"Susan!" Jack roared, his voice raw with disbelief and rage.
His vision was a bit obscured by dust and falling rocks.
He stared at Susan's body left on the side of the road, devoid of life.
Cole, still in his arms, was frozen, his face a mask of horror.
Susan's time-warping power snapped back and disappeared as if it had never been there.
No, no, no, no! Jack's emotions were a chaotic storm.
Forgetting about the lolita villain... He ran closer to Susan's body.
Turning Cole's head away, shielding him from the sight.
The boy was shaking, sobbing.
Jack could smell the acrid fumes, his ears ringing from the residual energy.
He knelt before Susan's body, Cole clutched tightly in his arms.
"Mom..." the boy struggled, but Jack held him firm.
He stared at Susan's lifeless eyes, feeling his own energy drain away.
No... no... nooo...
Why do you still look so old?
Jack still ask.. Did you have a hard life?
His mind was a blank slate as he look at Susan, save for the constant, futile denial.
He wanted to scream, to rage, to tear the world apart.
Jack wanted to laugh, a hollow, broken sound. He was losing his mind.
He felt the world suddenly spinning.. making him dizzy.
Thud.
His body dropped to the ground, with Cole crying beneath him.
Everything faded. The world dissolved into a featureless white void.
The smell from the real world still lingers in his nose.
A strange, voiceless words echoed around him.
What do you want to create?
"Ha... ha... hahahahahahah," he laughed as he get up from his lying position and kneel.
The sound echoing in the void, devoid of joy.
The sudden dizziness was gone.
He looked at the floating words.
What do you want to create?
For a while, he just knelt there, lost and numb.
His laughter gradually faded into silence. "Useless power," he muttered.
Yes, useless. Why is my power a dream?
It's truly useless. Useless to someone like him.
Useless.. Useless.. Useless.. Useless.. Useless..
Useless... like that time when his brother, Cole, died.
The box he had locked so tight suddenly burst, releasing a torrent of fragmented memories.
The white void, now a murky gray clouding his sight, was coloring his vision.
He was useless as he stared at the collapsing house, crushing his brother.
The young kid hadn't survived.
He could still hear the abrupt end of Cole's scream, it was cut short like he hadn't scream in the first place.. like his fragile life.. it was cut short too soon.. useless..
Susan should have been there! She was the only one with awakened powers.
Their adopted parents' powers were about deception and perspective, mental powers...
Useless in battles...useless parents.
Susan should have been there.
She was the only one who could have stopped time, given Cole a chance to escape the house, but instead, she ran.
He remembered seeing her run, her eyes filled with regret. Or was it?
But now that I think about it, I don't think she knew Cole was trapped inside.
It all happened so fast.
Too fast... and it's been too long.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Jack wondered if his recollections of the past were accurate. Useless...
He covered his eyes with his hands, blocking out the painful memories that threatened to overwhelm him.
He'd locked those memories and emotions away for ten years.
His memories were unreliable, distorted by time and his own youthful perspective.
He may have forgotten or embellished details.
His hands then fell from his face, only to grasp his hair.
He wanted to rip it out.. Useless..
Gripping his hair now, his knuckle, white with tension, he held on to what remained of his sanity.
Could he truly remember the dust-choked air, the taste of ash on his tongue, from ten years ago?
The collapsing house, a slow-motion nightmare, remained vivid.
But his useless small hands, clenched into fists, unable to stop the inevitable—did that really happen? he clenched his fist.
He remembered carrying Cole on his back though... 'Jack...'
Their adoptive parents' voices, a cacophony of greed and anger. Susan, running, her torn dress a blur against the smoke-filled sky. 'Jack.....'
He remembered her face, contorted in grief, but was it grief? Or was it fear? Or regret?
Jack couldn't be sure. His memories were a tangled mess, a broken mirror reflecting shattered pieces of the past. 'Jack....!'
The feel of Cole's small hand in his, the weight of the ragdoll Susan bought him, the ragdoll that looked more like Cole than Cole did. 'Jack!'
The slap of his adoptive father's hand against Susan's face.
The words from his adoptive mother, selling Susan to a perverted man. The feeling of pure rage.
"JACK!"
"They were going to sell her," he said, his voice flat. "Like she was nothing."
"Did she know?" he asked the empty void, his voice cracking. "Did she know Cole was still inside?"
The sound of his own voice brought him back to the present...
Making a bit of clarity to his tumultuous mental breakdown.
The answer came instantly. No. She couldn't have known.
If she had, Susan would have saved Cole.
They were close. And he knew she genuinely loved them as siblings.
The evidence was staring him in the face: the name of her son, the sincerity of her tears and embrace.
The words flickered again:
What do you want to create?
Or was everything too much, that she simply didn't care anymore?
Jack tried to deny it, even now, in his memories.
He always blamed Susan and their adoptive parents. But most importantly, he blamed his useless self...
Jack imagined putting all the memories back in the box.
What do you want to create? The floating words flickered.
Shut the box close. I'm gonna use a chain this time....
What do I want to create?
Can it bring people back to life? But he can only create non living things here... or can he?
He wasn't done hating Susan, or himself. And what about Cole?
Susan's son?
Suddenly, Jack stood up.
Shit. How long have I been stupidly wallowing in my drama here.
I have to get out! We have to run!
But first...
Jack whipped his head towards the floating words. His mind clearing a bit...Then a question formed in his mind..
.....
"How about Toothless? The dragon I just watched?"
