Taylor's Trepidations
Chapter Seven
Taylor’s Trepidations
Written By Jedireaper
With Additions written by ShawnMorgan
My eyes snapped open to be met by a claustrophobic darkness. I tried to sit bolt upright, but there was resistance. I could feel the clothing that adorned my body was drenched in what I assumed (and hoped) to be sweat. The nightmares, if you could call them that, were playing over in my mind in a glorious technicolour.
I pushed my left hand forward within the tight and dark confines to be met with some kind of moist, squishy, tacky surface. That could only be adding to the ‘drenched in sweat’ feeling I had. As the thought permeated my mind, my hand penetrated the surprisingly pliable material and pushed through, tearing an opening and spilling in a dim but initially blinding light.
As my eyes were overwhelmed came an all too familiar sense. I could hear them, see them, like a sonar of millions of viewpoints and audio receptors seeing every vibration of movement and sound within my sphere of influence. There was a scream and a clattering sound nearby that reverberated through my network of eyes and feelers, and my own ears. Someone had approached me, and was now running away.
I sat up, pulling myself the rest of the way out of the silken sheath into a large room. My eyes struggled to adjust and my vision slowly cleared.
Where the hell am I? I thought. A hospital? Why? Was I injured? The questions kept coming as I analysed my immediate situation (and lacked context for how it came to be). I don’t remember… Not exactly. Not clearly.
I shuffled my legs over the edge of the semi-cocooned, silk strand laden bed I found myself on, as I spied the floor.
I first put my left foot down to the cold vinyl flooring, briefly hesitating before I followed it with my right, gingerly attempting to stand. As I moved I found my left arm restrained slightly, and I looked down to see a long clear tube that led back up into the mess of silk. I focussed on where the intravenous tubing met my arm, and carefully pulled it out.
Satisfied there were no other attachments, I pushed myself to my feet and stepped out from any support. I immediately lost my balance, as my legs took my weight (or rather they didn’t). I fell forwards, stumbling to the ground. I held my hands up in front of me, in an attempt to brace myself but it was already too late.
*
Maybe I was too numb to truly feel it, or maybe I’d been dazed when my face hit the floor but I spent who knew how many seconds in what I imagined was a fairly unflattering pose, with my face pressed to the side against the cool, clinical and smooth surface. I could see a tray of medical implements, and a clipboard that had clattered to the ground not moments before. My eye’s focussed on the still closing doors, beyond which I could still physically hear the running steps as they grew distant.
Hands? The thought intruded suddenly as if to remind me, striking sharply. I mustered my strength and dragged myself into a sitting position and inspected my two hands, wiggling my fingers, clenching into fists and even going so far as to count each finger. I pinched my newly acquired hand and arm to be sure it was real, and that I wasn’t imagining things. I didn’t see any scarring to indicate surgery, nor did it feel any different from my other arm.
Where once (well twice, actually), there had been a stump of a right arm, I now had a fully regrown appendage. I smiled, and mentally chuckled, briefly elated at the prospect of having two arms again, thinking that Armsmaster would be jealous that his old name might now suit me better. Then all that giddiness was quickly pushed aside and I began taking in everything around me; as well as taking a good hard look at myself. I was wearing a green hospital gown tied at the back, under which I was fairly sure I was naked. It was covered in a sticky substance that I could say for certain was from the cocoon behind me. A human shaped cocoon…. and it was no mystery to work out who had, until recently, occupied it.
The rest of the room seemed dedicated towards medical observation, with equipment for that purpose; one side of the room had a large mirror opposite the bed. I could already see behind it with eyes other than my own, into a room. It was empty and only added more questions about my situation.
Sadly enough, this was rapidly becoming my favourite hospital visit ever; then again it wasn't hard to beat out my three most recent hospital visits (at least the ones I could remember). With a resigned shake of my head I got back to work.
As I carefully stood back up, doing my best to keep balanced, I suddenly had to put my new hand to immediate use (and not because I was about to fall again, but) as a kaleidoscope of sounds began battering all my various senses both attached to me and otherwise. The all too recognisable sound of alarms shrilly pierced the air. I felt dazed and disoriented for a moment, and it took me a few seconds to adjust before I could pull both my hands away from my ears.
