Fool Me Twice, Then What?
There was something menacing about the wind where she is now—what sometimes was a forgiving breeze could suddenly turn into a gust of speed. It also had tendencies to catch and take her breath at times, especially when she faced it. Two boys bounded on ahead of her—a nightwalker named Equinox and another regular kid named Wave Chill, the latter being a student athlete of Canterlot High. She watched as they got smaller and smaller with the distance they gained, vaulting air conditioning units, pipes, dodging antennas, and pulling a flip here and there just for the sake of flipping. Equinox and turned around and called, “Let’s go, Whisper!” Pretty soon, Wave Chill’s blue, jaw-length hair was the last thing she saw before they disappeared over the horizon of brick and concrete.
The runners were in the older part of town, where buildings were a little lower to the ground, yet a fall still could mean severe consequences. Whisper glanced over the stone edging and down four stories of old, red brick. There was only a flash of anxiety before she regained her senses, running her fingers through the crimson pixie-cut. This nightwalker breathed a little harder, for she was taking a rest after her short run—the girl has yet to gain the stamina required for a decent run. The breeze played with her tank top, ruffling its end in directions it decided to wander.
It was a couple moments before she decided to get going, for it wouldn’t be a good day to entice Azure Overdrive into taunting her. Actually, there was never a good day. There was never a day where there wasn’t anything he could hold against her. Whisper’s rose, red-pink eyes squinted off into a memory where the words of Azure Overdrive echoed back into her mind:
“Dude, that is a girl. Of course it can’t pull that off.”
“You can’t teach strength.”
“You wanna speak louder? I can’t seem to hear that Whisper.”
“You should maybe apologize after that comment.”
As if the wind flowed with anger, a new gust of emotion coursed throughout her body. Adrenaline, fueled by pride and determination, whisked away the fatigue.
She clenched her fists, then breathed evenly to snub her anger before it emerged. Whisper was a competitor—and she took her performances seriously. Kind of like a friend of hers, who was hyper-competitive at everything—the one and only, technicolored wonder—Rainbow Dash. If only she could talk to her… but wait. Whisper perked up a little, for she had this crazy idea pop into her mind. She pulled out her phone, plugged in the one ear-bud with the speaker nib on it, then dialed her friend. Whisper listened intently for her friend’s voice while stuffing the phone between the elastic band of her baggy trousers and her lower back.
After a few rings, she picked up. “V? What’s up?”
“Hey," Whisper felt a little relieved upon hearing Dash's voice. "I need you to talk to me.”
“Like what?” a quizzical tone entered Dash’s voice.
Whisper kicked a pebble nervously. “Remember that, um, ‘friend’ I tell you about from the team? Just about every other day?”
“The one you keep obsessing over? Blue Overrun or something? Yeah.”
“First off, not obsessed. Second, the name is Azure Overdrive. Anyway, I want you to just talk to me as I make a run.”
“Oh. Yeah, that guy. And why?" Dash then grumbled, "I don’t wanna listen to you breathing in the mouthpiece for fifteen minutes.”
Whisper faltered. “I...It’s so I don’t do anything stupid to try to get him off my back.”
“Really.” Dash’s tone turned flat. “You need me to talk to you so you can make better choices? Are you sure you don’t need a special buddy or—“
“Please?” asked Whisper. Then she smiled. “It’s kinda like cheering for Lightning Dust so she doesn’t punch people off the track.”
This got a laugh out of her. “Yeah, I guess it can be like that!”
“And plus, talking while I run helps me like it helps you—like, unconsciously doing everything right while registering everything that’s being said to you.”
“That helps you, too?” Rainbow asked, surprised. “I had no idea!”
“Cool! So will ya do it?” A playful tone entered Whisper’s voice.
“Sure. I can definitely take a break from doing math, anyway!”
Whisper smiled, “Thanks!” Suddenly, she burst into a sprint, gaining more and more distance with each step as she increased speed. Before she could register the distance she covered, the girl was already conquering the gap between the two old buildings. A smile broke out onto her face—a kind of smile where one side decided to cooperate and the other did not, forming a half-smile.
