Storm POV

There's screaming as we approach the doorway of the building. An old run down assortment of concrete blocks and a door. A old rickety dust and plant coated shabby square piece hut that my best friend's screams are echoing out of. 

"LEIF! HANG IN THERE!" I holler, already running into the building.

"Wait up! STOP!" Pax yells after me. "It could be dangerous!"

"THEY'RE HURTING HER!" I don't stop running to scream my logic. "CAN'T YOU HEAR THAT??!"

Saurus, Swift and Pax try to keep up and I streak down the corridors, skidding and slipping against the floors and walls, a frantic chase to locate her from her cries.

What the hell are they doing to her?? How could they possibly do ANYTHING to a kid to make her shriek like that?!

I feel my face flush with heat and rage as I hear her pained cries. I'm so ready to bash their skulls in. I swear I'll grab their tongues and flip them inside out with a crowbar.

I ram open the doors and tumble into a room, coming face to face with Ginn, Kick, that girl and Sward.

And most importantly, I find Leif, on the ground in a spill of red flowers.

~~~

Kick POV

I know Ginn was nothing good and an immoral criminal, and I know pledging him my services to work with Sonya could only mean I had sold my soul to a demon. But torturing.. beating up a defenceless child? I could not have mentally prepared myself for it.

"I'm so.. so sorry.." I stammer.

But I've failed my sister, and because of my carelessness, my mistakes, she's been subjected to this kind of life. Raised by a monster who no doubt must be trying to make her one too. But if becoming one by her side is the only chance I get to be with her again.. and make sure she's safe..

God, I'm so sorry. I know if there's a hell in the afterlife I'm going straight down.

It would be less painful if I went with my fists.. but thinking about extending her suffering would be another layer of cruelty. So I steel myself and give her a swiping kick to the side of her head. She yelps and tears her hair from Ginn's grip, hitting her head hard against the floor. Red petals form where blood should, and I can hear the pain in her breathing.

I stomp down on her stomach, heating my boots up with restrained flames, crushing her gut with sizzling metal. Her eruption of screams and sputtering pleas cause me to cringe as much as the act itself. This is so wrong.. it's so wrong.

"Wow, you jumped into the role quick." Ginn sneers. 

I'm confused by the change in his tone, his facial expression from what is not concealed is very different from what I've seen from him most of the time we've interacted. It's unsettling.

"Sonya, mind helping?" 

Sonya gives less hesitation in accepting his invite and extends her palm to Leif's face, releasing a rippling wave of sound. The child's voice quivers and gargles, head quaking as the force no doubt has her muscles in rapid spasms. 

I don't know what is more chilling. Seeing Leif be brutalised to this extent, being involved in this, or seeing how unbothered Sonya is to this. I think all these things individually are enough to turn my stomach. And together as one package, they completely twist my insides.

Just what has Ginn done to my baby sister? And what is he willing to do to this poor child?

"Isn't this enough?" I don't realize until I speak that my voice has become a pitch higher.

Ginn bends over slightly to look at Leif's pitiful face of streaming petals. "Hm.. Not quite yet, no."

He reaches out a hand to her face, holding her chin up as if checking out a piece of livestock. "I mean.. don't get me wrong we're definitely quite close."

Stop touching her like that.. like she's not a living breathing person.. Like she's some toy.

I don't know if she's even fully conscious anymore. I hope not. Her eyes are unresponsive and roll in her head like a rag doll. Can she still feel the pain?

It only hits me now that we're beating a child to death.

Oh God.

Ginn lets go of her, watching her head fall back to the floor, cracking against its surface. My skin writhes in pricks and chills. Oh God I'm killing a child. I'm actively involved in the.. the murder of a CHILD. 

What were the chances that the same fate could have befallen Zoey- Sonya when she was younger and out of my reach??

I cant.. I don't know what to do. I know I should be stopping them, I should be bursting out of here with Leif in my arms, bolting toward the nearest hospital or healer. But like the coward I am, I'm bolted stiff to the spot. 

"Go on, Kick." Ginn prompted. "Let's try to get this done with. The sooner the better, right?"

I hope my eyes don't betray my disgust and inner pleading for him to just stop this whole thing. I drop my gaze and end up staring at Leif's. 

My disgust retargets again towards myself. This.. is all I amounted to. There is no going back on what I've done or denying my responsibility in these events that have unfolded. All I can do is try to make it right the best possible way I can..

I lift my boot above her head, charging it with heat. "I'm so sorry.." 

The door bursts open and Storm tumbles in. 

"GET YOUR UGLY ASSES AWAY FROM-" Storm halts to take a proper glance at Leif's condition. "LEIF!"

I feel like a child whose been caught dissecting an animal by his mother. But to a greater more graver extent. 

Before anything can be done, the room is drowned in a flashing light. My nerves are lit on fire as a jolt passes through me, throwing me to the far corner of the room. My vision flickers with white as my eyes readjust to the dimness of my surroundings. 

Static sizzles across my skin and I lay where I landed, stunned. I see the silhouette of what I think is Storm rush over to Leif. Ginn and Sonya too have been repelled far away, both immobilised like me. 

I manage to regain the twitching movement of my fingers, control spreading back across my arms and legs. I slowly climb back onto my feet, ears still ringing. 

More people pour into the room. 

"LEIF! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Storm shrieks, shaking her blood soaked friend with a ferocity that scares me. I want to step in and tell her to stop shaking her like that lest she wound her further, but I fear becoming the focus of her anger. 

The room flashes again and I flinch, already anticipating being shocked again. But I don't feel another wave of pain and instead I hear the "bang". Now Storm is on the ground and blood spreads across her torso. 

"STORM!" The dino kid reaches out to her before Ginn opens fire again. The bullet eats into the concrete wall inches before him, causing him to scream in terror and shrink back. 

"Oh come on. Why'd you have to barge in when we're so close??" Ginn laments. "Now Ginn's gonna hav- I'm gonna have to do this more messily!" 

If Ginn's ever spoken in third person before, I wouldn't know. I look towards Sonya for any reaction to his slip up but she just looks uncomfortable. Does she know something..?

"Saurus! Storm! Get back here!" The medic lady pulls them back to the cover of outside to hopefully avoid being shot at again. 

"Sonya, get your-" Ginn pauses mid sentence as a pale girl steps forward, a long orange scarf trailing behind her.

"Swift? Get down! He has a gun!" The medic calls out. 

The new girl ignores her warning and leans over to scoop Leif up into her arms, her eyes crusted with sorrow. 

"Look, Gi- I really don't want to repeat this whole ordeal and get more people involved." Ginn takes aim towards her. "So if you could just put her back down and get your friends out there to leave for a while, I promise you can have her back soon. I don't intend of killing her, no worries. But I may be forced to slip up and do so if you keep getting in the way."

She doesn't listen and instead closes her eyes in deep focus, holding Leif close to her chest. The temperature in the room drops rapidly. A shiver races through my spine and all warmth in my body wisps out in a shuddering breath. 

Wind whips around the room and I see Sonya flinch at the sudden cold. 

"S-S-S-Sony-ya!" The cold rushing air stings my eyes and dries up my tongue the moment I open my mouth. I try to rush to her side but my limbs are stiff and rigid. I realize ice has encased my arms and legs and I'm swiftly being turned into a frozen statue. 

The room is shimmering as its walls turn frigid and slick with pilling frost. A slowly developing 3D photo, a moment frozen in place, a snapshot of time. 

I get ready to activate my boots again to melt it all but I stop. As much as it hurts me to see Sonya in distress.. This could be the only way Leif and the others could have a chance of escaping.

So I power down and let the cold consume me. Ginn doesn't look too bothered, maybe he knew this was just a minor setback? Or.. Wait, does he even fear death? What if this is not a temporary entrapment but a frozen tomb? Am I really willing to let myself die here? Let Sonya die here..?

But remembering our tormenting of Leif earlier eases the guilt of leaving us to possibly die. If we die here.. then we deserve it. Maybe I could at least rejoin Sonya in the afterlife.. Afterall, wouldn't that.. be better than letting her continue to become a monster under Ginn's influence?

I'm disgusted by my thoughts but my choice stands firm. The cold burns against my skin and I quake uncontrollably from what little part of me can still move. But I restrain myself from activating my boots, gritting my teeth until the frost completely devours me.

