𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐑𝐄 , nightwing

014 impending doom.

𝐖𝐄 soon rushed into the car and headed back towards the convent. I let the other two take the front seats as I found myslef buried in my own thoughts and emotions on the drive, unusually and inexplicably silent, and joyfully so. Any conversation at this moment would surely override my brain.

Every inch we drive closer, I felt it more and more. Dick and Kory kept their eyes ahead, though I could help but peer at my own hands. My chest felt like it was slowly caving in on itself, like being pressed in a car crusher. And my hands? Oh, they weren't much better. It felt as if I had rust under my skin and I wanted nothing more than to rip it off and scrub my bones clean.

A sinking feeling at in my palms, as if two small black holes were sitting in my hands, sucking and pulling at my whole being, prepared to consume all. In a very instant, I felt as though nothing could possibly go worse. Rachel could be dead and something horrible around the corner.

However, with such a conclusion came clarity: it wouldn't hurt to reach out, would it? If Rachel were dead, I would at least have an answer, though if she were alive and okay? I could maybe find out more. I weighed the options in my palms: obliviousness or curiosity? Curiosity won.

I held my eye lids scrunched tight and reached out to Rachel in every way possible, even physical, as my arms unconsciously raised before me and turned to face the woods besides the nunnery. My mind's eye blinked, and Rachel shot into view. Only for a second, though she was happy, with the young strange boy from the arcade, Gar. Okay, that's fine... Whatever had happened, she was safe. It was a nice surprise. Better to expect little and enjoy surprises than be disappointed.

We slowly drove nearer and thankfully the connection tk Rachel seemed to calm the throbbing pulses of energy in my hands, invisibly tugging, my chest pain shrinking too. However, as my pain, my uncertainty slipped away with clarity, the hidden tidal wave of dread rose above. Something wasn't right. Something had happened here, something unusual, something dark.

The building was collapsing, nasses of firefighters surrounding piles of ash and smoke. A large chunk of the building had been blown away: from the appearance of it, it wasn't bomb-created of due to a fire. No. Including the negative energy coursing from the rubble, I felt it was rather a dark energy that wrecked chaos here. How fun!

Police lined the streets as me, Bird Boy and Lava Girl stranded the car in the middle of the road. Dick'd probably get a ticket later for that, ha. Unknowing of my knowledge of Rachel's safety, Dick and Kory ran ahead, flashing Dick's police badge to get access to the scene as they flew ahead of me.

I sighed dramatically and these my hands up. "What the fuck, you guys? Running off from me. If there was really a demon or something that caused this, I could've been picked off and torn apart by now. Not cool guys." I could practically feel Dick's eye roll even from behind him.

I managed to catch up to them near the chunks of brick and structure strewn about. "She must've lost control." Dick says, assessing the scene, though he's a bit late. I've already done that on my drive here, now you need to catch up, Dick!

"Maybe she's still here?" Kory pondered in concern. I scoffed and shook my head as the two were already heading off in a new direction, leaving me behind yet again. "Guys, why would a teenage girl stay next to a blown up building that she supposedly blew up? It's like a murder sticking around to hang out with the police after killing."

The two were off already, by the medical van where examiners and paramedics helped the injured. Though they'd ran off, I could tell by his cogs clearly turning in his head that Dick was taking what I'd said before on board. A nun was sitting in the back of a medical van, holding a shock blanket around her, thank you Sherlock Holmes, and I presumed her to be the head nun, or at least the one Rachel knew.