For this short time, she was reminded about how good running felt to her. And then there was the fun part—a vault here, a cat pass there, and a forward round-off before becoming upright and moving onto the next building.
“So, tell me about the team, again?” asked Dash. “I have that pic pulled up of the group shot you sent me. I need to visualize.”
“Great!” chimed Whisper. “Okay, so there’s Azure Overdrive. He’s the nightwalker with the cloudy-black skin and with hair of varying shades of blue. He’s the team lead. It’s a miracle I’m even doing this.” She didn’t even judge the distance between the two buildings—she just jumped. With her arms outstretched and her feet relocating to the front of her body to prep for impact, she realized that they were not going to land on the top. As she collided into the old, discolored brick, her feet braced her body, using her hands to latch onto the edging, and then proceeded to climb up, despite her lack of upper-body strength.
“Okay. Well, he doesn’t take pictures like the jerk you say he is.”
“Good for him?” Whisper was confused at her comment, but she was just talking to talk, after all. “And then there’s the other nightwalker, Equinox.” Whisper vaulted over a divider that marked the wall or conjoined buildings. She decided not to launch into a round-off while on the divider. “He’s got the deep ultraviolet hair. He goes to Saddleback Academy.”
“Should I hate him for that?”
“No." The nightwalker's tone certified her answer. "He’s actually nice. Not sure how he is like that coming out of Saddleback.”
“There are miracles, after all!” laughed Rainbow Dash.
“Yep!” agreed Whisper. She did a wall run, and let out a slight “Hut!” while doing it.
“What was that?” asked dash.
“Wall run.” was all Whisper said.
“Oh, okay.” She could vaguely remember what that was. “Hey! Are these guys our Canterlot bros, Fire Streak and Wave Chill?”
“Yeah! They’re both out today, too. Just saw Wave, actually." Then she added, Oh, and P-S, the soccer coach doesn’t know about this.” Whisper came upon a railing, then made an underbar pass.
“Oh! Right!” Rainbow locked that into her memory while scanning over the faces held in her hand. “Okay, I want to know who the dude who appears to think he’s ‘all that in a bag of chips’ is.”
Whisper spoke immediately. “If 'he' looks like a male version of Spitfire, but has yellow in his hair and slightly different color of skin, that’s Bolt Stride.” Then she grumbled, “And he’s like that all the time. And for the record, you’re like that too, sometimes.”
“Hey! When I can back it up, I have rights to be all showy!”
She laughed. “I guess when you’re Rainbow Dash, then some things are allowed!”
Whisper had no idea how much time passed and how far she had traveled. She had a vague estimate, but her talking with Rainbow while on a training run helped her through it—a lot. Talking about her teammates seemed like a guilty pleasure—it wasn’t gossip, but it was close to talking behind their backs. No one else was around her, which made it easier to do it. They continued going through the picture as Whisper ran.
Now she looked at a face of a building that was considerably taller than the one she was on. Her gaze flicked down at the rusty fire escape, just below the altitude of the rooftop she ran on. It flicked back up. There were cracks and gaps in the wall. It was doable. “Hold on.” she asked Dash. She stopped talking with no rebuttal.
With a willpower-induced burst of speed, Whisper planted her foot on the edge of safety before launching herself into the air in a cat leap.
She caught the gap, it’s sharp, gritty edges sending pain through her hands. Whisper ignored this after sending a curse through her clenched teeth—
Pain is temporary, she reminded herself. With her reserve energy, a storage she built up over her years of participating in track, she used her legs to push up the brick, then shot her hands up to the stone edging. Her nerves released after she felt her hand clutch onto the warm stone, heated by the late-summer sun. She lugged her body up, using every mobile part of her extremities to help herself. Whisper rolled over the ledge, pausing again to catch her breath. She wouldn’t be there long—track had forced her to learn how to recover quickly.
Rainbow Dash ended the break. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” responded Whisper. “I had to perform a complicated stunt.” Then before Dash could certify it, she added, “And it was definitely needed.”
The charcoal-skinned teen paced the ledge opposite the drop site to catch her breath. “Okay, so we’ve been over Azure, Bolt, Streak and Wave, Equinox and Stormy.”
