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Chapter 43 – Pink Cheeks
Angry red flames licked the last remnants of oxygen like a starving beast. Eagerly racing across wooden floorboards to reach Ophelia's dazed and confused figure. Smoke twisted in the air, casting the acrid smell of burning wood like a cursed spell.
Images began clearing slightly as the brawler focused on her surroundings. Looking down, she saw a wavering red shield of energy pulsing from the palm of her hands, blocking a looming wall of fire. To her left, Ophelia could see the ash stained silver of Pietro's hair as he stood in defence of a frightened little face. A tiny hand clutched the back of her jacket as the flames came closer...and closer.
The mangled corpse of a burning man was the last thing she saw.
Before she woke up.
Ophelia slowly sat up on her bed with a confused frown.
"My nightmares are normally more apocolysey than that," Ophelia mused as she planted her feet on the hardwood floor, feeling the cold tingle on her skin and the warm tingle of Wanda's presence in her mind.
'If Pietro ever finds out I dreamed of him, he will never shut up about it,' Ophelia shuddered.
With a shake of her head to dismiss the thought, the brawler gingerly opened the door to her balcony. The cool gust of wind dashed away the remnants of exhaustion, but it was the person sitting on the edge of the pool that brought her to attention.
'Why would I dream of a burning building? Why would I dream of Pietro?' Ophelia thought to herself, 'Unless I wasn't the one dreaming,'
Wanda's feet kicked ripples through the water as she sat in contemplation. The 4 am chill was raising goosebumps on her skin, but her eyes remained vacant to the physical world.
Almost like she was moving on autopilot, Ophelia stepped up to the balcony ledge and jumped in the air softly. She floated towards the pool edge at a gradual pace until her toes skimmed the tiled stone.
"Fifteen," Ophelia unexpectedly announced as she landed quietly next to Wanda.
The Sokovian merely gave a knowing smirk, having felt the brawler's sunny presence as soon as she woke up.
"Fifteen?" Wanda asked curiously.
"That's how many people were injured yesterday. You wanna know how many people were killed?" Ophelia casually asked, plopping herself down next to Wanda as the witch's face dropped.
"Not really." Wanda stiffly answered.
"Aside from the attackers, not a single civilian life was lost," Ophelia continued as if she hadn't heard her.
"How..." Wanda trailed off in confusion, with the amount of destruction brought by Crossbones and his group the Maximoff was preparing for at least a few deaths. "That was the worst way you could have told me that, Delacour,"