I thought I’d have to concentrate to gather up my bugs, but it came to me as smoothly as a thought. I’d even go so far as to say that moving my own limbs by comparison, was slow and sluggish. As bugs of all kinds crawled or flew out from crevices and crevasses, crawling over me, and the room at large. Have I ever experienced this level of connection before, I thought , this speed? It all feels new and different, but the question is, why? It's like my Bug power processing speed has been overclocked but with no Khepri drawback. It was almost like something Panacea might have managed- if she had succeeded.
Shit. Is this her doing? I really fucking hope not.
With that uncomfortable thought still in my mind, I was almost instinctively instructed by thoughts that almost didn’t seem to be my own, as I commanded the small growing swarm to raise me up above the semi-cocooned hospital bed. My thoughts raced with analysis: My bugs are stronger, how can these bugs raise me up like this? These abilities… It’s like I’m super-charged. But I’m in control… Khepri!.. Gone now. I can feel it. But there is something else in its place… someone? It was almost as if there was a voice in my head that seemed not to be my own, but that wasn’t quite correct, not exactly.
Happily enough, it didn’t feel like it was Panacea’s doing either. So, there was that at least. I didn’t give it any more thought, as I could figure it out later. I re-focussed on my situation: I could see nearly everything as my sphere of influence grew. Beyond this room, doctors and nurses, patients and people, and security, and… others? And it was these others that were now rushing towards the room I was in. They were dressed like sophisticated street hoodlums, obviously some kind of gang members, I’d seen enough of those in my life to know one when I saw one.
I guided the tiny minds and influenced their actions as they started creating layers of what would become protective silk, over my body, gaining more complexity in their weave as further layers were added. With the other bugs holding up my legs and covering my arms, I commanded the masses to carry me forward as if they were my own limbs, as I burst into the hallway, held nearly a metre above the floor by spindly buggy appendages. The hallway was pristine and white, lit by overhead lights and a large bright window at the near-end, close to me.
The alarm continued to wail, and I was thankful to now not be overwhelmed by the sensory input, having restricted the information being processed to me, to only what I needed in this instant.
At the other end of the hallway- I saw them before I heard them, the threat. With less effort than it took to think, I sent a wave of spiders at them (with the intent to crawl over and into them), and just as quickly, I obscured myself from them, creating shadowy decoys in the swarm for them to target as their gunshots rang out.
There were five of them, and I moved with my swarm, each decoy easily drawing the aim of the thugs shooting roughly in my direction. Thousands of tiny insect senses alerted me each time they were anywhere on target, as my swarm continued to grow. The connection to my tiny allies' senses were beyond lightning fast: Faster than my enemies could even pull a trigger. I knew as soon as the first spider had crawled up one of the gang member’s sneakers, and under his trouser leg. Bite! I commanded, mentally hissing the word.
The man suddenly and expressively flinched as he noticed the spiders that had started crawling all over him. Panicking, he started trying to flail and stupidly shoot them off of him; his second bullet hit one of his companions in the side, and that was two out of the fight. Not that they could see but I was very much amused by it all.
The remaining three started reacting to this confusion, and began shooting at the spiders nearest them, surrounded as they were from all sides, which assisted my evasion, and their folly. I could tell from the spiders that were already crawling up their legs, and dangling down from the ceiling onto them, that several of them were on the verge of terrified. That terror finally broke when one noticed the spiders crawling over his face. He ran, and his stalwart mates exchanged a very quick look of agreement, and did exactly the same. The three ran screaming down the hallway, away from me, but not my abilities. The first succumbed as I forced the spiders into his mouth, the others from bites now covering their unconscious bodies, guns clattering to the ground.
Now, I thought acidly, this floor of the hospital has one less infestation to deal with. Besides mine that is. I formed a somewhat vulpine smile at the thought.
I was fairly certain I was several storeys above ground level based on both a quick visual look out of the window and my swarm’s awareness. Perhaps a window is a realistic option now?Instead of tearing through the rest of this place. I don’t want to put any innocents in further danger if I can avoid it, I thought. As I lowered myself down to my own two feet, and walked to the window, my bugs parting a way for me. I briefly caught sight of my reflection, and decided that I looked like some kind of Egyptian mummy.
I had hundreds of assorted silk weaving bugs construct me some makeshift armour. I had seen every detail, every stitch as it were, as they’d spun me a meshed fibre suit in the scant minutes since, around my body. From my own research, and research done by others, I knew that the silk covering my body should offer me a tentative level of protection from dangers, and to some degree the elements outside, but I’d need something a bit more substantial.
