The Sky Has Fallen

| Chapter 05

The dust finally settled. The girl coughed against the curve of my neck, warm breath spreading moisture on my skin. Her fingers gripped my sweater hard, out of fear.

I wanted to check on her, make sure she was okay, but my head hurt like a bitch. It throbbed. A painful thump, thump echoed in the back of my skull. With a groan, I pressed my fist against the side of my head and struggled to look up.

"Are you o-okay?" she asked me.

I didn't look at her. I looked ahead.

The fallen pieces of metal destroyed so much of the fair; it was unreal. Flames broke out around some areas, burning through the neighboring stalls untouched in the fall. The smoke wafted in our direction, covering us. I coughed before turning my head to look down at the Pylon who stayed beneath me, clutching me still.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, balancing my weight on my forearm. When she nodded, I smiled weakly. "Good... I'm okay, too."

"Are you really?" she asked me, her hands sliding down my arms before resting them at her sides. "This... all of this hurt. And the metal... that..." She nodded her head, looking behind me.

I hadn't noticed the metal had landed so close, its edges sliced through my jeans and cut into my legs. The adrenaline had given me speed. There wasn't any pain. Not only had I not felt the impact, but I couldn't feel the after-effects.

It was bleeding. I should've felt something.

"Um." I took a trembling breath, laughed, and lifted my brows. "No, I'm good, I think. Just a scratch."

"Just a scratch?" she asked. "That's a lot more than a scratch."

"Yeah, well," I balanced myself on both of my arms, still not moving off of her, "comes with the territory, right?"

Oh, God, what am I saying?

"What?" Her face scrunched up. The shimmer in her eyes faded.

"I mean," my chuckle was so nervous it hurt, "we're alive, right? Being alive is a good thing. I mean, the parts of your mother ship—"

"Mother ship?" She glared at me.

"They could've killed us, you know. I pulled us out of the way. I saved us. So—"

Both of her hands pressed up on my shoulders. The pain that shot through my arms, I felt that. I hissed. Tears welled up in my eyes.

"Get off me," she hissed.

The stall to our right crumbled. Pieces from its broken chairs rolled across the ground, the sound echoing around us. But it wasn't louder than the sound of my own heart. It hammered in my chest out of pure nervousness. Anxiety rode up my back like horses on a plain.

"I..." I stammered. I mumbled. I...

"Get off me!" The Pylon girl pushed me with all her strength. Rather than fight, I rolled away from her. The shards in my hands dug deeper. I felt like the villain standing in front of her, dirty and covered in my own blood.

I saved her. Us, I saved us.

Right?

"Look, I'm sorry, I—"

"GUS!" I picked up on David's voice. It was close, but far. Yet, with the ringing in my ears, I wasn't too sure. Was it even him?

The Pylon girl scurried to her feet, rubbing the blood off her legs from her torn jeans. The second she heard David's voice, she stood up straight, fear on her face once again. This time, it was a different fear.