Only Each Other

Chapter 3- Erin

The Master lunged at me, his fingers gripping my throat so tightly that I thought my neck was going to explode. His fingers bruised my skin, turning it black and blue. But then suddenly, I melted into the black floor. When I came back up, it wasn't me who was being strangled, it was Josh. I cried out, screaming at the Master to stop. He did, letting Josh fall but as he did, Josh seemed to morph, now tied to a chair, his mouth gagged to prevent him from talking. A gun was on the table in front of me and against my will, I picked it up.

The Master was behind me, whispering his cruel persuasion. I slowly lifted the gun using telekinesis completely on my own which shouldn't even be possible. Josh's eyes were shattered as he looked at me. They were once so soft, so trusting now cracked liked glass. Without myself in control, I couldn't do anything about what happened next.

I shot him.

Dead.

 I fell to my knees over Josh's still body, feeling the agonizing burn that ripped through my heart like a bullet on fire. But that wasn't because I was now dying; it was because the one thing in my life that was wort living for, was gone. Tears streamed down my face like the blood running down Josh. Josh was dead.

And I killed him.

Now I was going to die as my punishment because we were connected. Kill one and you kill the other. I was lying on the floor beside Josh now, whispering the same words over and over again: forgive me. The Master stood above of me, laughing his cruel, evil laugh as I took my last excruciating breath-

I woke up clutching my bruised neck and screaming. Josh scrambled around the fire we had made on the far side of Central Park, about four and a half miles from the Empire State Building, where Triple's base was underneath although it did stretch for miles underground. We had set out late from the base so it was dark now. The stars gleamed above the ruined city.

"Erin, calm down," Josh said soothingly but gripping my shoulders. I was still panicking, thinking the dream was real. My heart was racing as I took deep gasps of air. "It was only a dream. It was just a dream; you're here with me." Josh now had his hands on the sides of my head, forcing me to look at him. His eyes were a soft hazel brown, not matching his white silvery hair. To a normal person it would have looked odd, but to me it made him more interesting to look at. It was also a side effect of us being Triple's experimentation in the early days of trying to create two people bonded as one. Another thing to add to the list of 'not normal things'. His silver hair and my illuminous golden eyes.

"You're OK," Josh told me. I calmed down a bit, taking in my surroundings and staring at my hands to make sure they weren't covered in Josh's blood. I buried my head into his chest, ignoring his little grunt of surprise. Slowly, his arms encircled me. "What was your dream about?" He asked me when I finally let go. I shook my head.

"I don't want to talk about it," I mumbled. "It was scary enough without having to relive it."

"Sometimes it's better to talk about it," Josh said without looking at me. He was rummaging through his rucksack and then passed me a bottle of water.

"You can read my mind," I said. "I don't have to talk about it." Josh laughed lightly.

"I actually haven't looked yet," he admitted. He was fiddling with his shoe lace on his boot; a sign that he was worried. "I thought maybe we could be normal for once and talk like normal people about things."

"But we're not normal, Josh," I said, tucking my knees up to my chin. "And I'm too weak to talk about it." Josh looked up at me with sad eyes.

"You are not weak, Erin," he said sternly. "I've seen you take down fully grown men with nothing but a pocket knife. You can flip and vault over buses. And on top of all that, you can use telekinesis. You are anything but weak."