After a quick search of the fairly deserted hospital floor, it didn’t take my bugs (or my own eyes) long to locate what I needed, and minutes later I had moved (dragged, really) an oxygen cylinder and placed it by the window. I’d also retrieved one of the pistols from where it had been dropped (along with a pair of sneakers that were close enough to my size, and a somewhat garishly purple hooded jacket, and sweatpants). The gun was heavy, very heavy, it weighed over four pounds at a guess. A Desert Eagle, in brushed metal gold finish. How very droll.
*
There was a loud ear deafening bang, as the window shattered outwards from the minor concussive blast that hit it. I felt the cold air gush into the hallway from outside, clearing the chaff in the air, and I almost retreated into my ill fitting, commandeered clothing (when I’d tried zipping up the jacket I’d discovered it was slightly too small). I stepped out from cover, and moved to where the window had been, stepping over the lip and onto a foot wide ledge in the open air on the side of the red brick building. My spiders and other bugs followed, not that I was giving them much choice; I was eager to test out the limits of these new abilities, and would have to do so on the fly (and no, the irony of those words were not lost on me).
Once again, and with no more thought than what I’d use for my own limbs, I manipulated the swarm, and they once again raised me up, something that should have been beyond them, and was not. This was very curious.
I felt the frigid air as I was held high above the ground, and was glad for the insulation I had garnered. I imagined that, were it not the middle of winter where I was, the swarm would be three times the size and twice as deadly; and who knows what else, because in the here-and-now I didn’t seem to recognise my seemingly newfound abilities. Did I hit my head harder than I thought or is this all some kind of drug addled hallucination? I considered my position as I surveilled the city.
Now that my vision wasn’t restricted to a window, I recognised some of the buildings from Television (not that I’d seen a lot of it, being more of a bookworm), especially those structures in the distance and in particular what I could only guess was the Empire State Building. Huh, is this New York City? Then that would make this Manhattan Island.
Several storeys below, police had been screeching to a halt as they arrived. In the busy street, about a dozen or so officers were ogling what, from their perspective, looked like a mass of bugs coming down the side of the building. They didn’t know that I was hidden within; and I could hear more sirens meaning more police were on the way.
On the opposite side of the road was an expansive and frost covered park, filled with leafless trees, and grass. The park I could see wasn’t absolutely massive, so probably not Central Park, though I could sense that it wasn’t too far away. In my purview of bugs I could tell that the park below was mostly empty of people, given the bitter cold that didn’t surprise me: It would be a good immediate source for my bugs , I thought. But how do I get there ?
As my mind explored that question, I continued my descent, slowly lowering myself down the side of the building. Ledge-by-ledge, my bugs supporting my every thought, carefully doing nearly all the grunt work, leaving some silvery trails in their wake.
My network picked up something that drew my attention and it was then I saw them; a slim woman with dark hair, and a dark, possibly leather, jacket, careening through the air towards me, carrying a hulking man in much lighter coloured clothing, contrasting his darker skin. If these were capes, I didn't recognise them.
Within seconds I watched as the woman released her payload of a man, and she herself had started unceremoniously dropping, as the man continued his trajectory towards me. He landed, and I felt the vibrations through my wall connected insects, and heard the crunch, as he gained purchase on the wall of the building right in front of me.
I also heard a clattering below and the woman cursing.
There wasn’t any time to evade, so I quickly threw a defensive mass of bugs at him, a cloud of all sorts of insects to keep him occupied, and then I dropped a couple of feet to the ledge below, my swarm dropping with me, and keeping me obscured. I kept my balance, and I widened my stance as best I could, but he must have heard me drop. His fist was fast, as it journeyed, seemingly a blind throw on his part, but aimed perfectly at me. I could feel the critters blinking out of existence as his fist travelled through them. I had nowhere to go unless I wanted to go straight down…
I watched as if in slow motion, the fist slamming into my chest, and I was briefly thankful for the silken layer that helped absorb much of the impact, but it still had one hell of an impact. And I was still subject to the laws of physics.
*
That powerful punch was enough to both momentarily shatter the influence I had over my bugs, and send me sailing through the air. For a brief moment I was sure I could see a visible shockwave in the air itself. I felt the rush of cold air through the thin fabric on my chest, where the fresh silken layer had been torn away; I was facing away from the ground and I could tell it was coming up fast. I tried, in the few seconds I had before I’d meet the ground, to gather my bugs in an attempt to arrest my descent.
It was then that I could feel strong arms under me, and my fall slowed to a gentle stop, before I was suddenly, and unexpectedly, dumped unceremoniously onto some grass.
