Hey

Everything is a blur.

Her eyes fall shut and she finds it doesn’t matter too much, the world didn’t make much sense filtering through the dim haze of her vision as it flickered in and out of focus; she can’t see what is in front of her so much as she can see flashes of the way forward in her head. Her instincts were an almost completely forgotten reflex, operating as though doused in molasses; sluggish, like everything else. Still, every now and again her mind attempted to probe into her numbed nerve ending, trying to take stock. She was only too willing to be pulled away from the pain she found waiting beyond the heavy fog in her brain. Each time she pushed through, the pain disappeared almost as quickly as it started, immediately salved by numbness and the encouraging flashes of the cooling waters that called for her.

She knows enough about her body to know her own strength isn’t carrying her forward, but her willingness to care was somewhere beneath the fog. The voice in her head is quiet for now - but not gone – not so much dormant as lurking. She can still feel its presence, guiding her, urging strength she didn’t have into limbs she could not feel – all but carrying her towards the promise of safety she was not lucid enough to crave.

Melinda was only vaguely and briefly aware that she had come to a halt, momentarily consumed by the disconcerting weight of her own body pressing her feet against the cold ground. After that, the world pressed in around her all at once; like air rushing in to fill a vacuum. Only the air was pain, and she was the void. Years of training and hours of practice were both unreachable and irrelevant as her brain scrambled to coordinate her recently reignited senses. The unfamiliar stone that surrounded her was slick and cool beneath her bare feet; the short breaths that struggled from her lungs hung before her face in a heavy fog.

Come to the water – the voice was familiar to her now, but different somehow. As it continued to coax her forward, she realized that the voice was revibrating in her ears, not just echoing from somewhere inside her head.

You must choose – she didn’t choose any of this. The more of her consciousness that broke through the fog the more she wanted to claw it back, to be cushioned by the numbness once more.

Be swift, now.

If her lungs had the capacity to expand she would have screamed.

She can’t tell where the pain started or ended. It crashed into her like a wave, surging somewhere around her midsection and rolling her stomach as it finally subsided, sending her crashing to her knees as her body protested against her fruitless retching. Panic grips her and she latches on to it like a lifeline, willing it to clear the cobwebs from her sluggish reflexes. The pain is an invisible cage around her, she can’t see beyond it. The smooth stone beneath her is freezing – the cold clings to the moisture in the air but she is too hot and everything else was too far away to really matter. The pain in her abdomen was blinding but familiar – she follows the feeling, back back back, until the ground beneath her was soft and warm, too warm, and she can barely untangle herself from her sheets before she is retching, and she hasn’t eaten anything solid in days but her body won’t listen and her stomach is burning, a searing pain that continued to build long after she had spewed the last bit of bile she could force from her throat. And she needs to move, something tells her to move, and none of it makes any sense but she’s so tired and she doesn’t want to fight, so she moves. The heady feeling that comes with blood loss makes her vision swim but inside her head, she can see it, clearer than anything – smooth, clear water – dark like the hazy edges tunnelling her vision….

The sting rocketed her back into reality, crawling across the cool stone, reaching for the water before her. It glinted in the low light like a shard of darkened glass – and when she broke its surface it stung like a thousand needles pricking her skin all at once. She flinched back, instinctively drawing her hand to her chest like a wounded animal. But even as the tiny droplets that clung to her skin continued to sear her flesh, she found herself reaching forward once more. The water whispered to her, dozens of voices just beyond the reach of her ears chanting promises she could not hear but somehow understood; she needed the water, the pain would be temporary…

‘I shouldn’t be surprised – what’s simple thievery to a murderer?’

For a moment it was just one of many voices, but the disorientation of being unexpectedly lifted from the ground sharpened her senses as she found herself being spun to face the owner of the unfamiliar voice. Sallow skin, dark almond-shaped eyes – and rage – rage etched into her delicate features. While the voice was unfamiliar, that face was very much not; Jai-Ying stood before her radiating an anger and contempt that had her mind flinching away from the onslaught of memories that threatened to overwhelm her – familiar eyes, clawed fingers and pain, so much pain.

‘You don’t belong in this place’, Jai-Ying’s condemnation saved her from the torment inside her head. ‘You of all people should never have DARED to disturb the ancient power within these walls – all you people know how to do is take!’

The harshness of her words is only somewhat softened by her dulled senses; the pain is beginning to ebb, but so is everything else. She isn’t sure what she’s done to deserve it but she recognises the murderous intent in Jai-Ying’s accusing stare as she advances towards her.

Melinda isn’t aware she had moved, automatically retreating from the advancing threat, until her feet splash into the waters behind her. Every drop is agony. The pain steals her breath, threatening to bring her to her knees as she continues to stumble backwards, further and further into the searing clutches of the dark water. Her vision blurs and there is water on her face that doesn’t sting; tears an impractical response she was numbly surprised to find her body still had the capability to produce.

