glitched | ✔️

t h i r t y t w o

Chelsie POV

Peter had run out of the room as if someone was after him, leaving me alone in the apartment where I had finished the salad.

It had been three hours and Amara still wasn't back.
I bit my lip in worry, pacing back and forth.

Survivor and Destiny were whimpering softly, sensing my uneasiness.

Than... footsteps in the hall.

"Amara?" I called out hopefully, rushing to the door to open it.
Not Amara.

Yulia gave me a quick hug, stepping inside.
"I have some bad news, Chelsie."

Oh no....
"Oh... okay." I stammered.

Yulia took my hand and led me to the couch to sit.
"I don't know at what point, but Amara was seduced by the HH. She's been working for him, taking information from the inside and feeding it to his forces."

My heart dropped.
"No. Amara would never..."

Yulia reached out and grabbed my hand.
"She broke into one of our science and technology research rooms. She had rendered the guards unconscious and was trying to steal and destroy the very thing we have been working so hard to perfect: the solution to stopping the machine."

My lip quivered. "You have to be joking. I know her. She hates the HH."

Yulia's eyes glossed over with tears. "I'm afraid it's true. Come, let me show you the security footage."

I followed her on shaky legs as she led me down hallways and eventually into a room covered with screens.
"Sit," she instructed gently.

I took a seat in a white office chair.

Yulia typed something into they keyboard and I focused on the monitor in front of me.

Suddenly a shock went through my body, turning everything around me bright white.
Images, memories rushed through my head, like a movie.
They grew faster and faster, morphing into a cyclone.
Than with an explosion everything went blank.

My eyes fluttered open.
"I will do whatever necessary to capture the traitor, Amara. Her treasonous acts are unforgivable."

Yulia smiled at me, and I smiled back.

•••

Peter POV

"...we've found her...."
"...at last we will rise..."
"...he has her..."

More and more snippets of conversation reached my ears as I sprinted down blindingly white halls.

Muffled screaming reached my ears.
I slammed against a metal door, chest heaving. The screen came out.
"Retinal identification required."

I brought my iris to the scanner.
A flash of bright white light than it beeped.

"Lafrance, Peter K- access granted."

The doors slid open and the sight that meant my eyes was enough to send shivers down my spine.

•••

Amara POV

My throat burned, yet I couldn't stop screaming. It felt like every one of my bones was being shattered, like my skin was being seared.
Tears filled my eyes yet I couldn't close them. They were locked on his face.
The raven-haired man.

He stood there calmly, hands clasped in front of his body.
This had been going on for hours, and I could feel something in me growing weaker and weaker.

Than the doors slid open and a familiar form barreled in.
Peter.
I was saved.

He skidded to a stop, his eyes meeting mine, and I could see the pure horror in them.

His voice filtered through the glass.
"What are you doing!?"

The raven haired man turned to him with a cold glare.
"Silence, Peter. This is none of your business. I am doing what must be done."

"You're killing her!"

"It's a side effect of the extraction. Yes, she will die, but it's such a small price to pay for the prize. For the world to be in my hands."

"You can't do this."

"Actually, I can. Turn up the machine!" The man called to the scientist hunkered down in a corner.
"But sir-"
"Do it! Now!"

My screams worsened as the waves of pain grew stronger and stronger.
I was giving up.
The dark haired man would take the world, and bend it to his will.
He would make slaves of my family, of the young and the old, he would destroy everything.

"No." I screamed.

The man laughed, as Peter stood frozen beside him. "There's nothing you can do, Amara. Give in to it. Once you give in all will be better. You will be able to rest."

"No." I summoned the last bits of my strength, harnessing all my brain power.
I accepted the pain, used the pain, morphed the pain.

"Sir! She's doing something!"

Peter glanced at the technician. I could see his hand reach into the pocket where I knew he kept a knife.
The dark haired man slammed his fist down on the table before him.
"Well than up the power!"

"I can't! It's at full capacity."

I laughed, my throat hoarse, before closing my eyes and pulling all the power to me.

The lights flickered as my veins glowed brighter and brighter.
My vision clouded with bright green light and I felt the tongues of fire under my skin.

I pulled every bit of power towards me, remembering everything I had suffered because of the HH, because of Liberty for the Bounded.
And I let it all go.

•••

Peter POV

Her body crackled with green lighting and her eyes were orbs of pulsing light.

My knife was ready to throw. I would kill the scientist, and I would find a way to get her out of here.

Than she began to speak, quietly at first.

"Up the power! Now!" The man beside me screeched.

"I can't... shes—"

The glass shattered, flying in every direction. The lights in the room went off.

Amara fell to the ground, the green lightning still dancing around her body.

I leapt forward, reaching towards her, but she quickly ducked away, rushing for the man who lay on the floor, surrounded by glass, with one clear objective.
She was going to kill him.

She was going to kill my father.

•••

🤭🙃😬