Across Dimensions (ONC 2020)

Chapter Eighteen: The One Who Mattered Most

The world is a blur of pain and bright lights. I don't understand what's happening or why, but I want it to end. Voices call commands that only further the unrelenting agony. I want to scream, and I'm silent. My voice is hoarse, inaccessible.

Everyone thought that forms within my head dissipates, I cannot focus on anything other than the physical pain.

"Th-this is the girl from a different dimension?" A familiar voice breaks through the fog.

Grayson.

Silent sobs shake my body, relief combines with the fear of him not being able to save me. I just want to go home. This trip was for nothing. My parents are dead.

Before the pain started, I saw the announcement of their execution cast in the center of the room, in a 3D holographic image. It was held this morning. We came too late.

Their crime was creating artificial life, Grayson, and freeing him from the governments possession. He was only able to escape with my mothers help, she saved him. But now my mom is dead, my dad is dead. I'll never see them again.

Tears fall down my face, I never got to say goodbye. The last thing I said to my mother was that I hoped she left and never came back. I didn't mean it, I was just angry. Mom, I don't know how I'm going to go on knowing I will never see you again. Daddy, I need to hear your laugh again, I want to be wrapped in one of your warm hugs. But we were too late.

"There's speculation that she was one of professor Vidya's projects. Imagine the possibilities if we could understand her galactic powers from the deceased race DNA that runs within her veins." A woman's voice declares with excitement.

What are they talking about?

Before I have the chance to dwell on the idea a moment longer, searing pain travels down my spine. Gasping, I clench my hands into fists, darkness dances around the edge of my vision, and I want to give in to it, to escape. It takes all of my will power to push it away, I need to stay awake if I want to get out of here.

"Stop! Whatever information you have is wrong, she's not Vidya's lost experiment, just a poor bystander." Grayson cries.

Through the haze, I see him standing between me and my tormentors. The pain halts, my body slumps, and my hands open uselessly. If not for the metal clasps on my wrists, ankles, and abdomen, I would have fallen to the floor.

"Are you feeling okay professor?" A male voice asks.

"Professor? I thought this was the assistant... I know all of the professors here, he's not one of them." The woman from early says, suspicion obvious in her tone.

I feel a small device being placed in my hand, my fingers are too weak to close around it, and it clatters to the floor.

Shouts and chaos fill the room. A single gun shot goes off, my ears ring as the shock of the loud sound clears the haze of my head. Grayson looks up at me, blood soaks through his clothes. "I'm sorry, Kai."

"Grayson!" I scream, when he falls to the floor.

Impossible heat rises from my battered body. The lights in the room flicker, before bursting into shards that rain down on the inhabitants. I feel scalding pain tear through my shoulder, but cannot respond to it. The metal clasps on my ankles and wrists melt, forming puddles on the floor.

My eyes close, and I see stars going out, swallowed by an ever-growing black hole. Millions of screams echo in my head before falling silent. In the same instant I can feel the building collapsing beneath my feet, the walls crumble to dust. The occupants run frantically in an attempt to escape. But there is no hope for them.

I want to stop, I can't stop.

Pure energy travels through my body, raising me into the air.

The entire structure, and nearly everything within, bursts into flame before falling to the ground as ashes.

Weakness replaces the power that had coursed through my veins only seconds ago. My body falls from a height of four feet, landing silently atop the buildings remains. The dark threatens to swallow me, when a little fall of rain sprinkles across my face before it turns into a heavy down pour.

Grayson.

I force myself to move, digging through the ruins in an attempt to find him. A shiver travels up my spine from the exposure to the elements that this hospital like gown allows. The pain I experienced not too long ago feels distant as I search the destruction desperately for the boy who risked it all to save me.

He could have fled, moved on, and never looked back, but he didn't. And now he is probably dead because of it.

I push away rubble, frantically throwing it elsewhere when I see his face beneath it. "Please say something Grayson, let me know you're okay. You have to be okay." Tears fall in streams down my face, I can't lose another person I care about.

Panic settles in my chest at his silence. If he could hear, there is no way he wouldn't have heard my words. He's not responding, why isn't he responding? He can't be dead, he's not allowed to die. "You can't die Grayson! Listen to me, you just can't."

Finally freeing him from the collapsed building, I pull him gently by his arms into the open. His eyelids are closed, blood continues to soak through his clothes, and pools beneath him. I fall to my knees, putting pressure on the wound with my hands, but it does nothing to slow the bleeding.

My breath hitches in my throat when I see his chest stop moving. I lean down, to listen for his heart beat, I'm greeted with agonizing silence. "No, please, you can't be gone. CPR, it's thirty and three right? Grayson, I need you to stay with me, I-I can't do this alone. I need you!"

I immediately start compressions, blood seeps onto my hands, coating them as I sob, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, It's going to work, it has to work. Everything is going to be okay. He's going to be okay.

...twenty-nine, thirty.

Putting my mouth over his, I breathe into his cold mouth. The touch of his lips reminds me of our awkward first kiss. Even though we've only known each other for two days, it seems like we met a life time ago. My entire world has changed, things will never be the same, and I don't want to walk in this new life without him.

No matter what, I won't give up on you. I promise.

..........

Minutes turn to hours, his body grows stiff, the condition unchanged. The rain pours harder, chilling me to the core. A hand touches my shoulder, I throw my arms wildly, turning around to defend myself. "Don't touch him!"

Maximus stands with a portal opening device in his hand. "He's gone Kai, it's time to come home."

"No, I-I can still save him. I'm not going to leave him!" I choke.

My arms tremble from exhaustion as I start another round of thirty compressions. I look down at Grayson's ghostly pale face, in my mind I know the truth, but my heart refuses to accept it.

"It won't be long before the soldiers come here looking for you,  I'm surprised they haven't come already. Don't let his sacrifice be for nothing," Maximus says quietly.

I stop, allowing my arms to fall uselessly to my sides. As I stare into the face of the boy who my mother died to save, realization hits me like a crashing wave. "I killed them, my god, Maximus what have I done?"

Everyone in this building, everyone in that place I saw when I closed my eyes, they're dead, and it's all my fault. Grayson's dead, and it's my fault. I'm a monster.

Maximus kneels down, wrapping his arms around me. I bury my face in his shoulder, sobbing into it, mourning the deaths of millions.

If I had been less selfish, none of this would've happened. Maximus knew my parents were likely dead, he warned me, but I didn't listen. Now I've lost everything. I sniff, my heart shatters into a million pieces when I look up to see Grayson laying amongst the rubble, as the rain washes over his still form.

I sacrificed the one who mattered most.

For nothing.

WC: 30, 807