Deception | NaNoWriMo2023

Chapter Five: Face to Face With The Past

Flash, sizzle, snap! I gasp, slamming back hard against the floor, hands flying to my neck. It tingles fiercely and the phantom grasp of Vanish's hand squeezes my skin, but it doesn't hurt. I am not being strangled and I am not being attacked.

I am alone.

Peeling my eyes open, it takes a moment for them to focus on the ceiling of a Teleporter. A Teleporter. I am in a Teleporter. Implications grasp my chest and squeeze, and I scramble to my feet, limbs weak and trembling with adrenaline. A steady pulse of ice drums in the back of my neck, stabbing icicles down my arms and into my numb fingers. I clench them, breaths heavy as I turn in a slow circle.

Smooth, rounded black walls with a strip of green light glowing at the bottom and at the top unfold before me. To my left, the green light sweeps upwards in a rectangle, outlining the door.

Out. I can get out and find out where I am and—figure something out from there. Stumbling towards it, I press my palm into the panel and push hard. It slides out and to the right with a hiss and an affirmative chirp.

In the open space behind it is a wide, circular room with red and black accents and many consoles covered in scrolling holograms, but what makes my lungs freeze are the two people standing in only a few strides away.

The figure farthest from me is shrouded in an oversized gray hoodie, dark gray pants, and bandages for shoes. The girl in front is tall and sleek, dressed in a purple shirt and black-leather jacket that ends above her waist. At her hips are two curved knives and an empty gun holster.

Her hair is black and cut to her shoulders, the tips dyed a metallic navy and a large stripe of purple sweeping down the side of her face. She and the gray figure behind turn at the Teleporter's chirp. Everything else fades as our eyes meet.

They're purple. Deception's purple.

Deception's face splits into a delighted grin with far too white teeth and she cat-walks towards me, arms open as if for a hug. "Elias! You made it!"

Something leaps in my chest other than my heart, kicking up a storm of shadows and dust as it digs up purple strands from the back of my mind. "S-stay back." My tongue trips over my teeth, tangled in purple. A spasm grasps my shoulders and I take a step back, glance at the walls around me, and scramble out of the door, skirting around the outside of the Teleporter.

She slows, arching an eyebrow. "Well, that's no way to greet your girlfriend after so long."

All the air in my lungs turns into ice and my feet snap to the floor like magnets. Wait, actually? Girlfriend? Girl. Friend? I'm—she's—we're—really?

A frown overtakes her smile and she peers at me, coming to a full stop a few steps away. "Spade? Elias, dear? Are you okay?" Her eyes slip down my body, a mask of twilight and dark corners shadowing her face with each moment that passes, the flicker of concern pressing her lips together. Crossing the distance between us, she brushes her knuckles against my cheek. "What did they do to you?"

I stiffen. Her lipstick is lilac. A few strands of hair sweep across her face, drawing wispy lines towards her button nose. And her eyes. They're a rich purple, depthless as the shadows behind a throne and hauntingly alluring like the pulsing heartbeat of a black hole. They suck me in, pin me in place, dig purple roots into my chest and rearrange my insides.

From somewhere distant, warm fingers close around my hand. I flinch, a stab of winter unlodging my lungs long enough for a small gasp, but I don't pull away. I can't pull away. I am somewhere behind my eyes, slowly sliding backwards away from my body into a vortex of static, darkness, and mauve, too far to make my limbs respond.