White Shadows

Chapter 19 - Lost But Not All Gone

***ALEX***

"Jensen!" Marian cries as we all watch the condo's front door swing slowly. "Let go of me!" she says to Annie and Harlan as they grab her arms, preventing her from running back inside. I don't blame her - the sounds of fighter jets and falling bombs are getting closer each second. "Jensen! They're almost here! Get-"

The condo explodes mere seconds after a jet screams directly overhead. The resulting shock wave flattens us, forcing us to cover our heads as heat and light and smoke mushroom out from the burning remains.

To my right, Gabe grabs my hand and helps me to my feet. I do the same for Fionna, as well as Juliet, one after the other. And also that Florin dude, who's lying to Juliet's other side. He resists at first - maybe because he doesn't want to let a mortal lend him a hand - but considering our current situation, he swallows his pride before long.

In seconds, everyone's up - everyone but Marian, that is. She's on her knees, her hand over her mouth, horrified at what she's just witnessed. Now both Troy parents have been killed on Holly's orders, leaving the other to watch it happen. Talk about a vicious cycle.

But we can't stay here, not with more bombs going off all over town. And especially not with whatever that light is in the sky. I remember the so-called "nuclear attack" Holly staged on Bearville a few days ago - it was, in reality, a nonlethal bomb designed to temporarily tear open a portal between the two 'verses. Are they seriously doing this again? And this time, Holly's not just pretending to kill everyone to scare the shit out of them. He must realize we're all going to see that coming, so he might as well serve up an attack we can't.

I'd say it's working like a charm for him. As for us - what do we do next? I could be wrong, but based on the fact that the new breach is white, could it be that we're seeing the sky of Heaven on the other side? Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, but still...

"Where are we gonna go?" Fionna asks Park.

"We're gonna take the Terminal back to Prime," he says, "through the portal that brought you here."

"There's no time," Annie says, her voice hollow as she and Harlan struggle to get their mom back on her feet. "Everyone's gonna be fleeing the town, and maybe Holly will have destroyed that portal by now..."

Freddie races out before anyone can stop him. He runs through the flames in the condo's wreckage, using his elemental to keep the worst of it off of him, and comes out with his matte-black battle suit from the Bearville Wall.

"Maybe we can't all get through the portal outside of town," he says, "but some of us should fly through that portal. Follow Holly's guys."

"You're kidding, right?" Annie asks in sheer disbelief. "It's hard enough to get through the Terminal. Using an illegal breach like that could kill you!"

"What do you mean?" asks Kyle.

"Going into the Terminal saps you of forty percent of your current body sugar level," Park says. "Twenty for Breakers."

Gabe and I exchange glances. "How would you know-"

"You two aren't the first hybrids to have existed," Park says. "So, the Terminal takes away hella blood sugar - that's why Grace always has cookies ready." He points up to the shining sky. "When you try to bypass the Terminal like that, the metaphysical force opposing you is stronger. It takes more energy to overcome it. That means you'd lose even more blood sugar - you could even deplete yourself entirely."

"That explains a lot," Florin muses.

I turn to him, intrigued. "You guys have a way to protect yourselves from the blood-sugar thing?"