~~~

Storm POV

AGH THE ASSHOLE SHOT ME!

I grip my shoulder where the wound still leaks blood. That no good little-

I feel myself crackle up with static as I vibrate in anger and totally not pain. He messed with the wrong gal. I feel my electricity buzz into the bullet and in a few moment later, it's repelled from the wound and falls with a small click clack onto the ground. Well that's new.

"Let me see your wound." Pax speaks behind me, turning me around and already having a small medic kit in her hand. Where the heck did she even keep that thing??

"S-Swift and Leif are st-still in there!" Saurus stammers. 

I know I don't trust the girl but I also don't really wanna hear her eat a spray of bullets. But the door was thrown shut when she ran into the room.

I try the door handle and it barely moves. I push harder and ram my other shoulder against it but it feels like its been flex taped in place. 

"OI! SWIFT!" I scream through the door. "ARE YOU OKAY??"

I don't.. actually want her dead. What was she thinking running into that room when we knew he had a gun and clearly wasn't afraid to use it?? She's an idiot!

An idiot who just risked her life to save my best friend..

Shit..

I suddenly feel really bad for not cooperating more with her earlier

"SWIFT?!" I call out again, desperately pressing my ear to the door in hopes of hearing a sound. 

The door shudders before being thrown open, letting me flop to the floor. 

To my painful relief, Swift comes through, gripping Leif in her arms.

"SWIFT!" I bounce back to my feet, grabbing her by the shoulders. Ow my shoulder.

"Swift!! You're okay!" Saurus cries in relief. Wuss.

"WHAT WERE YOU OW THINKING WHEN OW YOU RAN INTO OW A ROOM WITH A GUN??" I shout as I shake her.

"We need to get away." Swift simply replies. "Leif and you need to get to a hospital.. quick."

I looked back down at the bloody mess of my friend. Normal liquid blood soaks her head and body while also sprouting her red blood petals. 

"What if they chase after us and attack us from behind??" 

Swift just gestures towards the room, where I see it has been completely encased by a layer of ice.

Holy-

"It won't hold them for too long." Swift uses her body to push me towards the corridor. "Come on!"

I shut the door for good measure and joined the rest in fleeing the building.