At least I got that moment of true euphoria and happiness on the rooftop. It belonged to me.
I drifted above my body on the cell’s cold, concrete floor. Free of all emotion. Free of pain. Free of longing. Free of fear.
I was finallyfree. I was everything that existed between life and death. Free to explore anywhere. I couldn’t be touched here.
Looking down, Valik knelt over me. A silver light emitted from his hands into my nearly deceased body. My subconscious knew what was happening, but it was slow to process. I tried to grab the thought, but I was being towed back down to the corpse that I’d just departed.
No.
I didn’t want to live.
Let me go. Please!
The heaviness crashed into me like a freight train, all the pain and tumultuous emotions sinking its claws into my soul like a savage beast.
If I had been physically capable, I would’ve punched Valik for taking away my chance of freedom.
How fucking dare he?
An eyelid slit open, my vision flooding with blinding silver light. My insides warmed as if they were placed by a cozy fire on a frigid day. I gasped, the coolness of the air contradicting the heat on my organs.
Fuck, no. I don’t want this. Let me go.
No.Valik’s voice entered my mind.It’s not time yet. You gotta hang on.