My rescuer landed before me; I saw her in my peripheral vision, unsteadily dropping to her feet, leaving her in a somewhat awkward looking pose. I looked up into her face, recognising the flying woman from earlier. Her expression betrayed her discomfort, under her dark hair, even as she appeared to mask it. The woman steadied herself, before looking down at me. She may have noticed the spiders crawling all over me, though, they were far less in number than before I was punched off the building, and that could definitely explain why she just dumped me to the ground. Maybe she has a phobia of bugs? I thought. Most people do.
And according to Clockblocker (aka smartass): Anyone who's ever met me.
I had so many questions whirring through my mind, from wondering what kind of capes these were, to why I didn’t recognise them. Even with my weird mental state, my cape geekery alone should have given me some kind of clue to the New York cape scene. Add my training and research whilst I had been a member of the Chicago Wards and I really should have had some idea. I stared back up at the large blocky red brick building, with the signage of “Harlem East General Hospital”. At least it confirmed my earlier suspicion that I was in New York.
But what if it wasn’t my New York? I mean how could it be, it was devastated. Could this be Earth Aleph? …Possibly but it doesn’t feel like it…
As I considered where I was, I also considered how I got here. I had vague memories of what happened before, with the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand, the golden bastard, Khepri etc. So… how did I end up here? As I reached for those memories that logically should be there, it was as if a veil was suddenly drawn over them, blinding me to them. That perception was perplexing in and of itself.
I refocused; I had more immediate concerns.
“You’re just a kid.” My eyes locked onto the face of the woman standing before me, as she spoke, a mixture of concern, and curiosity evident in both her voice and expression.
A kid? I thought insipidly, as I was sure my eyes widened, and I also realised my face was partially visible, I’ll show you kid.
Like a combustion engine spinning up, my mind was a whirr of commands connected to my network of bugs and they did my bidding effortlessly. Spiders crawled all over me, filling in the rip in my silk covering, also covering my face; and now that I was on ground level there were even more of my minions to call upon. I said nothing as I stared blankly at her.
The woman seemed at first horrified by what was happening to me, then she reacted to the spider in her own hair; I watched as she swiped it away and then saw her realise that she was surrounded by insects, spiders, and bugs of all kinds. With a mixed expression of distaste and confusion, she then jumped backwards, carrying herself further with a somewhat superpowered glide, which gave her more distance from the swarm (and me).
I picked myself up, and faced the leather jacket clad female, as her hulk of a boyfriend landed with quite the thud on the ground just behind her. With strong strides, she started back towards me.
I watched as she then began to falter, the ground around her was filling with spiders, ants, and other insects . I watched as she started backing up, swiping at the spiders crawling up her legs, causing her to subsequently lose her footing, trip, and fall backwards. I continued my assault upon her, and seconds later she winced and I could plainly see the pained look that crossed her face.
“Fuck!” I heard her exclaim; I then watched as she winced even more visibly and then curled herself up into what I surmised was a defensive ball, trying to most likely shield herself, and partially because of the excruciating pain she was experiencing from her multiple spider bites. And unless she was one of the rare few that had serious allergies etc, she would live. And learn not to fucking underestimate me.
“Jess!” I heard the big guy exclaim, and watched as he ran over to the fallen woman’s side. With his attention occupied on ‘ Jess’ for now, I raised an army of assorted winged insects, calling on the vast population that resided in the New York park and the buildings around it. I immediately put a small portion of my flying insects to use, creating loose, buzzing, angry sounding blockades at the entries to the park, hopefully keeping any foolhardy police officers, or foolish civilians, at bay. As my forces grew exponentially I had groups of insects buzzing the onlookers, causing a little chaos for the cops to deal with, and to ward any civilians away from potential danger.
I kept enough of my focus on the hulking black man cradling ‘Jess’ with just one muscular arm , while using his free hand to brush away and squash the insects that had been on them both at that moment. It didn’t matter to me, so long as they kept them occupied and out of my way long enough for me to get away. I needed to be smart about this, I already knew the park was being rapidly surrounded by nervous police and I’d already had my lifetime’s fill of adventures with nervous law enforcement -even when I was on the same side.