“I think so…” Rainbow recounted the names and tried to match the faces in the image she held.
Now, it was time for the descent. “Alright,” Whisper told Rainbow. “If I go silent, it’s because I need to.”
“Okay.” she simply replied. And with that, she ran straight toward the opposing edge across the gravel-covered old rooftop and in a fluid reverse-vault she latched onto the edging and paused to get a grasp of her surroundings, and her tools.
“Oh, and then there’s Jetspark." Whisper started. "He’s on the same level as Equinox.” It was not until then Whisper heard the voices of the rest of the squad below, but she could not make out any complete sentences. She looked behind her, seeing that the gap she was about to descend into was actually doable, if she jumped it. Her gaze fell down and into the alley, she saw the heads of the other boys, as well as Equinox and Wave Chill. Along her side of the alley, there were little window sills jutting out of the brick, spanning all six floors on the building. Whisper observing that performing a zig-zag descent, by ricocheting back-and-forth off the narrow alley walls, was harder than simply climbing down. Looks like the easiest way. The alley's height was a little daunting, but despite that she began her descent, using the little ledge that each sill provided. Whisper used a self-invented "inchworm" technique, where she places both her hands and feet on the sill, then dropped her feet down to the next sill: repeat.
“Jetspark is a cool kid I’d think you like to meet." She suddenly spoke again. "He’s got the same competitive drive that we’ve got, but he’s much, much more chill about it.”
“I guess I just need to drop by one day!” Dash chuckled.
I'll be down soon enough if I keep this up, she thought. but, on about the third one down,
her foot slipped off the ledge.
Just as she freed her hands to transition, her soles lost grip on the sill. Whisper felt her body detach as panic and intense fear pulsed through her like a lightning strike.
Rainbow heard sudden, loud, scratching sounds on her side of the call. “V?” she asked.
There were shocked reactions from her group below. Some words incomprehensible. Others were a very clear, vulgar expression of panic. If time can be counted in the milliseconds, each one counted for her. Tic-tac! That thought that coursed through Whisper's mind. Looks like I have to do this the hard way… Immediately, she kicked out her feet to launch herself away from the wall. The force allowed to her turn. She now faced the opposite the windows. This was that zig-zag maneuver she tried to avoid in the first place.
Gravity dragged shoes earthward along the old, brown brick. Again, the crimson pixie-cut teen ricocheted herself away from that wall. It was then she heard Fire Streak’s voice.
“Tic-Tac!! Tic-Tac!!”
Then Rainbow’s voice, which had escalated to distress, “V!!” All the technicolor-maned friend could hear were weird dragging sounds, excessive wind in the speaker and the faint expression of panic of voices in the background. Whisper heard all of it. All the noise that bombarded her.
She now faced the one with the windows once more. To her utter surprise, this was the first-floor window. She was falling too fast! With one last effort, she pushed her body from the jagged brick wall and aimed herself adjacent to the first-floor window. There was a dumpster, lid closed. Whisper was heading right for it. She hit the brick for the last time, her ankles threatened to give out as her soles dragged downward along the brick. The dragging has slowed her momentum enough to effectively "tap-tap" off the dumpster lid to hit the sandy concrete. The momentum she had caused her to fall, where she immediately broke into a roll. It was all of about one completed roll before her back hit the other side of the alley, and hit hard. Breath left her lungs.
Her ear-bud blew up with the voice of a concerned Dash. “V!! Whisper!! Can you hear me??”
The others boys quickly approached her, in shock, concern, and curious to know the fate of their teammate. Having shut her eyes upon impact, she heard Bolt Stride first.
“So, Velvet Whisper. First time in my life I never heard anyone take that hard of a fall.” She hated the tone he wielded. She thought she heard a slight grunt. Unknown to her, Equinox had elbowed him.
Velvet Whisper rolled to where her back was against the sandy concrete, her exposed shoulder blades burning against the gritty, warm surface. Something about it relaxed her. Opening her eyes, she saw the other boys standing over her, a few of them looking concerned, others relieved.
