Day 27: Haunted Skyhook

“I can do this,” Dark Glimmer said as she kicked the abdomen of another of Amberbourne’s thrall. She didn’t pause to protest Control’s directive further. Instead, she ducked beneath the incoming punch of another thrall. Diving forward, she rolled between the pair, searching for a pocket, any space to regroup and appraise her situation fully.

“No, you can’t,” Control’s voice snipped in her ear.

Dark Glimmer raised her hands falling into a fighting stance as she saw the dozens of men and women moving toward her. Control may have a point, but she didn’t have to like it or accept his appraisal. “Give me a chance. Don’t pull me out now.” She glanced sideways, as if looking toward the earpiece would help bring Control bring him around to her point of view.

“I don’t need to lose you on this mission too. Get to the roof now.”

Dark Glimmer ground her teeth. Lunging forward, her fist connected with the knee of her nearest assailant, and she dropped him to the ground. But left her back open.

A knee slammed into her back dropping her. She fell into a roll and surged forward. She rose, ready to protest to Control again when more thralls intercepted her path. Too many. She’d never get through this.

Frustration tore out of her in a soft cry, and Dark Glimmer twisted and turned heading back to the staircase she had entered by. Damn control for being right. The number of people between her and the stairs was minimal, and she broke into a run weaving between them. They’d forcused on preventing her from entering the interior, but they weren’t in any position to prevent her withdrawal.

She thought the intelligence had been good. She’d thought Amberbourne had made a mistake and left an opening. She thought she could do this.

Dark Glimmer had been wrong.

She heard the thralls on the stairs chasing after her, but she didn’t stop. Didn’t pause. Couldn’t pause. Couldn’t let herself think. Not of what was behind. Nor what would lie before her. She just had to go.

Bursting onto the roof, she looked at the sky. Control’s plane wasn’t insight yet. Her extraction. Her mark of failure.

Swallowing, she turned back toward the stairs and the thralls who started spilling out. Dark Glimmer stepped backwards, taking advantage of the space. She thrust her arms open wide and brought them together in front of her, slamming them together with a thunderous clap.

A wall of dark light spilled out from her hands spreading before her. The light washed over the thralls, and they cried out and dropped to the ground. They clutched their eyes.

That would buy her a minute. Glancing up, she saw the plane in the distance. A minute was all she needed.

More thralls emerged from the stairs and Dark Glimmer backed away, engaging those who approached. Punching, kicking, spinning, she threw them to the ground. Anything to buy her the few moments she needed.

She lunged toward one thrall, whose eyes widened as she stared at dark glimmer. She leaped off the back of another to strike the woman from above. Inches from connecting, Dark Glimmer felt a force grab her back and yank her backwards and away from the compound. Control had control extracted her.

Dark Glimmer closed her eyes against what she knew would come next.

“You just had to call for help, didn’t you?” a voice said accusingly in her ear. Opening her eyes, Dark Glimmer gasped, staring at Earth Bolt. He floated in the air next to her, incorporeal and untangle, but there.

“I didn’t ask for this.” she whispered looking at him. Dark Glimmer couldn’t tell if she meant she hadn’t asked Control to withdraw her, him appearing next to her, or his death in the first place.

“But you still did it.” His accusation rang just as unclear as her denial. Dark Glimmer closed her eyes again, telling herself the voice was not real.

A lie.

She knew her powers. She blinded people with darkness, but if she retreated in that moment of reprieve they were always there. The ones she had known. The ones she had failed. They were there.

He was there.

Opening her eyes, Dark Glimmer stared at him and felt tears hit her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry, you can’t even avenge me.” His face tightened, anger twisting his features.

Dark Glimmer swallowed but couldn’t close her eyes again. She knew he was there, but she didn’t know if it was him or an angry echo of her own mind at her failures. Whichever created him was just as real as the voice haunting her.

As the hook drew her slowly up to the plane, they were there every time. Haunting her. Clenching her jaw, Dark Glimmer stared at him and took his words. She had survived. She owed him at least this. Next time, she wouldn’t retreat.