Morph [EDITING] || Wattys 2017 Winner

~THIRTY FIVE~

~amelie~

I am unmoving, I am ice, I am stone.

I am stunned.

The medical room is frozen in time, and a thick blanket of silence is crushing me. Dad doesn't say anything, and Hunter is too shocked to move, let alone speak. At least, that's how I imagine he's feeling. I guess I've got a similar sentiment.

My father is a murderer.

"I'm sorry," he says, almost indistinctly. "I'm so sorry."
"How?" comes Hunter's broken voice, holding desperately on to the edge of a cliff. "Why?"
Dad takes another deep breath. "You were only a baby, and you were being looked after by a family friend. Your parents were visiting me, and I wanted to tell them all about the plans I had for our own child. You see, my wife and I had only just married, and we had just found out she was pregnant -"

Me. That baby was me.

"I don't care." Hunter's voice is shaky and wavering. "I don't care. You tell me you killed them, and then you tell me this? Just tell me why."
Dad's words are overflowing with sorrow, and hatred. For himself. "I'm sorry, but unless I tell you this, you... you won't understand."
Hunter is silent.
"I wanted to tell them my plans without Grace hearing, so we went out. To a shopping centre. We were just walking along, and suddenly they told me there was something I had to know. Superhumans had already been popping up for decades by then, so the ones that called themselves superheroes were common knowledge. I was still surprised when my two closest friends revealed their powers, and even more shocked when my own hands started glowing. My power was manifesting, right there and then, a power I never knew I had. And... the fallout..."
Dad takes in a shaky breath, and I feel the anguish radiating off him.
"The explosion vaporised the whole shopping centre. I woke up, the only survivor of over a thousand dead, in a crater of scorched earth. I... I killed so many, and then I heard the screaming. All around me. Nobody could see me, but they all saw the massacre. And it was all... all my fault..."
My father starts breaking down as he tells the story, and my heart is thumping faster and faster with each word. I only know of one tragedy that big, and it couldn't have been him - it couldn't....
"I caused the Explosion, and I fled before anyone saw me. I lost my powers after the blast. Nobody in the world has ever known this, and it's a secret I carry every day. I can't tell anyone - they would kill me, and I deserve it. But when I realised who... who you were, I had to tell you. How they died, and that it was me."

I can hear the words they're saying, but they don't fit, don't connect, because my dad can't be a murderer. He imprisoned people, took them away from their homes, but it was all to try to help them, and he never killed anyone, never killed Izzy's grandparents, all those people on the memorial, and what he's saying doesn't fit...

"What?" comes Hunter's voice, so quiet, so dangerously quiet, and it breaks my heart. "Why?" he repeats.
"Hunter, I-"
"Why didn't you own up?"
The words stun my dad into silence, but Hunter keeps talking.
"Why didn't you say it was you? You let everyone hate us, see us as monsters! You could have fixed all of this before it even happened!"
A pause.
"You wasted their lives. You wasted their sacrifice."

The silence stretches out for eternity, Hunter and my father just staring at each other. Eventually, I hear my father's voice.

"You're right. I'm not denying that... that all this was my fault. I just needed you to know."
This time it's Hunter who's silent, but only for a moment. Suddenly, he asks, "Who were they?"
I look into the room as my father gives Hunter a regretful, pain-filled smile. "Your mother was a doctor. Best in her field. Her name was Marie. Your dad was more relaxed... he always had time for everyone. He was my best man, and I was his." He pauses. "I miss them every single day."

And as I watch, Hunter looks at my father, and something passes between them. A strange sort of forgiveness. I let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding.
"What was that?" comes my father's voice, and terror streaks through me. They can't know I was here. They can't.
I hear footsteps then, coming towards me, out of the room, and I make a snap decision.

And I run.

~~~

~hunter~

Someone was listening.

It's all I can think about as I race to the planning room, trying to find Elian before the mission I'm supposed to be guiding is entirely over. I'm trying desperately not to think about what Carmichael just told me, because if I do, I'm afraid that I won't be able to deal with it.

That he killed my parents.

That he caused the Explosion, and that he survived.

And that Amelie doesn't know.

I know I can't tell her, not until this is over. She's already so weighed down with responsibility, feeling like this whole mess is her fault because she's the daughter of the man who caused most of it. I can't add even more to that pile, not yet. I have to keep her safe, and so I have to keep this secret.

I'm staring straight down at the ground, lost in a whirling maelstrom of thoughts, when a hand reaches out and grasps my shoulder. I look up, startled.

Elian's face greets me, serious and grave-looking. "Hunter. Where's Amelie?"
"Isn't she here?" I ask, frowning. "She went ahead of me."
"She was here, yes. And when you didn't turn up, she went looking for you."

When I didn't turn up... when Carmichael pulled me into a side room and changed everything I know to be true.

"Where is she now?" I question.
Elian's expression darkens. "That's exactly what I need to know."

Just then, there's a thud, and I look around. A girl stands there, staring at us. I recognise her, but I'm not sure from where.

"Iya," Elian says. "Are you alright?"
Iya. The girl from Cade's funeral. Her expression is wild and panicked, and she's holding her arm like it's hurt. She stares at me as she says, "She's gone."
"What?" Elian frowns, but I know exactly who she means. Amelie.
"What happened?" I ask, heartbeat pounding in my head.
She gives a huff, out of breath, and says, "She just ran out. I couldn't stop her, and I tried, but..." She grimaces. I stare. Something must be really wrong for Amelie to hurt someone who's on our side. "You need to go after her."

But I don't realise what she's said until much later, when I'm running through the compound to reach the outside and find Amelie, because I'm already gone as Iya says the words.