Amidst Our Broken World

Chapter 17 - The End

He dropped his hand when he saw me, and the girl fell with the motion. The lights ceased their flickering. His eyes were wide with shock, as if unable to distinguish whether I was really there or not.

No. This isn't happening. It can't be. 

The denial didn't last long. From what I could see, and it was quite evident, this was all Peter's doing. His "001" tattoo that was identical to all the other subjects'. The corpses that lined the halls. All these dead children lying around me. Unconscious little Eleven between us. It was all because of the man standing in front of me.

"Peter?" I whispered, horrified.

I stood paralyzed in fear as he began to make his way over. I couldn't bring myself to even blink until he stepped over Eleven's body to once again close the distance between us. But this time, it was different. So different. It was nothing like when we were down in the basement. Back when I couldn't see the tattoo on his wrist. Back when I thought he was confessing his deepest darkest secret to me, that he cared for me too. Back when I didn't know he was planning on murdering the entire facility's worth of people.

"Y/N... look, we're free now." He gestured at the scenery that lay before me.

I shook my head, trembling. "Peter..."

He stood about a foot away from me. "That's not my name," he said softly.

I looked up at him fearfully but confused. "Wh-what?"

The tall blonde took a step towards me. "Henry," he murmured, "That's my real name."

It didn't even faze me that he had just admitted to using an alias when we'd first met. That was just a trivial fact compared to everything else that was going on around me. I stared blankly back at him.

"Y/N?" he asked cautiously yet still remaining gentle. The same tone that a child addresses their mother when they're unsure of whether she's upset. "Are you afraid?"

I didn't give him an answer. We were even closer now. The tip of his shoes and the tips of my toes were only inches away.

He tilted my chin up to look at me. His eyes ran along my face admiringly. Like I was something precious that he could finally possess.

"You've nothing to be scared of. I would never dream of hurting you. You are the one sole thing that I will not change about this world."

"Change?" I manage to utter out in the trance-like state I seemed to be in. My brain was closing itself off as a defense mechanism against all the sudden chaos that was ensuing around me.

"Yes," he replied, almost morosely, "There is so much that is wrong. Starting with this facility. But my influence will extend much further beyond that. I will fix this terrible world where every human is doing nothing but poisoning the universe and waiting to die."

I looked at him questioningly.

"You must understand that I am different. Born with powers like no other human has had before. Powers far stronger than those of the subjects in this lab. Powers they tried to replicate in these children but failed to. And I am going to use what I've been given to cleanse this earth as I have been sent to do.

"I used to think that I was alone in this world, where no one understood me. But now I realize that I don't need anyone but you. And you don't have to understand me either, all you have to do is stay with me, Y/N. Be with me. You are the one, pure, truly good thing amidst this broken world."

He bent down to rest his forehead on mine and held my face in his hands.

Images flashed in front of my eyes. Visions of us, together, things that never happened between us before. The two of us standing on an empty field of tall grass with the wind blowing around us. His face, close to mine, for me to study every little detail about him. His pretty, blonde lashes that decorated the warm, blue sapphires that shone at me. The glint of his shining, golden hair that reflected the sunlight beaming down on us. Our fingers interlaced with one another, the warmth of his palms pressed against mine. And the sweet scent of him that filled my nostrils, my lungs, my entire body, filled with him.

I almost smiled at the dream, when it slowly faded as he brought me back to reality.

"That is only a glimpse of what we could be. What we are. Right now."

My mind was suddenly clear. I knew exactly what I had to do.

"So say my name, Y/N," he whispered, "and tell me that you'll stay with me."

I reached up to take his face in my own hands, pulling it so close to mine, our lips only millimeters apart.

"Henry, I want to be with you." I brushed my lips against his. "Henry, I'll stay with you." Another light kiss. "Henry, I love you..." And another. "...so much."

Then I planted my lips firmly against his. I kissed him. Hard. 

He kept his hands on my face at first, but then he began to slide them down. Every bit of skin that came in contact with him was set ablaze. He settled his hands on my waist, then he wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight against himself. I could barely breathe. Not just because of the suffocating force that he was hugging me with, but also from the intensity of the kiss. I could hear his heavy breathing too. Our bodies were one, folded perfectly into each other. There was no telling where I started or where he ended. I could feel everything.

At some point, I opened my eyes to look at Eleven. She seemed to be regaining consciousness, but she still hadn't quite gotten back up. Nonetheless, she was our only chance of survival.

I managed to free one of my hands from his face, sliding it down the side of his body and finally reaching into my pocket. With the other hand, I feigned running my fingers through his hair, only to place it directly on the back of his head, keeping him steady in case he decided to move or take things further.

With one swift movement, I jammed the syringe into Henry's neck. His blue eyes flashed open to meet mine one last time, but he could no longer move. My prayers had been answered. Whatever fluid was inside the syringe put him in a catatonic state, unable to move a single muscle.

"I'm sorry," I whimpered as I pulled away from him. Tears ebbed endlessly down my face.

There was no need for a signal or to even look at the girl. She had already gotten back up on her feet. Henry began to rise as she reignited her powers upon him. In a flash, he flew through the one way mirror, into the observation compartment inside the Rainbow Room, shattering the separating glass into a million pieces. An invisible force pinned him on the tiled wall as he struggled uselessly against Eleven's renewed and strengthened power.

I could only stand there and watch as his body began to disintegrate into fragments, his pained wails and groans echoing throughout the room. With one last shriek, she tore a strange large hole in the wall that seemed to open its jaws to consume what remained of Henry.

As soon as the the hole grew dark, its formerly glowing red no longer visible, the girl fell. Whether she had only passed out or was dead, I couldn't tell.

Before I could move or even react, the double doors of the Rainbow Room bursted open. I turned around to find a disheveled Doctor Brenner staring at the spectacle before him.

"What have you done?"

I couldn't come up with an answer. My brain had completely shut down at that moment. All I could do was watch as he pulled out a handgun from his pocket and pulled the trigger with a "bang".

The last thing I heard was the whizzing of the bullet towards my head. Everything went black.