Origin of Power

Prologue Part 3

I was off at a sprint, not hesitating for a moment. I didn't think; my body just moved on its own.

The creature roared, but I kept my eyes forward. I knew that if I stopped I might never move again. I felt heavy, my clothes completely drenched. I had no energy left. Just a moment and I would be on the ground, too scared to flee. Momentum carried me onward. I heard my dad's footsteps splash behind me.

A bright flash overwhelmed my vision and I stumbled. My dad caught me before I hit the ground, carrying me underarm so that my arms and legs dangled below me.

The creature was blown back into the side of a building, caving in the wall. Sunlancer didn't give it a chance to recover. He generated beam after beam, tossing them down at it in a hailstorm of light.

The creature screeched, and the rain disappeared. I looked up at the sky as the water gathered into tornado-like-jets that surged towards the Hellraiser. The putrid stench of sewers grew stronger by the second. I gagged as water came up the drains, flooding the street up to my dad's knees in seconds.

He tripped, losing his grip around my waist, dropping me.

Water submerged me. I panicked, breathed deeply, choking on a lungful. The current kept me under, dragging me with it. I kicked at the ground trying to escape the water, my lungs screaming for air. I felt a sharp pain in my arm, but I ignored it, adrenaline dulling the throb.

I hit something hard and felt for anything that I could latch on to. My hands found something, and I grabbed it, pulling myself from the water. I was clinging to the windowsill of a car, the few bits of glass left pierced at my hand, but I couldn't let go.

"Dad!" I choked, searching for him before a flash of light forced my eyes shut.

"Mav!"

I turned to the voice behind me, he was drenched from head to toe. He swiped hair from his eyes then charged through the waist deep water, horror on his face so clear it might as well have been written.

My head was clear. Adrenaline pumped through me and I burnt it like fuel. The pain felt distant, like I wasn't fully connected to my body. My shins and knees burnt with pain and my sides resisted every breath I took, but somehow, I could ignore it.

He reached me, wrapped an arm around my waist, then wrenched upwards, out of the water and onto the roof of the car. I panted as my dad climbed up beside me, the wind pounded us like a hurricane. From that height we could see the extent of the destruction. The water level was still rising, it had to be coming from the Thames.

The cars were a scattered mess, piled up against the nearby buildings or crushed into the road. It was a battlefield. Scraps of metal shot through the water like daggers. I clung to the frame of the car as the current slammed it into another before we came to a stop. Pain stung at my hands, but I didn't let go.

My dad held me so tightly I could have mistaken it for super strength. I'll never forget the agony on his face, a look more afraid than any I have ever seen, even to this day. He thought he had lost me.

I couldn't bear to look. I turned away as he checked me over for injuries. I was starting to feel the pain. There was a large gash on my arm. Any movement triggered it to flare sharply and not moving it just felt like burning.

I stared towards the golden figure hovering high up in the sky, surrounded by a storm.

You will save us, right?

His light reached me, but I didn't feel warm. I just felt tired.

"I've got you, Mav," my dad said, gripping me tightly. "We'll make it through this, together. Just hold on tightly and don't let go."