The Undoing Of Heroes | ✓

fifteen

fifteen

MINE AND MY MOTHER'S relationship was a wicked one. We were both ... broken. In our own ways, and under the past years we'd played pretend. Faked normalcy. While it'd been refreshing, now we seemed to see the world for what it truly was. 

Our playground.

The thought made me smile, and when I realized it did I reeled back in shock. 

"Are you alright?"

I turned to my mother, expecting some kind of gratitude to surge within me. When none did, I was shocked. And when my fists clenched, brows furrowing, I was even more flabbergasted. 

"Why couldn't you tell me?" I said, voice breaking. 

Was I ... hurt?

"Sweetheart, you have to understand -" Mom begun, tears leaking out of her eyes. No trace of the Shadowfire that'd so heartlessly offed Callum remained. 

"No!" I responded harshly, swiping the desk clear of broken lamp remnants as well as blank documents, "No!  You don't get to do this to me!" 

"Rae, calm down-"

"I've been keeping the weight of this secret for a year, Mom. A year!" The pain of my cuts didn't register as I begun pacing, "Do you know what that's like?"

"Of course I do!" She hissed back, clearly getting pissed off herself, "- I've kept a secret from you for your entire life, and now I tell you, and you get mad? You've no right-"

I laughed, "That's rich coming from you, Mom."

She stays quiet for a moment, then shakes her head. 

"What went wrong when I raised you, huh? How do you think I felt when I find out my daughter's the city's most sought after crimin-"

"This is the CHPD speaking. Step out of the room with your hands above your head."

"Fuck." I muttered, and Mom had the audacity to narrow her eyes at my curse. 

"No amount of self-deprecation is going to help you out of this mess, I'll tell you that." She said, and I shake my head.

Seconds later, the police burst into the room, and to my surprise, Blaze is nowhere to be seen. I scan the officers' blue and white attire for just a small burst of red, hidden between the throngs of people storming the office. 

We're not going to get out of this, I thought to myself, and Mom seemed to think the same as her face turns  a pale white.

"This is the CHPD, and we command you to put your hands up. I repeat, hands up!"

When we don't immediately obey, they step forward threateningly, ushering us to the back of the office, where the broken floor-to-roof window created a jagged gap, leading to an imminent death. 

I gulped, shudders running down my spine. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of doubts creeping in my mind. 

Calm down. You can do this. You've done this before.