Tragedy ✔️

Chapter 4

Red buttoned polo, red kaki pants, and red dress shoes. This is my uniform. What I would give to see the color green, blue, yellow, or even pink.

What Ms. Pudge told me earlier in the room echoes within me.

You have to destroy your sister forever.

I feel bile coming up my throat and as disgusting as it may be, I swallow it. I can't possibly destroy my sister. She's, well...my sister.

As I'm walking down the hallways of 6x3 Inc. toward the main desk to get my ID, I think about all Annie did for me when we were alive. She cared for me so much, she always put me before her.

But then I remember how she was willing to just throw me away like an old rag to pursue her happiness. What a-

"Mr. West? Hello?"

I'm shaken from my thoughts as I look up to see a thin old lady in the front disk handing me my ID. Her white hair contrasts incredibly with her saggy and wrinkly, red skin.

"I'm sorry," I say, "All of this is new to me."

She gives me a encouraging smile.

"When I got here I had hope things were gonna get better," she says, "I was 15. When I turned 18 and went into the Overworld to do my job it was like I was alive again. There are lots of temptations up there, but you have to be careful. Only one has stayed up there. And for that reason, the king inflicted terrible disasters upon the whole kingdom. Many were destroyed for that reason."

I guess she can see my face filled with perplexed terror and she gives me a teeth-less grin.

"Now go on," she says, "If things have not gotten better for me it was for a reason. But I have a feeling, Mr. West, that fate has a different plan for you."

I give her a shaky smile and exit the building. There is a cool chill outside and it sends a tingling sensation through my body.

I need to get this over with.

This was nothing like my first job where I got training on how to flip burgers. They just gave me a title and pushed me out to go do my work. And I know what it is.

I've never gone out to town before so I don't know where the bus station is or the route it takes. I have no way of locating Annie...

Oh yes I do. I feel like an idiot for not recollecting that I have magic now. But the only time I've used it was to blast a door open. What big deal. I need to somehow transport myself to the bus my sister is in.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes.

Where do I want to be?

I start to feel like I'm jolting up and down as if I'm on a bus. A bus! It's working.

I think of Annie and her presence. I imagine the bus, the seats, the people, the smell, everything and suddenly I feel like my body is catching on fire.

I see flames starting to engulf me but there's no time to escape. I'm trapped inside the scorching fire and I'm helpless to save myself.

But then the flames start to withdraw and when they do I'm no longer outside the building of 6x3 Inc.

I see a flash of red zoom past me with a gust of wind blowing my hair and dust getting in my eyes. I'm at the edge of a highway road and I turn to my right to see the bus just passed me.
I teleported myself to the bus.

This is it. I have to do it or I will be destroyed and my mom will be destroyed in her own grief if she loses both of her children for good.

I have to do this fast. The bus is zipping by fast up the highway and is getting away. I scan my surroundings to see what I can work with. I see that there is construction going on for a skyscraper that oversees the highway. A large crane is next to the building to haul up materials. I have to work with this.

I can't believe I'm doing this but there's no stopping now. Adrenaline has gotten a hold of me and I can't do anything to control it. I lift my hand to the building and feel my veins contract. I try to do the same thing I did in the room with Ms. Pudge and try to feel the magic bubbling inside of me trying to escape. I scream as I feel an invisible force rip out of my hand and it flies toward the building.

The building starts to topple from its foundation and it starts to crack.

Then suddenly, it jolts out of the ground and starts towering down to the highway. I intended to drop the crane not the building. What will 6x3 think!

And then reality struck.

I'm killing my sister.

"No!" I yell and wave my hand so hard that I feel like I snapped a muscle. The building falling down takes a right turn and falls on top of another building instead of the highway. There is a loud bang as stone stabs stone.

Then there is an explosion inside of the crumbled buildings and people scatter across downtown. Traffic has stopped on the highway and I can still see the bus.

A big chunk of the tower comes crashing behind a semi truck and makes it lose control. It is about to reach the halted traffic but I can't do this. I can't kill my sister.

I'm about to stop the truck from crashing into the traffic, the bus with my sister included. I'm about to use my magic when I feel a pang in my chest, and I start to lose my breath and I can't put my hand up. I can't stop the truck. I hunch down as the pain continues but nothing is compared to the pain I feel when I see it.

I see the truck ram into the stalled traffic, into the bus containing my sister, and a big explosion. Simmering all the vehicles. Red and yellow flashing flames illuminate the highway. All these people are dead. I killed them. I killed Annie, my family, my sister. I killed innocent civilians.

The fire reduces and scorched and crushed cars are scattered across the highway. The bus doesn't look like a bus anymore. It looks like a ball of tin.

The pain in my chest stops.