[✓] 𝑃𝑅𝐸𝐿𝑈𝐷𝐸 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐭𝐰𝐨. 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒. 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐈𝐈: 𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞

𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 eyes and let out a long sigh. 

When she opened them again, it seemed to make no difference. It was pitch-black with her eyes closed and pitch-black with her eyes opened.

Where the hell was she? There was no way that she had time-travelled properly. 

This definitely wasn't the past, so she was either in a future where everything somehow just disappeared or she was dead. She felt as though it was the latter.

And if this was what the afterlife was like, it sucked.

She spent the next thirty minutes sprinting around the infinite abyss, trying to time-travel back to her home. And although she still had her speed, she just wasn't able to time-travel, for some reason foreign to her.

Valerie came to a stop and began to pace around the . . . nothingness as her fingers nervously played with the pendant of her necklace. What was she going to do?

She tried to count the minutes, hours, and days as they passed but found that it was rather difficult to keep track of, what with having absolutely nothing to help her count other than common sense. 

Time just blended in together as she alternated between sleeping, practicing different and new techniques, solving equations to help her get out, and actually putting those equations into effect.

Eventually, she had come to the realization that she was stuck in time. It explained why she didn't pass out after sprinting for so long and not eating; why there wasn't anything but a void; and, of course, why, after spending so long without fulfilling her human needs, she just wasn't dead.

Either one hour or ten decades later, she still had no clue how to get back. She was hungry, thirsty, tired, stressed out, sore, frustrated, angry, and had the worst headache. She desperately wanted to go back to her home.

To her family.

To Five.

Assuming he had come back from wherever he had disappeared to, of course.

She had gotten quite used to the darkness after so long. She no longer panicked and thought she had gone blind for a few moments after waking up. She no longer felt fear build up inside of her as her eyes registered absolutely nothing.

She wasn't sure how long she had been in there, but it sure felt like forever. And she was just about done waiting for a solution to pop into her head. 

But she couldn't give up. Not yet.

Valerie began to pace around the room, a million thoughts flying through her head. Her having super-speed meant that her thoughts also went at super-speed, which was pretty useful in that situation. Still, they hadn't been successful in the time previous.

She suddenly froze as something came to mind. An equation that gave her the exact speed she needed to run to get home—or so she hoped.  

Yes, that was it!

"Okay, okay, okay," she murmured to herself, letting out a small exhale as she stretched her arms. "This is it. I hope."

Valerie closed her eyes, and carried out the plan, running at the speed her mind had calculated. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and—

No. Still darkness.

"Aw, shit."

Valerie tweaked some of the numbers in her head, squinting her eyes in concentration as she did so. Once she came to a final number (again), she braced herself.