Egotistic - J.JK.

Thirty-Three

My lungs burned as I ran through the halls, the clouds of debris filling my nose. I held my jacket over my nose and mouth as I sprinted frantically about, but it was no use when it came to visibility. I had known this place for years, wandered the halls ever since I could remember, but now it all was so foreign that I couldn't navigate the area. 

Turning a corner, I had to grip onto the hall to stabilize myself for a moment to catch my breath and to figure out where I was. I knew I was now on the second floor; that was where most of the damage had occurred. I knew exactly what it was from, but I was scared to see the actual result of whatever had happened.

I leaned my head against the corner, my temple making contact with the dusty, jutting corner. I couldn't breathe, my brain figuring that out with my wheezing and the black spots dancing in front of my face. It was like I had no more energy to give, it all wiped out. I couldn't see any of the bodies from inside each broken room, myself unable to turn invisible. I didn't understand what was happening.

I reminded myself that I had a mission to complete. My own one, for that matter. I needed to find her. If she caused this much damage, I didn't know how much she contributed to herself. I pushed myself away from the wall, my feet stumbling a little until I started off into a jog and then a sprint once more.

While running, I finally heard a sound in the ringing of my ears.

The ringing hadn't concluded or let up, refusing to give me the ability to hear; though, now I could only hear that one noise--no, voice. It sounded like her. It wasn't a word, more of a whine or groan, but it was close by. It sounded just off a little to my left, my eyes still unable to see through the continuous clouds and the tears that brimmed them from how much they stung.

I stumbled towards the direction I had heard her, finding myself to come up to a doorway where chunks of the sides had blown off. My coughing stuttered for a moment, my eyes widening at the sight, but I continued on without being able to breathe. 

I stepped into the room, finding everything to be almost like it was smashed to pieces. Besides the musty smell of the clouds, iron also came into play. It was so strong that I could taste it, almost making me gag. Dark stains littered the floor. Chunks of dark matter were breaded with debris. It looked like a murder along with an explosion had occurred.

Then there was her.

That's when my coughing concluded for a longer period of time unlike my last pause. I spotted something on the floor, a bubble-type thing that almost looked like a cocoon. It was gold, a translucent type of shield. None of the dust touched it, no shrapnel stabbed into it. It was perfect, but I could see a dark mass inside of it.

I hurried over, my hand dropping away from my jacket and my mouth becoming exposed to the dust. I fell to my knees while looking at the bubble, unable to touch it. It already looked like it cracked in certain areas, but I could see a person in there; I could see it was her. She was not completely motionless, her body bouncing up and down from labored breathing while dark blood shrouded around her head area.

I bit down on my lip as I touched the weird barrier, finding it to instantly crack underneath my touch. My whole body jumped to see it start to shatter down, piece by piece. It took its time, though, with crumpling completely. There was no noise that came with it, still the piercing ringing that hung in the air. She was slowly more and more coming into the picture, her body clearer out of the shield.

I gawked at her for a long moment, finding her to be pale, sickly. She wasn't herself, not as full or life-like. She was more of a corpse, more shaky, more skeleton. This wasn't the person I knew. It was like something had sucked everything out of her, leaving a hollow shell to be planted down on the ground, hard breaths escaping while a dark puddle laid around her neck.

"Y/N," I coughed out, it coming out in a croak from how much dust had filled my lungs. I reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, finding her to be freezing cold. I flinched away for a moment, not prepared for the feeling, but instantly went back, pulling her into my arms.

My fingers tangled in her hair as I looked at her face in a panic. Her cheeks were sunken down, no color to them. Her hair wasn't full of life anymore, more stringy and dead. She never coughed, though, only took in hard breaths. I didn't see any dust settle onto her. It was like she still had the shield around her to protect her from everything.

A ting came to ear.

My eyebrows furrowed, looking down near my knees. I pulled her closer to me to keep her out of the way of the sight, my eyes falling to the floor. There was a small bead--just the size of a dime--rolling away. It was the same gold color the shield had been, but some red stained the outside of it, like a coating. My eyes narrowed at the sight.

I reached down to pick it up out of curiosity, but that didn't work; one my fingers made contact with the bead, it shattered into a million pieces, so many that I couldn't even count. I didn't have time to process what had happened until the world went to something else.

The dust suddenly all settled in a blink of an eye. Everything turned still, my vision becoming clear as day. My chest or eyes didn't hurt anymore, nothing to flood into them. The ringing completely stopped, leaving dead silence to fall over the room except for her labored breathing to turn into a gasp.

I looked down to find her eyes open up, her body still corpse-like. My heart almost jumped out of my chest as a large grin crossed my lips, happiness flowing through me. It was unlike any joy I had ever felt; this was something so strong that nothing else mattered anymore.

"Y/N," I whispered, running my fingers through her hair gently. I couldn't get rid of the smile that was plastered on my face. "You're okay. What happened?"

She stared at me blankly for a second, her eyes slightly glossed over. She looked . . . confused. "Who's Y/N?"