𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐏𝐇 || ʜᴀᴡᴋꜱ

57 ➟ In which I let go.

"So you're just going to kill everyone?" I stood under the flowery arch of the altar and, though it was not my wedding, it felt good that the altar was actually being used. It looked expensive.

Lelija's head snapped toward my direction, still looking desperately beautiful despite her neck's previous devilish movement. Her dress blew behind her in the cold wind that blew so many hundreds of feet in the air. I had never been more aware of just how high I was in the sky and yet, so aware that I couldn't think about it. Lelija's beauty proved to be the perfect distraction for that.

"God this dress really is uncomfortable," Rin whined in my head.

"I know," I agreed solemnly, "have you started yet?"

I could feel his frustration as he replied, "I'm trying, it's like some shitty maze..." He trailed off, "... but I'll work it out. Just stall."

I continued to speak directly to Lelija, "Not even of your own volition? You'd just follow the plan of a dead man?"

She rolled her eyes, lifting herself off of Kitsu who took the opportunity to scamper away. "You surely have no concept of loyalty." She stalked forward, making her steps slow and calculated, like she was on some stage and the whole world was watching her- but they were watching her. The camera's hadn't ceased rolling, and the live audience hadn't moved, "my Grandfather knew what the world needs- hell- you know what the world needs. And it isn't those who jumped."

"So the world needs you then?"

She nodded, "Yes. There's no power in a world that keeps weak alive."

"And... what will you do when the world is no longer weak?" I asked the question quickly to get Lelija talking and buy Rin some more time, "Won't everyone be just as powerful as each other? Bit boring if you ask me."

Lelija gave me an odd look, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes as if I'd just asked her the stupidest question she'd ever heard, she confirmed my suspicions too, as she made no attempt to hide the "God you're stupid,'' that left her mouth as she continued to look down on me, despite my being on the platformed altar.

Her eyes flashed that familiar, uncanny shade of purple and I was no longer standing on top of the platform, but atop the thin brick wall that feebly attempted to stop someone from toppling over the side and plummeting down to the ground. Now I could see the carnage that Lelija had caused. Something held my head in place so that I could not look away. I could only stare at the mangled mess of bodies that convulsed and merged into one big bloody mess. And there was a small voice in the back of my head telling me to jump and join them.

Two voices actually.

Both of them willing me to

'let go'

The latter was the familiar one. It had a body too. A twisted face that mirrored my own facial features, a dark shadow falling over it, twisting my features into something unnatural as a smile pulled at the corners of its mouth and yet there was nothing unfamiliar about the voice or the smile for it was my own and it belonged to me. Or at least, the thing that had attached itself to me.

I trusted it fully, safe in the knowledge that I was not really there and that letting go was not giving up, but instead, was allowing myself to coexist with my quirk. Allowing myself to coexist with Ephialtes. So I took a step forward and let go.