𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓕𝓵𝓪𝓶𝓮

SEVENTEEN (Sierra)

"Ugh. My head hurts." I mutter, the world coming back to me in light and color so extreme it overwhelms my senses.

"Hey, you're awake!" A familiar voice exclaims. Who is that? Oh, Bellona! I sit up, the sounds of sickening happiness erupting from the crowd of people in a different section from us.

"I gotta finish, I just used too much power." I say. Bellona touches my shoulder and my energy is instantly refilled.

"Your welcome!" She says and walks over to our corner. I get up and put my hands to the wall, pouring my renewed energy into the process of making the dining room bigger. I finally make it as big as I can and when I stop, I'm panting. I quickly walk back to Bellona, and make cots out of extra metal and our blankets.

"Thanks!" She says, plopping down on one of them and immediately the room goes back to it's greys and blues, some of the greys look more like marble. Quickly, more and more of that unique grey starts popping up everywhere and people start whispering to each other.

"Have any of you felt that happy before? I- wow! I never knew anyone could feel so joyful!" A guy says, not too far away from us. Bellona makes a gagging sound that makes me have to stifle a snort.

"I'll ask for more blankets." I say, walking up to the grown-ups-in-charge.

"Hey, can we have some more blankets?" I ask, the leader.

"I thought we already gave you blankets." He replies, looking in the direction of the newly made cots.

"Well, we made cots out of them, since you didn't have any more." I say, in a calm way.

"Can I talk to you and that other girl for a minute?" He asks, in a low voice.

"Sure." I say, I walk back over to Bellona.

"I think he's caught on, stay on your guard." I whisper to her, faking a smile as we walk up to the leader. He walks us to the remodeled dining room.

"What happened here?" He says, gazing in wonder at the new dining room.

"You like it?" I say, stepping into the room to face him, with my hands up and palms facing the ceiling.

"That was you?" He says, taken aback.

"Yep, oh, I forgot one thing." I pull out a bag of fluorescent gems and with my hand on a wall, I make a chandelier in the middle of the room, with gems no one in the world has seen, except me. The gems illuminate the dining room with blues and pinks and greens and purples. A scene of dragonflies flying through a garden.

"Wow~" Bellona and the leader say at the same time. It's the first time I've seen Bellona look at something with so much wonder. The leader, who I'm now gonna call Bob, gets over the "amazing" chandelier I made.

"H-h-how did you do that?" Bob says, looking at me with fear in his eyes.

"Ar-are you a g-goddess or s-something?" He continues, stuttering. I almost laugh, but I don't.

"Sure, you could call us that." I say, smiling as Bellona puts her hand on Bob's shoulder, making him jump. She's taller than him, probably taller than anybody, ever. Not exactly a giant though, she's too elegant and light-footed.

"W-why are you both t-teenagers then?" He asks, looking more afraid after he says this.

"Well teenagers are more exciting, wouldn't you say, Bellona?" I reply, not phased by the question.

"Yep!" She says, walking into the new dining room. I basically read her mind, because as soon as she conjures a whole bunch of weapons, I make the walls into weapons cases.

"These should get rid of all those Beelzebub Lizards." Bellona says, smiling. She conjures a lasso with deadly spikes and places it in the most ornate case, which is hers. It even has her name on it. Literally.

"You guys know what those things are!" He asks, surprised.

"No, we don't, but we know how to kill them! That's all that really matters." Bellona replies.

"Alright, how do we kill them?" He asks, less nervous now.

"Hit them in the heart." We both say at the same time, dismissively. He looks stunned now.

"Why haven't you too come before? Where did you come from?" I- hold up, where did I come from? I know I came from earth, but is this a different version of it? Bellona looks confused too.

"We haven't come before because we came by foot and we came from New Jersey." I say quickly, making up a story as fast as I can. Bellona doesn't say anything, she just turns something over in her hands. It eventually disappears and she walks out of the room.

"I'll go check on her." I say, hurrying after her. I catch a glimpse of her running out the door and I teleport in front of her. She doesn't react to me at all, ignoring me. I continue to follow her. She walks and walks and walks, until finally she stops and turns around to face me.

"Sierra, why are you here? Why are you following me?" She asks me, everything turning black around us. The sun doesn't though, it turns red; blood red.

"Why do you continue to follow me, to like me, even though I'm a monster? Why can't you just know when to run, when will you know that this is all my fault?!" She says, her voice rising. "All the forgetting, all the war, all of it. My fault."

"Bellona you ca-"

"Yes I can! This is exactly what happened the last time. Those stupid lizard things came to my dimension and I couldn't do ANYTHING! Now in this place, I'm older. Stronger in fact, but I still can't save anyone. All I do is destroy." She says, curling up in a ball. Everything around us becomes sad, except me. I can feel my power coursing through me, deflecting the negative attitude that Bellona has. I sit down next to her and hug her. I hug her and even though I know my powers won't work for her, she still seems to feel better.

"Bellona, it's ok, I'm here for you." I say.