Heart Breaker ❉ Barry Allen #wattys2016

chapter 13

Since her brief encounter with Central City's other speedster, Mack had seemed to change a lot. The constant fear and pain she had always been running from since her parents' death had finally caught up with her and she didn't know how to push it back under the surface. She wasn't as bright and loud as usual; she kept her head down and didn't speak until spoken to and even then she would only reply if it was absolutely necessary. Her positive energy had depleted and no one at STAR Labs knew what to do.

Cisco had attempted to coax her out of the house with the promise of pizza, but Mack was barely eating and pizza just didn't pep her up like usual. Caitlin was constantly trying to have a heart to heart with Mack and figure out what was going on in her head, but she simply didn't feel like answering Caitlin's questions. Barry was beside himself, he was convinced it was all his fault and kept popping in to see her and apologise. Although despite not blaming Barry in the slightest, not a single word left her mouth in response to the Flash. She didn't have anything to say and she hated herself for letting Barry see her hit rock bottom, but the other half of her didn't care enough to pick herself back up.

Even Dr Wells had been visiting frequently. He didn't try to fix her like her friends because he understood that wasn't what she wanted. Mackenzie Taylor was never one to wait for someone to put her back together, she never needed anyone. She would much rather be her own hero and Harrison Wells knew that was exactly what she would be. So he would make sure she ate something and fill her in on the everyday news and then before leaving, he would remind her that she was still the strongest girl he had ever met.

It was strange to see the girl who was always so strong and carefree so lost and broken, however sometimes an individual needs to break before they shine. Mack's issue was that she had never really dealt with the death of her parents, she didn't speak of it and often pretended it had never happened. The fear that struck her when the other speedster left the note was identical to the fear that racked her body when her parents died and therefore was a trigger. Now that the forbidden chest in her mind had been opened, she couldn't close it and it was all she could think about.

She felt hopeless and desperately sad. Mack was trying to cling to something, but she just couldn't reach it because she didn't know what she was trying to pull herself out with. Late at night, when she had cried all the tears she had left, Mack crept out of bed and searched for an old box in her wardrobe. Despite her breakdown, Mack wasn't weak and she wasn't going to be kept down. In the midst of feeling lost, she was also silently fighting against it. She was thinking of the way her mother used to keep all of Mack's art work and how her dad was constantly taking photos of them all together, when she was overwhelmed with the urge to look at those photos.

The box was hidden deep in the back her wardrobe and contained a very dusty photo album. She dragged the box into the middle of her room and opened it, pulling out her art work and childhood awards until she found the album. She didn't know what she was really looking for as she flipped through the album smiling sadly at their happy faces, but upon noticing the last 2 photos she threw the album across her room.

Her heart rate increased rapidly as she tried to make sense of the photos. In the last two photos of her family all together, two days before the death of her parents, a blurry, yellow figure stood in the background. It seemed to be watching them with burning red eyes and then in the next, which was taken merely seconds after the first, all that was left of the yellow man was a streak.

Thinking she had been imagining it, still freaked out over the other speedster, Mack approached the album and flipped back to the last page with photos. Sure enough, the very last two had the yellow man in them just as she had thought. With a shaking hand, Mack pulled the images out and turned them over to see the date which her father had messily scrawled on the back of every photo. Just as Mack had believed, they were taken two days before the death of her parents.

Confusion filled the void of hopelessness which had settled in Mackenzie. Suddenly she didn't think it was merely her helpful personality that had been why she was so interested in helping Barry. She thought that perhaps her subconscious mind knew more about this speedster than she realised.

She wasn't okay, but this new discovery reminded her of what she was fighting for and made her all that much more determined. Mack picked herself up off the floor and set the photos on her desk before grabbing her phone and dialing Barry. By now it was 3am, but she knew he wouldn't mind; especially when he found out why she was calling.

"Mack? Hey, you okay?" Barry spoke, his raspy tone making Mack cringe as she realised she would've woken him up.

"Sorry for calling so late- or I guess you could say early, but I found something really interesting. Barry, I have photos of the other speedster." Mack said, her voice quick and hushed so she wouldn't wake Caitlin. To be honest, she was shocked she didn't come running in when Mack threw the album.

"I'll be there in a sec." Barry replied, surprise hinting in his tone before he hung up. Whether he was surprised due to Mack calling and sounding so much better than she had been acting or surprise due to her discovery, she wasn't quite sure and honestly, neither was Barry.

As she waited for Barry to turn up, Mack walked back over to the images and took photos of them on her phone. She wasn't willing to lose them as it was the biggest lead they had and she couldn't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, the man in yellow had something to do with her parents death as well.

a/n: thoughts? please vote and comment guys, I'd love to know what you guys think of the direction this is heading in ☺️☺️