Chapter Text
Fuck. This isn’t how this was supposed to go. Five years. I knew they’d never let us walk away clean. But… No. I knew it. But I slipped. I made one mistake. I ruined his chance, I should have stayed focused. I lost control of myself, I shouldn't have let the joy consume me. Now I’m back-to-back with a twelve-year-old, surrounded by killers with everything to lose. I need to get him out of this, I need him to stay safe.
How the hell did it come to this?
Everything hurts. My skin feels like it’s boiling off my bones, bubbling, splitting, something thick and wrong oozing between layers that don’t belong together. Why can’t I see?
I try to open my eyes. But I can’t. It feels like fingers are pressing into them. Forcing them shut. My lungs seize. I try to inhale and choke on something wet and heavy.
What
Where
WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?
There’s liquid everywhere. Inside my nose. My mouth. My ears. It fills me. It drags me down. I try to kick, but my body doesn’t answer. It’s like I’m wearing myself wrong.
Why can’t I get up?
Get up.
GET UP.
Sound rips out of me, feral, broken, not human. I let out a shrieking scream, as my jaws falls down. I explode upward through the surface choking, gasping, clawing at the air like it might disappear too. Then the air starts to stab every part of me that escaped the clutches of the liquid.
I ripped my eyes open. Light, or darkness, I can’t tell. Everything is green. Blinding. My skull feels like it’s cracking from the inside, like my brain is slamming against bone trying to escape. My body was rejecting itself. My skin was trying to peel away from my muscles and bones. It hurts, oh my God it all hurts. My nerves are on fire. My skin crawls, tightening and peeling all at once.
My legs buckle.
They don’t feel like mine. Cracking against the weight of my heavy head. They start to splinter under me and I crash back down, barely catching myself on shaking hands.
No. No, no, no. Not again.
I’m on all fours in the pit, the liquid clinging to me, trying to pull me completely under like it’s hungry. My eyes were burning from the liquid. I used all of my strength, pushing through the hard concrete liquid surface of the pool. The air burns worse than the water. I cough and something thick spills from my mouth.
Breathe. Just breathe.
I threw my arms up from the liquid. Trying to grab something, anything but there was nothing but sharp air.
Take a step, please take a step.
I force one foot forward. It feels like I’m dragging chains. My eyes burn, but shapes start to sharpen beyond the green haze.
People. There are people watching me! Watching.
I push my foot through the pool, trying to get closer to the people. I try to speak. To ask for help. But I realize my jaw had been hanging open the whole time. All I could manage was an agonizing grunt. My throat is raw. I can’t close my mouth. I can’t form words.
Why aren’t they moving?
PLEASE.
PLEASE HELP ME.
I lurch forward again, nearly slipping. A woman in the distance moves toward me, she had high cheekbones, sharp nose, dark green eyes. Long brown hair.
She looks familiar.
Yes. Yes! Help me!
Hope claws its way up my chest. Then a man steps in front of her. Tall. Imposing. Green eyes colder than the pit itself. Black hair, long mustache. He shakes his head, slow. Final.
No emotion. No mercy.
He watches me like I’m a specimen.
Like I’m already dead.
My foot slips. I’m going back in. And this time I won’t fight it.
The air stabs at my lungs. The water tugs at my legs. I don’t know which one hurts worse. All I wanted was a hand. Just one hand.
But then I fall.
The green swallows me whole.
Darkness presses in from every side, thick, endless. My body sinks. My mind starts to shred. Somewhere in the void, laughter echoes. High. Mocking. Familiar.
It digs into my skull like a knife.
Rage ignites, sudden and violent. It burns through the pain. Through the fear.
Then
“Bruce?”
The name floats through the dark like a ghost.
The fire in my skin fades. Warmth spreads through me. Gentle. Almost soft.
Is this heaven?
Is this peace?
For one fragile second, I let myself believe it.
Then the warmth vanishes.
Cold isolation slams into me. I’m alone. I’m drowning again. Almost like it's meant to be. Am I meant to die alone?
No.
NO.
Fuck this.
I thrash upward, shoving against the liquid, against the weight, against the world itself. I cough and choke and scream without sound. My body tears itself free inch by inch.
One step.
Another.
My hands slam against something solid.
The edge.
I drag my arms upward until my fingers scrape dry stone. Real. Solid.
I gather what’s left of me and throw myself over the side with a scream that feels like it rips my soul in half. I collapse onto cold ground.
Air bites at my skin. My body trembles violently. Every nerve is screaming, but I’m out. I’m out.
I lift my head just enough to see her again, the woman with green eyes looking down at me. Not cruel. Not kind. Just measuring.
She looks familiar.
My vision fades at the edges.
I did it.
I’m safe.
I’m out.
I’m done.
…Right?