Sky Corruption (Past Tense)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nikki didn't even need to explain anything, Tyrese knelt down and picked up the box, giving it a quick skim before he gave Nikki a blank look. Chills crawled up her spine as she felt the back of her head grow hot.

"I can explain-" Nikki quickly fumbled on her words as Tyrese held an unreadable look.

He grabbed Nikki by her forearm, pulling her into a tight hug, she quickly reciprocated it, running her hands along his back. His lips gently brushed her ear as he felt her rapid heartbeat against his chest. "You don't need to hide this from me." He whispered, his voice was like butter on hot bread according to Nikki.

Nikki spoke, her voice shaking feverishly, "What are going to do? We can't support a baby..."

"Nikkita, we don't even know for sure that you're pregnant." Tyrese asserted, he took his hands and snaked them towards her shoulders, pulling away from the embrace.

Nikki blinked away the tears that had been threatening to run down her face. "Right..." She mumbled.

"And if you are..." Tyrese added matter-of-factly, giving her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "We'd figure it out together, even if it's just us against the world."

Us against the world. Nikki liked the sound of that.

"I don't deserve you." Nikki mumbled under her breath. Tyrese narrowed his eyes at her while bringing his hands closer to her neck, running his thumbs across her jawline. Nikki craned her head upwards so that she could look him in the eyes, taking her rather smaller hand and running it across his wrist.

"You're right. You don't deserve me." Tyrese responded curtly, causing Nikki's grip on his wrist to go limp and her heart started to throb even harder, the thought of Tyrese leaving her, had sent a sharp pains from her stomach all the way up to her chest.

He leaned down further, letting his lips brush against the skin of her forehead. "You deserve the world." He whispered, Nikki closed her eyes in bliss, she had never felt so loved in her life.

--

The dull light shone in the room, giving the entire kitchen a dim haze. The only source of sound only seemed to have emerged from outside this little room were the heavy footsteps among the steel floor. Cold sweat started to bud and run down Jay's forehead, his hair was loose from his bun and had cascaded down the sides of his face. His head made contact with his rough hands, covering both of his eyes as he sat on the folded chair, unable to move.

His thoughts had been all over the place. The bunker, Eza, the outsiders, Faith's forked tongue that reprimanded his decisions late at night.

Thalia.

It was near October eighteenth, the day that Jay dreaded the most, almost as much as the day his sister was taken from this world, from him. But October eighteenth was a clear reminder that Thalia has been brought to this world, to him, and as much as he tried to hide it, he couldn't hide the vulnerability anymore, so he chose to hide someplace where he's allowed to be.

The sounds of the rain entered his head, the screams of everyone outside and down the open streets, the pure darkness out of his car.

And the frightened voice of Thalia.

"Jayden! You need to get off the road!"

Jay's fingers had persistently gripped around the steering wheel of his car. He had the phone pressed against his ear as his younger sister's lecturing voice echoed from the device in his hand. The sky showing the odd but beautiful mixture of magneta lights behind the murky clouds, the ray of light shooting past some of the clouds and onto the street, that was full of parked cars, curious civilians that stood out on the sidewalk and stared idly at the sky. He was in the middle of traffic, sever cars away from the stoplight. The magneta light showing from above was uncanny, it was hardly eleven at night, and it didn't seem like lighting in the sky.

"It's been hours since I've been released Thalia, I've been in that hellhole for five Goddamn years! I'm coming to see you." Jay argued into the phone.

The windshield wipers cleared Jay's vision of the traffic ahead as rain slowly pattered onto the glass. He looked next to him only to see another line of cars, angry horns honked as he heard the commotion outside his car.

A yelp had emerged from the phone in his right palm, his eyes widened and his head snapped from the corrupted traffic and strange skies down to the phone.

"Thalia! What's going on?" Jay screamed into the phone, in which it's screen had shown a picture of her smiling face.

Her dark long hair was braided back in two double-dutch braids, several strands messily framed along her heart shaped face, her large, baby-doe like brown eyes staring back innocently staring back at him. Her dark purple colored lips was lifted into a cheek smile as she held up a peace sign.

The screen blurred slightly, the sounds on the other line of the phone were loud, and the only thing that Jay remembered of Thalia that day, was that damned picture that shown who the caller was on that phone.

"Jay?" Thalia's youthful and silky voice echoed through the speaker phone. Jay glanced down at the screen.

"What Thalia?" Jay responded gruffly.

"Are you here? Why is the door open?" Thalia asked. Jay's eyes widen as his heart started to beat rapidly. His eyes instinctively looked amongst the cars in front of him, not one of them budging.

Jay choked out his words. "I'm still in a traffic jam-"

"There's a bright light Jay...and a weird sound-" Thalia vaguely described what she was seeing, unintentionally adding even more dread and panic into her older brother. "Is that you? Jayden I don't know what kind of game you're pulling but now isn't the time!"

Suddenly, the lights all over the city flickered off with a low ominous sound,  Jay's car went dark, the rumbling purr of it's engine coming to a complete silence. Other people noticed this as well, given the fact that people left their cars, frustrated and confused.

Jay glanced back at his phone. Thalia's heavy breathing was on the other end.

And just like that, his phone flickered completely off, welcoming his ears with eerie silence.

A warm, gentle hand runs along Jay's broad shoulder. Jay moved his head away from his hands sluggishly, as if coming out of a trance and met the eyes of China.

"Are you feeling okay?" China asked, gazing at him with her baby-doe like brown eyes. China remained seated in the foldout chair next to him, her millions of braids acting like a huge curtain as she moved her head to make better eye contact with him.

Jay's bloodshot red eyes scanned China up and down. She wasn't Thalia, but they both had the same eyes. The eyes that reminded Jay that he was human. Reminded him of how he broke down in tears the day after he found China and the condition she was in. Reminded him of how he failed to protect Thalia.

Those. Damn. Brown. Eyes.

Jay suddenly pulled China into a heavy embrace, his fingers laced into her many series of box braids as he rested his chin above her head. China's eyes were wide but she still returned the hug, her hands looping underneath his arms, spreading along his back. "What's the matter?" She asks, slightly startled.

"Nothing." Jay lied, his voice soft and weak. "Nothing at all."

"Is there anything I can do?" China piped up cheerfully, even though he wasn't facing her, he could see her gentle smile.

Jay closed his eyes and whispered while blinking his tears away, in a soft, yet vulnerable voice. "Let me just hold you for a while...please."