「 The Professor & I 」VOLUME II

(333) Unbearable

Lynn's POV

The horror of murder was immensely overwhelming. Although there was moderate relief in that a burdensome threat had been duly eliminated, no amount of justification for his death was enough to douse the haunting guilt—regardless of his nasty deeds or the fact that he probably deserved it.

Like his cold blood that furiously drained, all my fortitude and the original surge of adrenaline that fueled it rapidly dissipated from my face. Without any lingering courage to truly witness the harrowing demise, I automatically rotated around, albeit slowly and tentatively.

Hesitantly, I raised my eyes to Charles, ashamed and afraid. Yet, despite my atrocious and ruthless behaviour, the natural benevolence in those crystal blue never stopped radiating; but they were not sufficiently emboldening to elicit complete movement.

Merely reaching for him with both arms, I just watched and wandered haphazardly as he expeditiously rolled himself over, inevitably spying the unbalanced strength in his hands that unwittingly resulted in his path deviating slightly from a straight line.

Clearly sore from its imprisonment, his left wrist evidently experienced more difficulty throughout his rushed self-propulsion but his face was purely negligent to exhibit the discomfort, solely displaying an abundance of love.

Abruptly, the dear affection evaporated into thin air as every ounce of pink colour was bleached from his cheeks and all that remained was a terribly aghast expression. Without warning, there was a massive crash behind me and a large seismic wave rocked the entire arena, immediately throwing me off my feet.

"Lynn!" Charles bawled hysterically, hurriedly giving me his hand.

"Charles!" I screamed in reflex and, instinctively thinking to break my fall with my master arm, I foolishly stretched out my disabled one.

Obviously without any strength or grip, however, I could hardly latch onto his and our fingers dreadfully parted as my left leg was quickly sucked under the rubble. I clawed onto whatever existed beneath my palms, struggling futilely to escape the staggering effects perhaps analogous to a giant vacuum cleaner, but thankfully, the violent episode shortly precluded.

Panting weakly, I glanced around, realising I had been awkwardly flipped onto my back around the border of the ruins, and my head pounded fervently, directly faced with the glaring lights, as I finally appreciated the true magnitude of the aftermath.

The wrecked area was enveloped by a distasteful silence, occasionally spooked by ominous crackles, as a long rift slowly splintered up the wall and across the face of the roof. The worsening fracture grew critically and it was only the most logical option to leave but I soon registered the soft whir of his wheels rolling over rocky litter loudening as Charles approached undauntedly.

"Stay back... Please... It's dangerous..." I begged, breathless from the sheer volume of pain consuming my buried limb, as I adamantly waved him off despite not being granted an actual view of him from my inconvenient angle.

"All the more reason for me to get you out of there, love," Charles appealed, kindness and desperation simultaneously overflowing from his crumbling voice, as he was definitively shrouded from my efforts indistinguishable by the naked eye.

"You can't... I'm stuck..." I croaked tiredly, thoroughly exhausted from the physical torment and the multiple, albeit fruitless, attempts to liberate myself from the bulky debris.

"Let me help you," Kitty volunteered in an avid tone.

Her expeditious treads inadvertently triggered a shower of dust to rain from the undermined ceiling as she hastily bolted over but the teenage girl seemed the least bit concerned. Securely grasping my arm, Kitty eagerly tugged on it but instead of reaping any beneficial harvest, her sympathetic endeavor only yielded my sharp cry as the torture harassing my leg was greatly aggravated by the forced motion.