“Yeah,” she breathed. “I’m kinda good at the whole quiet thing.”
They all sat right there in that alley. Fire Streak and Azure Overdrive had backpacks that carried water bottles for the six of them. Whisper was sitting up by now, still breathing a little hard and rubbing where her shoulder had scraped the ground. Her legs burned and ached from the trauma, and her back hurt where she collided with the wall. She knew better than to complain about it.
“What happened?” Dash demanded into her ear. She was getting the feeling that Velvet Whisper wasn’t talking to her for a bad reason at the moment.
“We thought you were done,” admitted Wave. He received a bottle from Fire Streak to give to Whisper. She looked into his dusk-blue face for a sign of feeling, but found none.
“Yeah,” agreed Equinox. “Unless there was a way where we could quickly situate ourselves to catch you, I thought we were going to have to explain to your aunt how you died.”
Whisper had not exactly fathomed what just happened yet. Her thoughts were consumed by whatever came out of Azure's mouth. She took a side glance at the one blue-haired boy. There it was--that scornful glint that she hated so much. She could tell that he was just waiting for something rude to say. But, the only thing he had was,
“You got lucky. Had Equinox not said anything—“
“Excuse me, Azure. No offense, Equinox, but I had that idea before he said it. What, you think I kicked away from that wall because I panicked?” Whisper interjected defensively. Wait... She realized he hung back. There was an unsure silence in the circle made the moment worse, as its harshness lingered within the circle of traceurs. Azure dug his chin to his chest down to hide the smirk. He about gave a sarcastic answer, but instead kept it to himself--the other guys might fight him for it.
“None taken, V.” Equinox almost mumbled after a beat, as he had the water bottle right at his lips when he said it. One could hardly see his mouth move on his dark face. He was more shocked that Whisper had interrupted Azure than at how she answered him.
Rainbow Dash heard the silence, so then she knew Whisper could listen. "What's this talk about 'dead'?" she demanded.
“Oh, hey. Someone’s calling.” Whisper pulled out phone and looked at her already-in-call screen casually. Rainbow did not giggle. “Hey. Um, do you mind calling back later?” She sounded about as weak and shaken as she felt.
“What the heck?” Dash still had that tight, concerned tone.
“Yeah… Hey, I just took a fall. Can I talk to you later?” There was a hint of desperation in Whisper’s voice. She then hung up without bidding a farewell. Whisper looked around the group, feeling like she needed to crawl into a shell. In this case, it was putting her head into her knees.
Wave Chill tried to lighten the mood up a little. “Hey, looks like you’ve gotten enough training in that you can create your own moves without suggestions from us! You’re coming along just fine!” He only received a couple wary looks and grumbles from Bolt Stride and Azure. Velvet Whisper awkwardly shifted to brush away the comment that lacked substance.
“Well, I’m not completely ready to go solo, as recent events just proved, but thanks anyway, Wave." Velvet Whisper looked up to smile as genuinely as she felt necessary, because she wanted to mean it. Then she added, "Plus, I’ve always known that I need to be a little more ripe than the average student before taking off the training wheels.” She felt the blue-haired nightwalker’s sharp gaze boring into her, sending that uncomfortable tingly feeling down her neck and through her spine. She pulled her knees up to her chest, clutching the bottle to her shins. Whisper can imagine what he was thinking. He said nothing.
“And yeah,” she tried a smile at Equinox. “Before panic and instinct kicked in, I thought I was going to be freakin' flattened.” He smiled uncomfortably, for he didn't pick up that she was responding to his comment he made much earlier. But after a couple beats, a spark of laughter glinted in his eye.
They sat in uncomfortable silence for a time. The warm breeze played against their faces as it passed through the narrow alleyway. Whisper, in an attempt to rid herself of the awkward feeling, focused on the warmth. She liked how it moved across her back and shoulders, as if to heal. As if to will the discomfort away, she shut her eyes and thought about the breeze. The other boys sat in equal silence, until Wave Chill once again broke it.
“This was the last run if the day, yeah?”
“Well, yeah, we agreed to that." Bolt Stride replied first. "What time do we want to meet tomorrow?”