Jai-Ying glided into the water, delighted by her obvious distress. Melinda knows what’s coming but her legs seemed to have decided they had carried as far as they were willing to go, and she could only watch as Jai-Ying let her hands trail through the water before reaching forward to cup her face.

‘Does it hurt little soldier? It burns because you are not worthy – because you do not belong. How many of the lives that feed this water do you think you’ve taken? How long before my daughter would have been one of them?’

The mention of Daisy stirs something beyond her pain-addled thoughts, put the water is soaking through her clothes, and it slips away like everything else. Jai-Ying is ranting about – something – the content of whatever idle threat she is uttering making her lip curl in a twisting smile. She doesn’t really hear, she doesn’t really feel now that she thinks of it. Her clothes are heavy and the burning has simmered to a tingle – her eyes are blinking slower and slower, when they close she sees herself slipping beneath the surface of the water, there’s peace in the darkness, she’s sure of it –

The blissful image slips away as Jai-Ying grasps her throat, and she barely has the energy to peel her eyes open to take in the brief look of shock that flickers across the woman’s face before it is replaced by seething anger once more.

‘What have you done? That power, that life – you don’t deserve such a gift’. Melinda felt the moment the woman’s grip changed as it tightened around her throat, not tight enough to choke her – but a subtle shift as it transitioned from holding her up to pinning her in place. ‘There is apparently no limit to what you are willing to take from my people. This final treachery will be your last – I can’t save the life you have stolen away inside you but I can take it back – I can take their power for myself’. An aura of warm light travelled up the woman’s arm as she spoke, and as it crawled steadily towards where Jai-Ying’s grip held her throat, her instincts screamed at her to run – to move – to do anything.

She isn’t sure what happens first but the look of rage in Jai-Ying’s face shifted to one of shock just before she was thrown backwards. The air surged around her, it hummed inside her skull like a clap of thunder she could feel but not hear. As the humming faded it seemed to take everything else with it, she could feel the strength leaving her body, not in the sudden whoosh she was familiar with when she was knocked out, but in a steady flow that felt somewhat final.

‘MOM – NOOO!’

Her voice cut through everything; dragging her back to the surface of her muddled mind, back into awareness of the sickening pain in her gut. It quickly faded into insignificance – the look of anger and betrayal Daisy fixed her with cut her right to the core, leaving her struggling uselessly against the numbness inside her, preventing her from doing anything, from saying anything – she knew she was the source of the young girl’s anguish and all that mattered in that moment was that she was the one to take it away.

She didn’t register the younger girl’s defensive stance, or realize she was hurtling backwards through the air until she plunged beneath the icy surface of the water and suddenly the whole world felt like it was burning.

Daisy’s body is trembling from exertion when she finally reaches the entrance to the stone temple. As she steps through the cracked stone, the breath she had been gasping to regain is quickly stolen from her lungs by the scene before her.

She barely has time to register the familiarity of the two figures as she watches May and her mother standing in a pool of water before her. She can hear Jai-Ying’s voice but her words are lost against the echoing stone. She was advancing towards May; Daisy wanted to scream out – her mother was powerful but May was dangerous. Between one breath and the next, everything stilled, and she could only watch as her mother raised her arms before herself before being thrown backwards, hurtling through the air and crashing limply to the stone floor.

‘MOM – NOOOOO!!’

The force of the quake that tore itself from her throat as she screamed sent May toppling from her feet. She heard her former mentor splash into the water beneath her but she only had eyes for her Jai-Ying’s unmoving form.

The stone walls of the temple continue to quake, sending crumbling stone crashing to the ground around her as falls to her knees beside her mother. She knew it in her gut before she even reached her but her heart still stuttered in her chest when she found her cold and still. She vaguely registers the sharp crack that signals Gordon’s arrival behind her but is still shocked when her grabs her arm.

‘Daisy – Daisy come on, we need to get out of her – NOW!’

As if to signal his point, a large chunk of rock came crashing into the water in front of them, bathing her in a slightly stinging spray.

‘We can’t go – my- my Mom – we have to help her, there has to be someone that can help her’, she knows it’s useless but she can’t stop the distraught pleas bubbling from her lips.

‘I know Daisy, I know – but we have to go now – there’s nothing we can do for Jai-Ying ‘, the world shifts around her and all she can do is fight blindly against Gordon through her tears as he teleports them back to the chaos of the village.

‘Daisy – STOP!’ he shakes her roughly and she’s stunned enough to stop choking on her sobs, ‘I made a promise Daisy – I need to get you and the others to safety. I need you to focus – there’s a safe place we can go but I need your help rounding up the others – they’re your people now too, they trust you – I need you to be strong for them’. His grips tightens around her momentarily as he stalls before whispering;

‘Run’.

A deafening crack echoes over her shoulder and Gordon slumps to the ground in front of her. She doesn’t have space to feel any more betrayal as she turns to find Mack standing with his weapon raised – so she takes Gordon’s final piece of advice and flees.