I wasted little time and started in the opposite direction, away from the pair, aiming to be deeper within the park at the very least… but I needed a way out, and I smiled, knowing that it wouldn’t take me too long to find one. My network of bugs gave me plenty of options for escape, and I ran through the list rapidly, selecting the most promising one, and one which was the easiest to reach. It was an uncovered manhole, leading down into the sewers below, the entrance of which was surrounded by utility equipment and barriers, all of which were several dozens of metres away from me. In the back of my mind, I kept up my attack against the guy that had punched me off the building minutes ago, and made for my intended exit.
I had briefly considered leaving the couple of capes in their current state, and my mind was a jumble of possible outcomes. The decision I came to I would later regret, but in the moment I felt I had little choice as they would see where I was going and possibly be able to give chase, and I didn’t want to be followed, not if I could help it.
I formed my forces as it were and gave the tiny troops their orders… well, only in so far as mind-fucking insects to carry out my will were orders. At my behest, the thousands of insects started aggressively attacking the big guy, by wing or by leg, with stinger or with fang, but he didn’t seem fazed by them. The way that attempted bites and stings slid off him like rain slid off others, clued me to an intriguing, if exasperating discovery: His skin seemed impenetrable. In the same moment, as I had earlier in the hospital to confuse the goons with bigger guns than brains, I again created clouds of insects which formed silhouettes in an attempt to hide my movements.
I was making a beeline (sweet irony), and I had only covered a few metres (and several seconds) when I sensed a new mind enter my purview. This mind was not an insect, but I was connected to it anyhow, and while it wasn’t one I could control there was niggling familiarity to it. I could almost see through his eyes and inside his head, and I seemed to trigger some kind of defensive mechanism as he fast approached: A buzzing, in my head, that seemed to get louder as he got nearer, and his mind seemingly, as a consequence, got darker to me.
Fuck!! I thought, I’m drawing more capes, and way too much attention. And why the hell does this feel familiar? It’s almost like I know them from a dream… Or maybe a nightmare?
I then felt it through my hive of insectoid minds, before I saw it with my own eyes, as a shower of white sticky webbing-like fluid flew over my head, coating the ground around me and covering my swarms.
I stopped, turning as the new arrival swung over me, some of the webbing had landed on my own silken strand sheath. To my chagrin, as I tried to pull it away (along with tearing away my own impromptu armour), the fluid strengthened very quickly (reminiscent of containment foam), and whilst pliable, was strong. The webbing had cleared a path between myself and the pair I had been attacking, sticking down all my bugs.
I immediately set about recalling my flyers from the entrances of the park (it would take them minutes and not the seconds I preciously needed), and I could feel all the insects and arachnids around me struggling but very stuck in place. It was then that I noticed (since it had quietened down, and there now wasn’t a wave of obscuring bugs in our way), that the powerful man, cradling his rather limp companion, was looking straight at me. I could see the rage writ clear across his face, and his eyes were transfixed on me; his gaze didn’t waver as the red and blue clad webslinger hero-landed next to him. They seemed to exchange a few brief words, but they were difficult to make out, so I braced for an attack from the webslinger. Somehow, I could sense his thoughts, he was angry (though perhaps not as angry as the big man in the lemon coloured shirt), and taking me down was certainly what he wanted to do.
I had just enough time to appreciate the fact that Spider-Man’s attack hadn’t come, as he turned and hastily zipped away, carrying Jess . This action removed any distractions for the lemon shirted man, and he was now heading straight for me. I started backing away trying to avoid stepping on the webs covering the ground, but he was ploughing right through them, and his larger frame was surprisingly covering the distance faster than I.
My returning swarm began to trickle in piecemeal, forming less opaque clouds and crowds of insects in the air and on the ground around us. I put them to work on forming as many barriers (if you could call them that) between myself and the approaching threat, as my soldiers once more steadily, if slowly, grew in number. I focussed on my foot placement as I moved deftly, avoiding the webs that could potentially ensnare me, or trip me up. I could sense (and see) my opponent; and he was even closer than I’d have given him credit for. I still didn’t have enough minions at my immediate disposal to form the inky shadows of bugs I had used earlier, not yet anyway. Till then, (not that I planned to still be here by then) I would just have to power through.
I sent what attacks I could form, which was getting easier by the second, but they had little effect. He pushed through the angry insects that were buzzing around him, heading straight for me, unfazed by the no doubt multiples of stings and bites he must have been receiving at that moment.
