The Unexplained

Chapter 24

-Cas-

So much rage.

So much agony.

So much sadness.

I had only felt the pain for a short while, maybe about 5 minutes. Before then, it was simply a constant, dull pain, like the pins and needles you feel when one of your limbs had fallen asleep and was waking up again. Now there's no pain at all and I can feel my strength returning. The kind of agony I now feel is the agony of loss, but even that is beginning to be drowned out by the rage I feel instead. My hands are shaking. My breathing is quick and short. I hadn't realized what was going on until I heard Abby's shout.

She screamed as she bolted across the field of Yellowstone, leaping over the boiling hot springs. Conner and I were watching her run over. I looked back at the chaos again to see Jack collapse to the ground, his body still. 

Now, Abby has reached us. Time speeds up again.

"Jack!" she shouts as she reaches him and she stoops to her knees. She's barefoot, her feet red and slightly scratched up from running across the rugged ground and she wearing a flowing black dress. A black dress that suits her in a way that reminds me of someone else. My heart sinks. 

Mother's dress...

"Jack stop it! This isn't funny!" she shakes him and rolls him onto his back. "Stop playing around, you dumb idiot! Get up!" Her voice cracks, clearly on the verge of tears, and she's shaking not only because of the panic but also the anger.

I know because of our connection to each other. I can feel almost everything she feels. Pain, emotion...we often have experiments to test what we can feel like one. It's tedious work, but it's worth it. We have a better understanding of our connection that way.

Abby continues to try to get Jack to wake up but to no avail.

Merlin dusts off his hands, the last of the dark grey ash falling from his fingertips. The grey ash that was once Jack's living, beating heart. The life that Jack once had was gone. Merlin had crushed his heart. There's no healing him or fixing him.

He's gone. He's really, truly dead.

No longer paying attention to Abby's emotions, I let out a hiccup, my lungs wracking inside me with the sob, and my hand flies to my mouth, covering half of my face. Tears start to trickle down my cheeks. The weight of the loss of my best friend hits me like a boulder and I slump to my knees. Conner is at my side, but for once, he is not paying full attention to me. His eyes are wide as he stares at Jack. We are both dumbfounded. His hands tremble and he clenches them into fists.

As Abby holds Jack's body, she lets out another sniffle.

"Dear, dear Abbadon," Merlin mumbles as he lifts his hood over his head again. "Why did you have to break free from your mother? You came at the worst time."

Abby doesn't move and for a moment she doesn't speak either, until she whispers, "You did this to him."

"What? I'm afraid I can't hear you," he taunts.

I can't help but feel a tad bad for him as Abby slowly rises to her feet. Merlin had taunted her. He'd killed the boy she cared so much about. The boy she loved. He crossed lines that I didn't even know existed. 

Now, it's Abby's turn to return the agony she was feeling.

The agony I felt in the very soul we share.

"You did this to him," she repeats, louder this time, and as she raises her head to stare him down, her eyes turn that beautiful yet deadly shade of violet. "Now you're going to feel the wrath of my flames," she snaps, her voice almost a growl.