Coming Undone

Connected

Without pausing to collect myself, I summoned a force field and blasted through the roof. Looking back on the event, I probably looked quite badass descending from the explosion of rubble. As soon as the dust cleared, I saw the man Ollie had described standing over him, knife in hand. Without bothering to land, I immediately blasted him out of the way and flew over to Ollie. He looked dead. His wrist was broken, I knew that already, and the slashes across his chest, I was prepared for, but his torturer had been busy since the connection that mirrored his injuries on me was broken. There was so much blood that I couldn't even see his skin. He was barely conscious but when he saw me, he mumbled my name. I quickly untied the ropes restraining him, being careful of his injuries but I soon realised that he was in so much pain that it wouldn't make a difference to him.

"It's OK," I reassured him as I leaned his body against mine to support him, "I'm here now, you're safe."

"Em..." he tried to say something but his lips were too sticky with blood.

Suddenly, my side burned with pain and I cried out. I automatically arched my back away from the implement that had grazed my side, causing Ollie to fall to the ground, too weak to hold himself up. He whimpered as he hit the floor and lay still. I spun around, instantly conjuring a shield as I did. The impact that came next was expected but difficult to defend against. My attacker was a powerful witch and he was clearly angry because his attacks came hard and fast but without strategy. I kept the shield up with one hand and used the other to create a barrier around Ollie, but the shift of attention was a mistake. The next thing I knew, I was flying across the room with the man hovering above me, ready for another assault.

The air was knocked out of me as I landed and I lay there, unable to move for a few dangerous moments. Before I was fully able to recover, I saw a ball of fire aimed at my face and instinctively, I rolled out of the way. I curled into a ball to give him a smaller target and while he conjured another weapon, I quickly threw three conjured blades at him giving me time to recover while he dodged. While he was momentarily distracted, I cast a spell of invisibility on myself.

I knew at that point that there was no way to get Ollie out of there without killing the man.

I positioned myself in the centre of the room and crouched down. I had to use a super attack. It would be dangerous. Last time I did a super attack, I had killed Oliver. It was in a dream, of course, but I knew it was a prediction of what could happen in real life, what would happen. I just hoped that I had protected Ollie well enough this time. I wrapped my arms around myself and began to cast the spell. I chanted in my head as I brought my arms slowly further and further away from my body. I felt the power build up in my hands and I let the ball of destruction grow bigger and bigger until I could barely hold it. Then I released it. The scream that went with it was involuntary but a power release of that magnitude took a lot of effort. I was momentarily dazed and I had to use the floor to steady myself. The blast pushed everything to the edges of the room, including the people. The barrier around Ollie had been destroyed. My attacker was struggling to his feet a few meters in front of me and I stormed over to him, instilling my self with strength and power as I did.

As he reached up to blast me with something, I grabbed his hand and bent his fingers back until his bones snapped. He screamed and sank lower to the ground in a futile attempt to escape me. Next, I conjured a long blade and slashed across his back, my anger and desperation to save Ollie fuelling my attacks. I pulled back to deliver my final, stabbing blow but, before I could, he teleported over to Ollie faster than I could blink, taking my blade with him. He held it above Ollie's helpless body and looked me dead in the eye as he thrust it though his chest. My vision filled with red as I sent a power-filled scream of pain in his direction but once again he teleported away. I tried to run to Ollie but a noose wrapped itself around my neck, pulling me back. I screamed with rage as I grabbed at the rope, desperately trying to loosen it.

The man appeared in front of me and, without hesitation, stabbed me in the side, three times in quick succession. All of my instincts told me to drop to the floor, to curl up into a ball and give up, but I resisted. Feigning defeat, I conjured a blade behind his back and stabbed at him but he was unfazed. He wrapped his hands around my neck and he lifted me off the ground. I struggled but my resistance was insignificant against his iron grip. 10 seconds passed, 15 seconds, 20. Black spots danced in my vision.

'I'm going to die,' I thought, 'I can't get out of this. Ollie and I are gonna die here and no one will ever know.'

All of a sudden, I fell to the ground. Immediately, I began coughing and struggling to get oxygen into my air-starved lungs. As my vision returned to normal, I turned to see the man pull a blade out of his calf and kick Ollie in the side, my blade still in his chest.

"No," I protested, trying to get his attention back on me. Unfortunately for me, it worked. As he stalked over to me, I scrambled backwards, exposing my chest to him. Big mistake. He sent a series of pulses into my chest and as they hit me, I heard the sickening sound of my ribs breaking. I couldn't even scream as the agony that followed, stole my air. Every small attempt to breathe caused a new wave of pain, more intense than the last. I wanted to give up, to let myself die but out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man walking over to Ollie and I forced myself to struggle to my feet. I don't know how I did it but I did, the image of Ollie laying helpless, dead, gave me the strength to send a flurry of blades into our attacker's back. The blades flew through the air, piercing his shield like it was tissue paper and cutting into his already weak body. He fell to the ground. The glow left his hands. He was finally dead. Instantly, I ran over to Ollie and fell to the ground next to him. Without a doubt, he was dead, but I couldn't accept that. I was a witch, if I couldn't save him then what's the point of the power I had.

"No, Ollie come on," I said, beginning to sob. "We're connected, you're not allowed to die on me."

I pulled the blade from his chest, not caring that it cut into my palms, and put my hands over the hole that was left behind. My hands began to glow and I sent thoughts of healing and resuscitation into Ollie's chest. I didn't have much power left but I had to at least try. My own wounds were bleeding heavily but I didn't have enough power to heal us both and I had made my choice. I saw his wounds begin to heal and the colour return to his cheeks but the spell was far from complete.

At that point I ran out of power, but I didn't hesitate, I started using my life force. The librarian had warned me about this, I knew it was dangerous, it would probably kill me, but I did it anyway because I couldn't imagine a world without Oliver Webbe in it. I felt my life force draining out of me into him and the world began to spin around me. I didn't know how long I could hold on.

Suddenly, he breathed in.

Despite being on the verge of collapse, I smiled at him as he opened his eyes.

"Oliver Webbe," I whispered, "don't you ever die on me again."

"I won't," he replied, "I-"

I didn't get to hear what he said next because before he could notice how bad my condition was, I blacked out.