“Well…” Equinox broke off into thought. “I got nothin’ as far as I’m concerned. Just another day of us being street ninjas for me.”
“Cool.” Replied Wave. “I know I have to do a project with a couple of classmates at my school, so….” Whisper, her head bowed into her knees, let her thoughts shut out the boys’ chatter. The weight of her fall began to sink in. She began to imagine herself, back on the concrete, body hurting like nothing she’d ever felt before, slipping into unconsciousness as she had just impacted the asphalt from six stories. She imagined the boys’ voices becoming panicked and loud as she lay in the alley, dying. She began to imagine about what her thoughts would be like in that moment. Resentful, grudging thoughts. She imagined her hands in a tight ball from pain slowly releasing their form as feeling disappeared from her body. She imagined her heart gradually slowing pace. Blackness began to milk away her vision as the faces of the guys were shrouded. Whisper imagined her breath getting shorter and shorter and—
“Whisper.”
Snapped back into reality, she looked out from beneath her brow. It was a fellow Wondercolt, Fire Streak.
“You dropped your water.” She had no idea that she had actually let go of the bottle when she imagined losing feeling in her body. A rush of embarrassment burned in her cheeks. Whisper was so thankful she was dark-skinned. “Yeah, I know.” Was all she said. Being snapped out of her thoughts brought her back into the moment. She held her gaze with him before breaking it.
“Okay, so that’s it? Tomorrow at six thirty?” said Bolt Stride. He got nods of approval as the boys rose to their feet.
“We’re going again.” Said Azure. The boys shot him looks of disbelief. Whisper then realized that, other than that comment targeted at her, he had been quiet up until now.
“What?” asked Fire Streak, surprised . “Man, you know that we agreed that was our last. I mean, we’re worn out now and—“
“We’re going again.” He commanded. He still sat on he ground, staring directly at Whisper.
Equinox picked it up. “Dude, come on. She’s done, we’re tired. We just planned out tomorrow.”
Azure Overdrive stood up. “She needs to learn to keep going after a fall.” He said with a straight face. The other guys had no legitimate argument for that.
But, Equinox kept trying. “Azure, we understand that principle and how important it is, but can’t we agree that that was our last run of the day?”
Before he could reply, Wave Chill interrupted. “Alright, if this is all for her, then I’m outta here. I’m no going to watch her struggle through this just because Azure’s being a d—“
“We all went through it.” Objected Azure, his words sharp. It probably did him some good that he stopped Wave when he did.
The orange-and-white-haired Fire Streak mumbled a “Nice catch.” Under his breath, but no one noticed except Equinox, who smiled. He then agreed with Wave, declaring, “Yeah. I’m with him. I’m not watching her limp through this. See you tomorrow.” And with that, picking up his backpack, he and Wave walked out of the alley. Without a word, Bolt and Equinox followed.
Azure looked on as he watched the other guys leave. “Suit yourselves.” He grumbled. Soon after he got tired of watching his squad leave, she turned to Whisper, who still sat there, her red-pink eyes huge.
The wind felt better to her up there than it did in the alley. She looked sidelong at dark-skinned boy, who was plotting in his mind as he gazed across the rooftops. They stood there for awhile before anybody said anything—anybody, meaning Azure. Whisper was gaining anxiety by the second. She wanted so badly to redial Rainbow, but she knew she couldn’t get away with it.
“You have to mimic me.” He directed. His tone was still dark.
Whisper gave him a questioning look, but didn’t say anything. To her dismay, that direction destroyed any idea that she could talk to Rainbow Dash again.
He looked sidelong at her with an eyebrow raised, hands coolly sliding into his pockets. “What, are not ready yet?” Velvet Whisper didn’t have the guts to remind him that she was up here first. He, after all, was the one deciding how the run was supposed to go.
She did a few hops in place to keep her body warm. “Let’s just get this over with.”
And with that, Azure Overdrive broke off into a light run. Whisper waited a few paces before following him. She needed to see what he would do before she had to copy his moves, so she allowed some space.
