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A loud boom.
Lorelei barely made it back to her apartment when the ground shook. Everywhere she looked, what seemed like robots surrounded the area, some on the ground while most flying in the crisp air. Chaos ensued, people from every direction screaming and running for their lives, the language foreign to her ears ringing not unlike the gunshot from earlier in the cafe. She looked around desparately, not knowing where to go or where to run. From a fifteen foot distance she could see her apartment building collapse, making her breath catch in her throat.
She couldn't breathe.
Falling to her knees, she barely felt anything as people bumped into her. The mass panic never seemed to stop, and she couldn't get herself to do anything. Dark hair sticking to her face with sweat, she clutched her eyes tight and held her hands against her ears to try and forget the screams of terror all around her. Two months in Sokovia and she was still unfamiliar with their native tongue, but she was almost certain that she'd remember the screams verbatim for the rest of her life.
Suddenly, there was a gust of wind and a bright blue light.
"Are you alright?" A man appeared in front of her, stark white hair with dark roots, blue lightning eyes and a weird accent. "Are you hurt?"
Lorelei couldn't bring herself to answer, shaking visibly.
"We're evacuating the city," the odd man explained before pointing in the distance where various air vehicles hovered. "I'm going to take you to that ship over there and you'll be safe, okay?"
Barely managing a nod, the man pulled her up and secured his arms around her before zipping away. She felt only the wind against her face and the whiplash right after. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, he was already setting her down on an empty bench on the said ship that mere seconds ago seemed too far away.
He turned to leave when Lorelei finally spoke up. "Are you a teleporter?"
"No," he looked back at her with a tight smirk. "No, I'm just fast."
With those words, the man disappeared, leaving only the same gust of wind and bright blue light.
Lorelei watched as the vehicle filled up, more crying women and children in one place than she has ever seen. And then the battered ones piled up, one injured person to another. The smell of blood made her senses tingle, but it wasn't the scent that bothered her, but the feeling. Lorelei felt like she could feel everything; every throbbing head, every cut and every wound on everyone's skins. By the time the ship was almost full, she was having a hard time breathing. She found herself falling from her seat to the floor, so overwhelmed with pain that her vision blurred. And then the worst came.
Beside her, a body dropped. Once again she was met with the harsh smell of blood, and when she looked over she barely stopped a gasp from her mouth.
There he was, the man who had helped her earlier and took her to safety. His white hair was still as striking, his eyes opened to the bluest of skies, but what took her breath away was the multiple bullet wounds all over his torso, so much that his tight top had almost been fully covered in blood. The guy that carried him reached down and carefully closed his eyes with two fingers before letting out a deep sigh. Finally, the vehicle moved away from the wreckage that had been her home for the last two months.
She couldn't help but stare at the other man who laid down on where she was initially seating, shifting her eyes to the unmoving body beside her and back to him. He caught her eye and raised a brow at her.
"Dead?" She asked in a shaky voice, vision still not fully clearing up. Being next to someone with the most severe of wounds was not helping.
Barely looking at her, the man grunted. "What do you think?"
She lied down next to the man that saved her and remained silent for the next couple minutes. Apart from the several injuries she was feeling from everyone at the plane, her ears were ringing from their height as well. Lorelei felt weak as well as sick, like the feeling she gets right before she throws up. But in the midst of the pain and confusion, she felt it. A heartbeat—no, life.
She let herself gasp, turning her head to look at the seemingly lifeless man beside her. There were no visible raising of his chest to indicate that he was still breathing, but she can't help the heartbeat echoing in her ears that no one else seemed to hear. Before she knew what she was doing, it was like some sort of instinct took over and she reached out to hold his cold hands, intertwining their fingers.
Intense pain took over, more excruciating than she had ever felt before. She let out a strangled scream, feeling her back arch up and eyes close shut. But she kept a tight grip on the fast man's hands, her hold never faltering. She could hear the other man panic, shouting at her and shaking her tensed body, but the longer she held on the fainter her senses went. Soon she could barely hear a thing, only distant voices.
The last thing she felt before passing out was the hand she was holding gripping back.
