Lucidity

Chapter 33 - Rebel Cry

When he heard Eve Warden’s words, realized what truly awaited Grace in the Tower, Jimmy catapulted himself across the divide that separated him from Grace.

And was immediately slapped back. The universe dissolved into red-hot daggers of pain.

He was hurled back along the length of the Skyway, propelled with such force that he crashed through the Annex doors and landed in a heap on the floor in front of the elevators. He rolled to his feet, shaking the sense back into his sight, ignoring the booming in his ears, and rushed through the helipad door, hoping to catch a glimpse of Grace, to somehow bring her back.

Instead, all that greeted him for his efforts was a dank, swirling mist and leaden clouds shaped like anvils pressing down so low from the heavens they felt ready to crush a puny human such as himself. He cried out, demanding attention, recourse, vengeance. Thunder swallowed his shouts of desperation and rage.

Finally, his energy spent, he sank to the grit-covered roof, his body drenched, shivering with fatigue and anger. Rain pelted him from every direction and the wind had no mercy. He gulped in deep draughts of frigid, bracing air. What was the good of coming all this way only to lose her?

Warm tears of frustration thawed the frozen skin of his face as he pounded a fist against his thigh.

Where was Leo, cursed bastard, now?

No, it was as much Jimmy’s fault as Leo’s. When he’d held her, she had reeked of terror, he’d tasted her fear in every kiss. Fool that he was, he’d thought it was the same old fear that had driven her into hiding for the past four years. Idiot. Arrogant bastard. He’d thought she was afraid of losing him again, of re-opening wounds still festering.

Jimmy got to his feet, pacing along the parapet parallel to the Skyway. It was painful to admit, but some small part of him had delighted in the fact that her love for him was so strong, so all consuming, that she’d sacrificed everything for it.

She’d built a life around his memory, refusing the rest of the world entry. He stopped at the edge of the roof, the closest to the Tower he could physically go, and stared across the void.

But today, it wasn’t losing Jimmy that Grace was afraid of. It was facing the man who had destroyed their lives, who had almost killed her once.

Redding, the murdering bastard.

“No!” Jimmy shouted into the sky so dark that it could be noon or midnight. “I won’t let you. You’ll not be getting your hands on her, not again!”

The wind scudded layers of clouds aside for one brief moment. A rose-tinged shaft of golden light pierced the grey, a beacon of hope at Jimmy’s feet. He stretched his arm out, the light playing off his wedding ring.

To hell with Leo and his plans to save the universe. Bugger that. He would find a way to save Grace. This time he would not fail her.

The thin sliver of light was banished as quickly as it had come. Thunder bounced off the buildings, echoing through Jimmy’s head along with Leo’s words. There are rules, me boy. Rules that no one can break.

“Fuck you and the horse you rode in on!” The shout of emancipation renewed Jimmy’s strength. “Fuck the rules and the universe and everyone in it! I’m not letting him win again!”

Lightning crashed between the buildings, raising the hairs on Jimmy’s head and blinding him for a moment. He held his ground, refusing to bow.

Then he turned. At first, his steps were the slow jerking of a marionette rebelling against its master.