I didn’t know the makeup of these capes, or whether indeed they were capes; hell, for all I knew they were enforcers for whomever kept me in the hospital, but given that I didn’t personally know, I had to do my utmost to keep lethality off my menu of responses. That, however, wasn’t the only thing keeping such an option off the table. Somewhere in the back of my mind, niggling at me, it was almost as if I knew them, maybe perhaps I’d seen them during my time in the hospital, could have been a subconscious thing, but it was there, whether it be a good or bad thing- that would have to remain to be seen.
He was close now, mere feet from me, as I finally jumped, hopped, somersaulted, and skipped my way out of the webbing. I was damned lucky that it had been spread thin. I could tell that had it been focussed solely on me, I would have been in real trouble. I smiled as I spied my exit, now closer, however, my brief elation of being clear of the web-field was short lived as the big guy was upon me.
He wasted little time in his attacks, and I wasted even less time in dodging, as the fury of the assault that came with him surprised me with its speed and finesse. I used my silken suit to partially absorb and deflect the just about glancing blows when they connected, as I nimbly dodged and twisted, using my momentum to avoid the majority of his attacks.
As good as I was, he seemed to have a greater reach and some amount of experience on his side. I was winded and barely catching my breath; I ducked, dived, and deflected his neatly controlled punches. It hurt. I was on the ropes as it were, being driven backwards, which was fine by me, as it was the direction I wanted to go but I needed to get away. I needed to create space between us; and I needed to do it before his web-lined friend returned to join the fray.
I steadied myself, and called on the bugs at my command, and aped a threat-less and seemingly (to him) pointless punch in his direction, which would come nowhere near him, and he could very easily dodge; indeed, I studied his almost perplexed expression as he watched my fist sail through the air. I could almost imagine what must be going through his mind at this moment.
Thousands of my flying insects charged into the side of his head with an almost pinpoint preciseness, in a crude copy of my arm movement, simulating the punch I had thrown. Only, this one connected. I watched the look of surprise spread like the bugs across his face. My hope was that he’d be thrown off balance at least.
He seemed to stagger back a few steps, throwing up his arm to shield himself from the onslaught, as he used his free hand to wipe his buggy-bits covered face. He glared at me between the layer of smeared bugs, and I returned his look. If I couldn’t shake him off soon, it would be over.
As much as my training and instincts had flooded back, I could tell I was fighting someone seasoned by his years. I braced as he brought his fist back as if readying a punch, and I got ready to roll with it, using my own experience of desperate years.
I was taken off guard when instead of launching another punch, he slammed his hands together. The concussive force created, took me by surprise, and sent me sprawling backwards. I felt a whole load of my insects go dark in that instant.
He’s got me, I thought, even whilst I rolled desperately to my feet. My thoughts were a racing jumble of actions and inactions, and I watched him as he swiped bugs away and just kept coming. I did what I could, throwing up ever thinning swarms of bugs, stinging him, biting him, trying to crawl into his mouth, eyes, anything, but no, nothing was getting through, he just kept coming.
His attacks were ferocious, intense, almost like a well trained boxer, just one that had stepped out of those nineteen-seventies car chase films, unaltered by time. I’d have appreciated his dress sense more but I had to get away. I deftly dodged and deflected blows as I fell back, and I could see in his eyes that he knew the same thing I did: This was it. I was now mere feet from the manhole, but he was too close for me to use it.
It was then that I was knocked back from what I assumed to be his attack, but I wasn’t punched (not by him anyway, from what I could tell). Whatever had just happened, I lost my footing and I fell. It must have been twelve, or fifteen feet down through the manhole, where I landed in an inch of sludge, and my feet slipped out from under me. Less than a second later I was splashed with sewer water. I stole a glance back up to the round brightness of day above, and then wasted no time picking myself up and fled into the darkness ahead.
Have I actually got away? Maybe old habits really do die hard…
* * *
Aisha blinked as she shoved Taylor aside, and faced the Harlem Avenger, there was a thunder crack and a ringing in her ears. She felt weightless, as her vision seemed to blur and the world rushed past her. Things went white, then dark, she never felt herself hit the bottom, but she blinked and she was just there staring up at the bright disc of sky. Aisha now experienced a different kind of falling: In and out of consciousness.
It was as though time was skipping with every blink of her eyes. She saw her body half buried in sludge, she saw the legs of her friend as she ran into the darkness, then she saw police officers. It could have been seconds, minutes, or even hours, she wasn’t noticed and the irony wasn’t lost on her: This time was the one time that she really wanted to be noticed but no one came. She couldn’t call out, she couldn’t move, and kept falling in and out of the darkness of her mind.
Crap.