Flowers in the Window || W2S

22

There was nothing you could do. You just had to lay down in the sky and fall. The air shifted around you, as if it were trying to catch you, to soften your landing, but any attempt was useless.

It wasn't dramatic. There was no moment where your life began to flash before your eyes or anything. You closed them and thought of all the people you had lived for-everyone who held your love, who made the moments worth living for.

Something slammed into your side.

Had you hit the ground already? Even for the laws of physics, that was fast. And hadn't you been falling with your back facing the concrete?

Eyes opening on their own accord, you were met with the sight of black and red-a black spider. And you were warm, very warm all of a sudden. And you weren't falling at all, you were getting higher now, towards another rooftop..he'd done it.

Harry's body hit the rooftop hard. He rolled for a little bit, curling himself into a small ball around your body-pulled against his chest-to protect you from any of the impact. He stopped rolling, crouched over with you in his arms. And then he fell to his knees, ripped off his mask, and his lips were all over your face, frantically pressing against you, as if he couldn't quite believe his victory was real.

"You're okay," he whispered, barely leaving time to draw breath in between his kisses. "You're okay. You're okay. I've got you. It's over-it's okay. You're safe now, I promise."

You heard the telltale witch's cackle over the roar in your ears, and you knew he was wrong-it was far from over. "Bryce."

"I'll get Bryce," Harry said, kissing your forehead. "I'll get Bryce-don't worry about that. He'll be fine. He'll be safe too. I promise you that."

He shoved the mask back over his head, gently sat you down on the roof, and tore off, swinging back to the Municipal building, where he left you trying to calm yourself.

He returned two minutes later with only Marcus.

"Why?" It was the only thing you wanted to know. The only thing you needed to know.

Marcus had lost his mask. You could see his face now, eyes blue and bright and nowhere near as beautiful as Harry's-especially not now that you knew what kind of person he really was. He tilted his head up, looking defeated, and you were both surprised and unsurprised to find that you held no sympathy for him. You had almost fallen to your death-his only injury was a sliced cheek.

He got up from his position on the floor and started making his way towards you. "I swear, I'm so sor-"

"No!" you cried out, not wanting him anywhere near you. He paused, and Harry came to stand between the two of you, watching Marcus's every move for some other kind of attack.

Swallowing, Marcus took a step back and spoke once more, craning to look at you from behind Harry's body. "I'm so sorry, I really am. Your uncle and I-we started making the suit for fun a few months ago..it was originally supposed to be a suit that could help with arm or leg function for people who couldn't move their limbs properly, and then it developed into a superhero suit, and then I added the cannons.." He trailed off, and you looked up at him with fear and betrayal and rage. The great Marcus Carr, famous billionaire, the city's poster man. Look at what he had become.

"I just thought," he continued with a shaky voice, "that if I could just go out there and get revenge on the people who had hurt the two of you..it killed me to have Catastrophe's help tonight. It killed me even more to have hers. I never should have trusted that madwoman. But my weapons don't have enough power to take them both down-to hurt them like they hurt you. I needed Bryce to tell me how to finish it. It could have been our legacy, me and him."