Chapter 427: Sea of Ink
"You ever see that old movie ’Get Out’? It was kind of like that.
I was living in a world of ink. I was sinking deeper with every passing day, with only a tiny pinhole to view what I was doing and saying. Sometimes I didn’t even have that. Just the memories. The sensations.
I only got to remember what he wanted me to remember. It was sick. Feeling your body blatantly betray you like that, and not being able to stop it. I was in hell. Sometimes I’m afraid that when I sleep I’ll wake up back there."
It had been ages since Joanne had a cigarette. Right now, she would have killed for one.
Maybe if she had a smoke, she would have been able to talk about everything without feeling so weak and pathetic. But she doubted it.
And as she hung her head out the window of Awena’s office, she wished she had a cigarette or even a drink to take the edge off.
But there were many reasons why that wasn’t going to happen.
"Jo..." Awena began. "I am so-"
"Save it." Joanne’s voice was exhausted. Dejected. She couldn’t even stand to look at Awena.
"I realized that’s the reason why I can’t stop hating you. At one point, you were my greatest friend in the world, and you knew everything about me.
I would have thought that... I would have bet everything that you would have been the one to notice how badly I needed help and save me, but... You didn’t.
And then years later, when I was stuck inside of a fucking..." Joanne pushed a breath through her teeth. She didn’t bother to finish the rest of her sentence, but by then, there was very little need.
The angel took a moment to steady herself before turning around.
"Just... help me get the process of getting a school started. After that, we’ll go our separate ways for good. I think that’ll be easiest on both of us, don’t you?"
Awena swiftly denied her.
"N-No! Look, I know that I’ve made some mistakes and I haven’t been there for you like I should have, but I know that we can fix things if we just-"
"Awena... look at me." Joanne held up her arms.
Her eyes were tired and swollen from crying. Her thin frame only made her look even more exhausted.
"You can’t fix this. You can’t fix me. I don’t even think there’s enough left of the person you remember. It’s better if we both just stop torturing each other like this, don’t you think...?"
In the end, after everything she had heard, Awena couldn’t actually force herself to say anything. She no longer felt that she had the right.
Her heart was broken.
All that she could do was nod. And the moment between them was over.
Joanne went back to the window and heaved herself out of it.
She let her body fall through the air for a brief moment and imagined herself letting everything go.
The wind crashing into her seemed to become insignificant. For a moment, she felt like she was at complete peace with letting herself hit the ground.
But then she remembered the entire reason she had come here in the first place. Her wings flapped in response to her resurging will, and she landed delicately on the lawn.
Joanne wasn’t surprised to find a small grey cat sitting outside waiting for her. It’s familiar red stripes put a wry smile on her face.
"...I thought you would have popped up inside or something."
The cat blinked at her before looking away.
"I guess I just didn’t wanna put any pressure on you in case you weren’t ready to talk just yet... Seemed like you needed space when you left the house."
Malachi appeared in the cat’s place.
He walked up to her and took her cheek in his hand. Judging by his eyes alone, it was clear just how worried he was.
Joanne knew she probably didn’t look the best. She couldn’t blame him for being panicked.
"We should go home. You need to eat something."
Joanne didn’t have the strength to refuse him. Even the mention of the word food made her stomach roar.
Besides, she couldn’t afford to neglect herself right now anyway.
But she still had things she wanted a little more than food.
Joanne hugged Malachi tightly and buried her face in his neck. She stayed there for a long time without moving or coming up for air.
Mal didn’t know what Jo had said to Awena inside. He figured that she would tell him when she was ready.
He felt her tighten her grip around his neck. Her words were barely a whisper.
"I, umm... I think I need... help."
Malachi squeezed her back in response. "We’ll get you help. Whatever you need."
"A-And there’s something else too..."
Joanne pulled herself away from Malachi.
He watched her bring a hand to her stomach and his eyes widened in response.
"I’m..."
Kabooooooooommmmmmmm!!!!!
A large explosion shook the building behind them, and multiple waves of fire shot out from the top floors.
Glass, fire, and debris rained down on the front lawn.
Malachi pulled Joanne to the ground and covered her body with his own.
Shadows covered them to protect them from the glass.
"Jo, are you okay?!" Malachi panicked.
Joanne’s behavior just a second ago was seared into his brain. He didn’t know if he was just overthinking things.
But Joanne wasn’t alright. For the third time today, she had tears streaming down her face as she pointed towards the building in flames.
"A-Awena...!"
Malachi’s blood ran cold as he realized exactly why Joanne had come here in the first place.
Shadows rose around him and engulfed the top floor of the building.
The fires were quickly snuffed out without adding any extra weight to what was clearly an unstable structure.
"Serosh!"
Malachi’s great beast lept out of his shadow in its full size. Behind him, an army of various animals made of shadow appeared.
"Sweep the building, get everybody out!"
"A-Awena first!"
The animals were remarkably intelligent.
They jumped through the building windows while Malachi helped pull Joanne back to her feet.
All around, people were coming in from the parking lot, equally panicked to see their workplace on the verge of collapsing.
"W-What happened!?"
"M-My wife! My wife is inside, s-she works on the fifth floor!"
"Everyone stay back!" Malachi roared.
At that moment, the front doors opened and survivors came rushing out.
Some came on their own two feet, others were led by the shadows and a very small few had to be carried.
Joanne wiped her face hard enough to bruise it and stood up.
Gritting her teeth, she separated from Malachi and started giving out her own orders.
"S-Set up an area for triage! Over here!"
The shadows moved to an area far away from the building on the verge of collapse, giving her the opportunity to assess bodies without extra pressure.
But some injuries were worse than what was expected. She wasn’t sure where to go from here.
This was only the first wave of people. More and more of them were going to come out, and she was likely to see more severe injuries with every new wave of victims.
’D-Does that mean..?’
Joanne shook her head hard and stuffed her dread back down into the dark hole it had crawled out of.
Right now, she had to be efficient. She couldn’t allow herself to think about anything else but the job.
A hospital would get slammed if they dropped all of these people at its doorstep at once. They needed another option.
She pointed to different areas on the lawn where the animals could guide the survivors.
"Everyone stay over here until we’ve had someone look at you! Do not go to your cars!"
With sinister timing, a second explosion burst out from the parking lot.
Suddenly, the feeling of dread Joanne had suppressed came creeping back...