A Pause in Time

Prologue

The ground was cold and hard. With the lack of shoes, the ground always felt that way. But running through the dark, not knowing exactly where to go, not knowing how long she'd been running for exactly, Nikolina's feet were aching, begging for her to stop. But she couldn't. The quick pounding of booted footsteps behind her egged her on. The two older kids running behind her, whispering to her to keep running, egged her on. Her own survival instincts egged her on. Her breathing had started off deep and controlled, but now they were short and labored, and she was struggling to filter air into her lungs.

The hand on her back pushed her forward just a little too and Nika fell, a split second away from being unable to catch herself. A pair of strong hands lifted  her by her armpits back onto her feet as a soft voice urgently apologized, sorry for pushing her to the ground but eager to keep moving. The pounding of the men chasing them was getting louder and it was making Nika's heart beat faster. She had developed anxiety over the last eight years, but nothing like she was experiencing in this moment.

She heard the older girl's voice in her head, telling her to breath easy and focus on the goal: escaping. Nika had been worried she couldn't do it. They didn't know the layout of the base, and her phasing power was still extremely unpredictable. She still threw up every time she used it, and it seemed to happen at the most inconvenient times. At the present moment, Nika was praying to a God she no longer believed in that she wouldn't phase now. She couldn't. She could fall straight though the floor, landing herself somewhere even worse then where she had been, leaving the twins to either find her or leave her behind.

Nika had asked why the brother couldn't have just sped them out of there. His power was speed, after all. But he couldn't carry both Nika and his sister, so that wasn't an option. Nika was pulled out of her thoughts of this when the older girl grabbed her arm and tugged her to the right, as men had appeared in the tunnel to their left, so that clearly wasn't an option. Her brother tugged Nika in front of him so that she was in the middle of the group with his sister leading the way. They took a few more twists and turns before they quickly came to a stop, their path before them blocked by a solid stone wall. The older girl told the two other children to get back, which they did, scrambling to hurry a few yards back. The other girl started moving her hands, a red glow appearing between her fingers. She twirled her hands and maneuvered her fingers for a few seconds, growing the power being born between them. When she felt the power was strong enough, she faced her palms toward the wall and released it, blowing a huge hole in the stone. Her brother nudged me forward and I ran to her. We looked down to see Sokovia's biggest river raging below. The older girl grabbed Nina's hand and squeezed, letting her know that she was there for her. Until a voice spoke behind them that sent shivers up their spines. The girls slowly turned around.

The scientist of Nina's nightmares was standing in front of them, the male twin being held tightly in her grasp. The girl standing next to Nika gasped and called out for her brother, but the scientist just smirked. Nika looked up at her companion, concern and fear clearly showing on her face. The girl looked down to meet Nina's gaze and gave her a soft smile. She told Nika to be good before telling her she was sorry. With the last of the power that was being stored in her hands, the girl flung Nika out of the hole and into the air, a protective shield of pure power surrounding her as she dropped into the water below. Nika popped her head out of the water just in time to see the scientist yank her friend away from the hole and stand there, staring daggers down at the river. Nika stared back, refusing to take her eyes off of the woman until she had floated far down the river and completely out of sight.