The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

100. I Believe I Can Fly

LUC

I FELL UNDER THE WEIGHT of two heavy people, head flinging back over the ground. Static skittered from them to me. Ray was sprawled over, arms out, turning a river of words into impressive curses. I strained my neck up. 

"Get your stinking bum off me," I protested, already pushing his tangled limbs to the side. A line streaked past me and made for a set of double doors. Blood iced in my veins. Whatever he was about to say was lost in transmission, lost in the shout that burst from my depths.

Lauren had swung to her feet, seconds from storming out of the building. 

I didn't remember straightening and letting the energy snap loose. Every muscle fiber inside me steeled. The arena blurred in the mess of adrenaline, and I swore to myself that I'd hold her down until this passed. I tailed after her, Raymond not far behind, hopping over the field enclosure. He called out her name breathlessly. 

The doors swung as she neared and I wasn't really thinking when a bolt of light struck her backside, petrifying her from the torso down. That gave us time to block the exit, but yikes. 

She was so pissed. 

We watched in horror as she rose again like a damn Terminator, slowly but with determination etched across her shuttered face. The flare in her eyes dilated. For the first time in my life, I stood in front of her, dumbstruck and blank, as light swirled around her shoulder and down one arm to form what I was sure would be a devastating stinger. 

"Lauren... you don't have to do this."

She stared me down, completely removed from the present. Just empty. Trapped in some overpowering dream. I moved, and had it not been for another body crashing into her, I would have been hit. 

The zap blasted past me, fizzling out. 

Both figures stumbled together then broke apart. The smaller, light-footed one blurred into clarity, bright blue eyes fixing on Lauren with a courage that I thought was bordering insanity. 

"Get out of my way," she repeated and angled her head like she prepared to leave, but her focus was drilled onto Riley. The air in my lungs felt like cold, dense water.

Then I blinked and I might as well have turned my back on them. 

Riley's legs kicked above the ground and her hands slapped around a slender arm holding her up by the neck. Fiery eyes bore down into Lauren's, wide and begging as those fingers squeezed her windpipe. A rasping cry leaked out of her, and the taste of blood flooded my mouth. 

Heat thickened each surrounding particle in the room down to the very air I was breathing. Time sped up in tandem with my heart rate. There was no way in this universe I was letting Lauren hurt Riley, and if I hadn't been sure of what I'd do before if she tried, I knew exactly now. 

"Oh no, you don't," I growled and the concrete rumbled under my single stride. 

I wrestled my arms around Lauren's waist, putting every ounce of rage in an electric charge strong enough to paralyze her until she could no longer keep Riley. She folded to the floor, fingers scrabbling around her flushing throat. 

A distant part of me wanted to fly to her side and check everything, but another part was winning. Our eyes connected, hers glistening in pain. That was it for me. I threw my head back and pushed an unearthly roar out of my chest. If I wasn't ripping my sister apart, I would drive my wrath onto the nearest thing after this. 

I tugged a stunned Lauren against me and pivoted. Turning away from the arena, I gained momentum and fucking bodied her against the wall, back first. I heard a snap and wasn't sure if it was the wall or her.