Triple Point

Chapter 123: Elsie Maria Bates

Elsie

March 7, 35 AE

Downtown Los Angeles

For the month leading up to the big day, Elsie was fine. In fact, she had actually been excited. She had psyched herself up by imagining how smoothly the whole night would go, and she had convinced herself that everything would go perfectly and absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong.

After all, how could there be any repercussions by telling the world you're not straight when your entire career hinged on how much the public loved you? And who would care that she had just been involved in possibly the biggest political scandal of the decade?

Only later did Elsie realize that she had actually suppressed all of her doubts and hadn't thought through anything at all. But by then it was too late, and their limo was only mere minutes away from the red carpet and the dozens of reporters that lined it.

"This is a bad idea," Elsie said shakily, probably for the hundredth time since they got into the limo.

She knew she was repeating herself, but she couldn't help it. Or maybe she thought that if she said those words enough, she would magically wake up and realize this was all a bad dream.

"You didn't think so for the past month," Camilla reminded her as her eyes calmly scanned the crowded street outside, completely unfazed by the spectators surrounding them, or by the prospect of what they were about to do.

Elsie tried to let herself feel the calm Camilla exuded. When that immediately didn't work, she tried to distract herself by how amazing Camilla looked.

She had on a silky black jumpsuit with pants that were loose enough to look like a long, flowing skirt. The top was decorated with a gold but subtle lace-like design on her chest, and it went just above Camilla's collarbones and cut off right at her shoulders. It also highlighted Camilla's toned arms and elegant neck, and Elsie tried her best to immerse herself with the sight.

Two seconds later, she gave up.

"I definitely did not think this through," Elsie groaned as their limo inched forward before coming to a stop again.

"Sounds about right," Camilla replied instantly.

"Why didn't you talk me out of it?" Elsie grumbled. "You know I never think about the consequences of my actions."

Camilla finally turned to Elsie, eyebrows raised with an expression that clearly said "are you kidding me."

"And you know that I can never talk you out of something once you set your mind to it," Camilla pointed out. "And this, if I need to remind you, was something you were absolutely set on doing."

Elsie groaned. Camilla was right of course, but Elsie didn't want to be reminded about her poor life choices.

For a second, Elsie wanted to ask Camilla if she could use her abilities to calm Elsie, just as she had done to dozens of guardians in San Francisco months ago. But as soon as the thought came to Elsie's head, she immediately rejected it. She couldn't ask something like that of Camilla, nor could she always rely on Camilla to fix her problems. Elsie got herself into this mess; she either had to get herself out of it or see it through.

"Besides, I know you can do this," Camilla continued, her tone suddenly softening. "You've taken on metas with nothing but a rebranded taser. And you did that for me. So I know that you're strong and brave enough to do this for yourself."

 But Elsie didn't feel strong or brave. At that moment, she felt terrified, as if she was perched up on a ledge hundreds of feet above the streets of Downtown LA. She felt as if she was being chased through the dark streets of Japan by a creep, or falling into the depths of the Unity Games stadium, or she was being attacked by merciless metas. She was minutes away from one of her greatest fears coming to life, and all she wanted to do was ignore it and run away, or wait for someone to rescue her.