US (Formerly The After Effect - Book 2)

45 - (U N) A C C E P T I N G

//i know this chapter is tiny & that it been forever. i apologize. great things to come.//

I thought killing time on a car ride was hard. At least you had things to look at. Sure, there are windows built into this ship, but it's like I'm watching an endless stream of the same batch of stars and black sky. There's no music to listen to, no phone to look at. It's just dead space and five superhumans.

Brink has broken his trance with Xena for quite some time now after he kept complaining of a relentless, throbbing headache. I told him he could sit by me, and that's where he's been ever since. He's slumped sideways in the seat to my left, resting his head on my lap as I run my fingers through his hair.

At random times I am hit with the oddity of who we are, where we come from. It's all so obscure, with no real answers. I wish I knew my true origin long before any of this happened. It's been a wild ride that I never consented to getting on and I'm so ready for it to be over. Maybe being leeched won't feel as bad as I expect. I can only hope my true conscience will be dormant.

Brink shuts his eyes and his breathing slows as he sinks deeper into relaxation. Maybe he's trying to numb himself to what's coming. Let the moment take him.

It's not that easy for me.

Still, I try to mimic him. I reposition myself to give my back a slight recline. I shut my eyes, steady my breathing, and let the moment take me, too.

***

I wake up to screaming.

My eyelids flash open and my entire body is vibrating in my seat as Stella wails. Brink sits upright and meets my eyes before rising up and making his way toward the controls.

"What's—?" Brink starts.

"We're going to crash!" Stella cries, her hands trembling as she squeezes them together. "We have to do something!"

Brink rushes over to the control panel as I peer out the window, my eyes bulging from my head. Space no longer engulfs us. The black sky full of stars is burnt orange and empty. I glance down to see what lies below, but the ship is moving too fast for me to make sense of the blackness.

I join the others at the front of the ship, looking to them for solutions, but no one returns my stare. Brink has his hands everywhere, fiddling with levers and buttons and the screen, but nothing is responding. Meanwhile, Stella has Xena by the shoulders and is jostling her back and forth, screaming her name. Her eyebrows sink to her nose, her mouth upturned, as Xena's pink waves bounce with the jerking of her head. Zeriah is somewhere in between, but he appears the most worried. His eyes are alert and shiny, prepped with tears, and his hands don't know where to go; they fidget madly among his personal space as though he's playing many possible situations in his head.

I'm petrified with shock. Someone has locked me in a cellar of ice and I've froze to the core. Mouth agape, eyes hollow, I stare out the glass window at an orange sky zipping by us as the seconds tick away

That's when Xena gasps to life. Stella halts and takes a step back from her. Brink doesn't notice, so I find my voice and shout out his name.

Xena is hyperventilating when she comes back from whatever state she was in. Her expression is frantic and confused, like she has been pumped with drugs. Still, she doesn't hesitate to rise from her chair, scoot around Brink, and take the reins without a word.

Of course, everyone immediately begins screaming at Xena, throwing questions out at her left and right, all at once.

"What's going on?"

"We're landing," she replies flatly.

"Here?" Stella drills into her.

"Yes. We've arrived at Nazareth. Brace for landing in the next few minutes. They don't have the best tarmacs."

The ship slows in speed and I gnaw at my lip, wondering what the next few hours are going to be like. Will we survive the day? Will we be leeched on sight?

I weave my fingers through locks of my red hair and step over to the window, mulling over our potential future. The city below slowly formulates, and I begin to catch glimpses of some of the architecture at best. This place is like New York City on steroids, only much darker, and with more smoke.

"Xena, you have to stop," Stella tries. Brink and Stella are at her flanks in attempts to convince her otherwise, but from the looks of it, their work is pointless. So I don't even consider joining in. I'm done avoiding my fate. All I want is to face this thing head on, and defeat it, and hopefully find truth in the process. I was brought into this life against my will, and I won't stop fighting until things reverse and this sick game is over. I refuse to let someone else control my life, and am simply preparing myself for the worst that has yet to come.

Kai's reign will be demolished, and above all else, so will his life.

I head to a seat and buckle myself in, following Xena's orders. She's broken, there's nothing more we can do but ride out this wave. Trying to fix her in the middle of all this will just cause more uproar and heartache. One thing a time...

Brink checks over his shoulder for me and double takes when he's noticed me seated and strapped in. He pauses for a moment, his hands halting in mid air, before he looks at Xena one more time and aborts his mission.

He saunters over to me, sits down, and whips the seatbelt over his chest. He is silent, keeps his face straight, and takes my hand.

Stella is the next to fall in line. Zeriah follows suit just in time, sprinting over to a seat and clicking the belts over him right as we make contact with the ground. Although the ship absorbs most of the impact, my body wobbles and jerks when we land. Brink squeezes my hand tight until he lets go and unbuckles.

The ship slows to a crawl before stopping completely. Xena shuts the system down and stands near the hatch like a stewardess without a smile. Brink bends over me and unlocks my seatbelt in one easy move before bringing me up and into his arms.

I gasp slightly at the embrace before bringing my arms around him and holding on. He squeezes me and tucks his head into my shoulder to whisper, "I'm sorry."

He releases me and takes my hand, taking a deep breath. His eyes close momentarily before he takes a step forward to Xena, ready.

"Nazareth awaits," Xena announces. The spaceship door unhinges with the press of a button and steadily rises before us.

And here we come.