Bring The Heat

94. No Way In Pt 5

The basement of BM's mindscape was flooded now. The two pushed forward, wading weakly through the knee-high water, choppy with waves as the whole area burned a blinding red from of above. And... a loud booming, like a heart beating...

"Just don't look up!" BM called out, though Wren could hardly hear him over her own grunts of effort and that thumping. Her eyes remained persistently on the area with the safes as she approached - until a glint from below stole her attention.

BM gasped as Wren splashed forward lifelessly - the waves! The waves of the water were reflecting the light!

He leaned down, keeping his eyes screwed shut, and fished around for her until his fingers pushed into her bun. Yanking her from the water, he shook her to consciousness, but had to hold her as she nearly stumbled back.

"Wren! Wren, don't look down or up, just straight ahead... no, get out of here, please, just go!"

Her eyes fell to her midriff. Blood was seeping through, a dark, sticky substance under this light - and she felt so out of it.

"You're... you're really dying! Your mind is merging back with your body. Please, please just go..."

"It's like I'm not here anymore." She muttered, scratching at her wounds in wonder, before her expression turned to pure determination. "Which means the water isn't slowing me down!"

Wren shoved away from BM, limping defiantly towards the safes, like the water was going straight through her legs. Which was good, because it was now halfway up her thighs...

The cold, hard, steel of the safe met her hand as she collapsed over it. There were multiple others lined up across from and past it, with mangled bodies lying before each.

"What's this, what's all this!? Hurry!"

"It's you! It's all of you!" BM exclaimed, panting as he waded over to her. "Everyone in my life, I have all this power to keep them safe, but I just keep getting them hurt anyway, not matter how much I lock them away from danger, it's not enough..." He shook his head. "Wren, this isn't something you can fix now! It'll take me a long time to... there's no series of words that can change this! It's been haunting me my whole life, just go, please!"

Wren's eyes wandered over the safes. All of this... he was right, there was no way.

"Then- then I won't change it! It'll take you a long time you say, that means you've managed without it before!" She staggered over to him, grabbing his arms. As she looked into his face, she saw something on it she'd not seen before - fear, fear for her. "You, standing in front of me, you're PROOF that you didn't just lay down and die the day you lost everything! If this, this is what you've been reverted to, then I need you to show me what saved you!"

In that very moment, everything froze. The water, the light, the booming, the waves, BM - everything. Looking down, Wren saw that pink light was glowing from her hands, onto BM's arms.

And then, behind her, sound faded in, but not of the mindscape; the sound of a city street at very early morning, maybe 4 or 5am.

It was like a projector, projecting life itself, from BM's viewpoint.

-(THE PROJECTION)-

The winds blew the sounds of the few people rising early to go to work down each and every street like molten metal filling a blacksmith's mold. The sky was dark, all except for a slight sliver of blue on the horizon.

Malcolm hung his head low, sober purely for his inability to afford alcohol, unable to sleep due to the ongoing trauma, but it was ok. He wasn't exactly doing a lot lately anyway.