'Til Death Do Us Part (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 5

Mira sat on the edge of the clock tower and swung her legs, silently watching the twinkling lights of the town below. She wasn't scared, although she was several hundred feet off the ground; the thought never even crossed her mind. This was her spot to think; it had been for... well... for as long as she could remember. She sighed, resting her head in her hands. Memories pulsed in the back of her mind, just out of reach. She desperately wanted to remember- something, anything. Anything to help her make sense of all this.

Tears leaked out from behind her hands, and she stared at them in disbelief. Crying twice in as many days. Surely that wasn't normal?

I don't even know what I'm crying about, Mira thought ruefully, Since when am I like this? What happened? Everything was normal until...

"...until I met Avery." She said aloud, then gazed at the skyline again, lost in thought. The more she thought about it, the more true she realized it was. Ever since she'd met Avery, her life had been turned upside down, inside out, and backwards. It obviously wasn't all because of him. And yet... Mira couldn't deny the connection. Somehow, Avery was the root of all this. And Mira intended to find out why.

***

Avery walked down a winding yellow pathway, not really knowing where he was going, but not particularly caring either. Glowing blue eyes watched him from above, and the cotton-candy pink grass towered above him. Fluorescent green bees hummed through the sugar-scented air, and multicolored butterflies the size of dinner plates populated the skies above. Avery smiled dreamily and reached out a hand to touch one, then-

"OW!"

Avery's eyes flew open, and he would have screamed had there not been a hand clamped roughly over his mouth. Panicking, he tried to pry the hand off him, but to no avail. His eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom, and he stopped struggling at once when he saw who the hand belonged to.

Mira, with one eye swollen and looking slightly morose, shushed him with one hand and carefully took the other off his mouth.

"Mira? Wh-"

Mira beckoned to the open window, jumping onto the sill silently, "Leave now. Talk later. Come on."

She slid down the drainpipe and dismounted gracefully at the bottom. Avery quickly followed, although he didn't execute it nearly as well. Mira took off running to the right, Avery following closely behind.

***

Mira sat on the edge of the clock tower again, watching the city below as she had done so many times. She heard a slight rustling behind her, and almost smiled, "About time you got here."

Avery sat down next to her, looking absolutely terrified. "D-Did we have to meet up here?"

Mira nodded, "This was the only place I could be sure of our privacy. No one's going to put cameras on top of a clock tower, are they?"

"I guess..." Avery grumbled, hating that she was right, "S-Still; how are you not scared right now??"

Mira glanced down at the ground, blue eyes suddenly clouded, "I don't know."

The two sat in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Mira, I-" Avery paused, "I'm really sorry. About- about what happened earlier. I-I don't know exactly what I did wrong... but I'm still sorry. Can you forgive me?"

Mira's eyes met him for a moment before she looked away.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," She eventually said, "You just said I was familiar, and I..." she sighed, "I knew it was true. I know you, Avery... now I just need to find out how."

Avery nodded, "I'm sure I know you too..." Then he muttered something that Mira didn't catch.

"What?"

Avery looked up, "Hm?"

"What did you say?"

"Oh- um... it's nothing." Avery said, but then seemed to reconsider. "But... it wouldn't hurt to try." he mused, almost to himself. He looked Mira dead in the eye, his gaze uncomfortably intense. Mira almost looked away, but not before hearing two words.

"Cloud nine."

Those two words, though innocuous enough on their own, sparked a veritable explosion of memories in Mira's head when they were spoken together. She gasped and nearly fell off the ledge, clutching her head.

Partial memories flashed like scenes in a movie; Nine faceless people in uniform- A wall of deadly weapons- An endless scrolling screen of numbers and codes- A boy that looked very much like Avery, only ten years younger- A six year-old Mira collapsed, sobbing, over her mother's dead body.

"NO!" Mira screamed, a raw cry of agony. Tears streamed unchecked down her face, and she stood up, though the world was spinning around her. Every instinct told her to run. But where to run to? Her eyes settled on Avery and her vision blurred red. She didn't know much, but she knew that all this was because of him. It was his fault that she'd only found these memories now. It was his fault that her mother was dead.

"YOU!" she shrieked, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the wall, her face contorted in a mask of rage, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! MY MOTHER IS DEAD! BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Avery choked and clawed at her hands, his face turning purple.
"Mira- please-" he choked, "I- don't know why-" he coughed desperately, his grip on her hands weakening as his eyes fluttered closed, "Please..."

Mira's eyes widened and she staggered back from Avery as his limp body collapsed and almost fell off the edge. She closed her eyes and screamed in agony, as a headache sent a blinding, searing pain through her skull. She dropped to her knees, tears dripping onto the ground. What is happening to me???

Her last thought dissolved into nothingness as her eyes rolled back in her head and the world turned black.