Checkmate {Book 3} [COMPLETED]

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A/N: while writing the beginning of this chapter I could picture all of the camera angles and I hope I wrote it decent enough so you guys can too. And also  🤓 <— literally looks like me

An oval of light. Then darkness. Then another oval of light, wider, more defined around the edges. Darkness, only for a beat. Then light, an assortment of it, not nearly as blinding as before.

Tessa laid sprawled out on her back, pewter eyes gazing up at the sky. Mind dizzy, she slowly sat up with a groan of effort, muscles aching tremendously. A head rush came and she closed her eyes, ears ringing. Focusing on her breathing, she inhaled deeply, held it in, then exhaled. After doing it two more times, she opened her eyes again, fingers playing with something on the floor.

She looked down and saw a jagged rock between her slender fingers, and plucked it into her grasp, slowly bringing it close to her eyes. She examined the years worth of erosion done to it with a head tilt, then her focus on the rock blurred to something past it.

A bigger rock the size of a house rested on gravel. She put the minuscule rock down to gaze at the other one. This rock had cracks crawling over the surface of it, stained ebony. The rock itself was a burning apricot mixed with splashes of ruby, accenting its age.

Her gaze lifted to her surroundings. A smoky grey sky tumbled over her like a blanket, no clouds in sight. The ground was beige gravel with abnormally large rocks scattered everywhere, no clear pathways or patches.

Something caught her attention. The girl gazed at the golden specks floating all around, dancing like winking fireflies. She stood slowly as the specks moved gently around her, not seeming to affect her.

"Hello?" Her voice broke through the deafening silence, not a single echo to be heard. Her joints stiffened as she took a step, planting her left foot firmly on the gravel. Dust puffed up from the action, and she pursed her lips.

Then everything came rushing back to her.

The whole fight with that madman. She was stabbed with a spear on her left side, and passed out while someone was treating it. Peter being insanely protective over her. Her turning to dust.

The girl lifted up her suit to see where the stab was, and saw her skin mended, blood smeared everywhere. It surprisingly didn't hurt, and she twisted her body to look at the cut from the plane crash along the beach. It was nearly healed up once again, and pursed her lips. How was she feeling no pain? Did someone inject her with something? Where the hell was she?

Her face was reddening along with the tips of her ears as she frantically looked around, her heart beat increasing. No one was to be seen. She began to move along the gravel, gripping onto nearby rocks to support her jello legs.

"Peter?" Tessa called, and there was no answer, only the howl of the wind picking up. "Strange?" She began to pick up the pace to a jog while looking for signs of life, anything.

"Peter? Dad?" The wind was now tugging at her hair, whipping the ebony to the left, obscuring her vision. She quickly tugged it out of her face while stopping in the middle of a bunch of rocks, almost perfectly rounded into a circle. Her blood ran cold as tears of pure fear rose to her eyes, and she began to pant wildly.

"Dad? Strange?" Slowly she started to turn in circles, her lip quivering. "Guardian people?" Her hands were shaking at her sides as a whimper escaped from her chattering lips, and she turned quicker, scanning her surroundings.

"Guys?!" Her hair was going everywhere now, fanning all around her. She didn't bother to fix it anymore as her vision got blurry with frightful tears, her face getting more rosy.