"If he can go into dreams, who's saying he can't do anything else?"
"You're saying he killed Elizabeth?"
"You think a healthy seven-year-old would suddenly die of brain death any other way? The way it happened?" Jayden challenged, her forehead pressing against the bars of the balcony as she looked below.
"It could've... just been some underlying issue. I don't know," Theo shrugged, adjusting his wings when there was a small gust of wind.
"I keep replaying it in my head. It was eight seconds. Exactly eight, just like he said and-and Elizabeth, she's just- gone. What am I supposed to do about that?"
"I don't know."
"He said I'd relieved. I didn't get what he meant, but it - how could he know?"
"You and Elizabeth weren't exactly a secret. The entire school knew about it."
"Yes, but-" she bit her lip, thinking back over her dream. "My refusal to use my abilities wasn't."
Theo frowned, sitting up. "Who knew about that?"
"You, me, the Avengers, Pepper, Doirs, Choi and Happy."
"And you trust them?"
"Of course."
He straightened. "So he can go into dreams, kill people in their own heads, so what else can he do?"
"My memories," she realised.
"What are dreams and memories, but images in your head?"
"He-he knows everything," she choked, a heavyweight settling in her chest.
It had been told to her many times, but she never believed it. Mistaking it for blind ramblings from evil men who wanted to make it seem scarier than it actually was. Now she was sitting here feeling more foolish than she'd ever have.
"What if he can watch whenever he wants?"
"No, I... I sensed him. I'd be able to do it now, and you- you're different. I don't think you're compatible."
"You don't seem so sure."
"Because how can I be?!" she snapped, glaring at him. "We don't know anything!"
"But it's probably how he killed her."
Jayden shrunk into herself, a lump present in her throat. "Whatever it was, she didn't deserve it. She was a bully, and-and awful, but she still didn't deserve to die. Especially not like that."
"It's not your fault."
"He won Theo. He made me feel what he wanted me to feel and-and-"
Her nails scratched into her skin, and the pain that stemmed was almost soothing, as if it were a leech, sucking away everything that suffocated her.
A concerned grumble escaped the Conjuncta's throat as he hopped down and led her offensive hand away with his snout. "Stop. It's okay."
"But it's not! She's dead and-and-" she agonized. "And there's nothing I can do to stop him!"
"Don't be like that."
"How can I not? I will never be able to beat him! I don't even know what he looks like! He'll know any plan before I know it myself! We have nothing."
His furry brows ruffled into a deep ponder before a small smirk broke from him. "We have this. Nobody else can understand it. Do you think in English or this?"
YOU ARE READING
Unforeseen¹
FanfictionJYD2641 had enough. In her seven years, she's only ever known the cruel hands of her doctors, who were determined to make her the next Winter Soldier. All she'd ever known was death, pain, and fear. Instead of a parent's loving embrace, she had the...