The first part was pretty easy. It consisted of a some easy vaults, maybe one cat pass, a couple underbar passes, and the gaps between buildings were pretty close. She noticed that he was going at a slower pace than his norm. It wasn’t that much slower, but it was still… slower. Whisper began to wonder if him running at a slower pace was intentional in order to strike a jab at her abilities. Again. After a couple minutes, though, it seemed as if Azure was just going on a jog to enjoy himself. She still trailed him, but her instinctive pace led her to close the gap a little. Occasionally, she would see him take a quick peek over his shoulder at her.
Azure had noticed that Whisper’s focus was starting to drift. She mimicked him very well, but she began letting her feet drag with the slower pace and began to let her focus creep elsewhere, taking it off-task. Azure Overdrive took one more peek at her, and noticing the difference, he burst into a faster run. This took Whisper by surprise, as it took her a couple seconds to realize that her squad leader had just tried to dust her. She was tired, but her pride wasn’t stopping her from giving up. He knew she was a bit more tired because her breathing was audible, as it had been for the past few minutes.
Now, Azure was performing more jumps and climbs, some completely unnecessary, than before. The precision jumps had less precise starts, but the finishes were still toes-first. She cursed at his stamina. His form was almost flawless and every trick or maneuver he performed looked fluid and easy. She noticed in his running form how his feet looked to be off the ground most of the time.
They came upon a small stairwell entrance, the kind that stood alone on a roof like a pint-sized shed. Azure used a small wall climb to get on top before using that height to make the leap to the next building. When he was able to land his feet on the edging, he looked back with that dominant, contemptuous look before calling, “You can stop when you want!”
She caught herself growling, but then it immediately stopped when she noticed the size of the gap he just cleared. It was big. “I’m not done yet!” was what she replied in between breaths. Whisper had to make a decision and make it fast. Well, there’s only one way to find out! Whisper went for it, using a near-miss cat leap before scrabbling up onto the ledge as quickly as her strength would let her. Whisper looked on at the other nightwalker in frustration, who still looking over his shoulder at her. With her teeth gritted, she pulled her body on top of the roof, before double-timing it to catch up.
They had gotten to the third rooftop in when she finally flunked her first stunt. Fatigue was beginning to take over when Whisper attempted a flip, but landed on her heels instead of completing the cycle. With a gritty “thump,” she hit the ground. There were about three more stunts like this, where she failed to complete it but instead finished with her body hitting the roof.
When she had failed, again, she did everything in her power to not yell in anger. But before she exploded, Whisper noticed something incredibly crucial—
Azure Overdrive was getting tired.
He had just performed yet another stunt when she noticed him trip. Whisper almost—almost—laughed. This could be the end! By now, she was slowing down and her feet were skimming the surface. She was battling within her own mind if she should quit and let Azure make his point. But, that one small mistake gave her a little hope that he might be done soon. She wished that Rainbow was in her ear to cheer her on.
She wasn’t sure if it was her mind playing with her, or if this next gap was really that large. She was dragging. Whisper’s form went out the window a long time ago—she was barely jogging. Azure performed a hurricane flip. A hurricane?! He knows I can’t do that! Whisper then decided she was done with stunts. She saw he didn’t even look back to see if she did it. Whisper didn’t even perform anything—except for moving forward. Azure jumped the gap, like he did the last umpteen gaps, but this time…
He did a cat leap. He didn’t even make it to the other side cleanly. Whisper watched as he pulled himself up, and then continued on to the last building.
Upon seeing that, she stopped. Her lungs were gaping, filling themselves to the maximum capacity. She bent over to rest her hands on her knees. Sweat was dripping from her face, shoulders, back, and chest. Her body was screaming at her to stop, but her mind still had its pride. Every logical part of her senses was telling her she can’t bridge the gap. But then, her senses told her that for the last three gaps.
She backed up until her heels hit the edging opposite of the next obstacle. Looking onto the next roof, she saw Azure still going. She also saw that there was one building left in the line before it just ended, and he was making his way to it. “It would be just absolutely chivalrous of you to wait, Mr. Azure!” she shouted to him, her words dripping with sarcasm. Her voice was cracked with gasping breaths between her words. He just peeked over his shoulder with no reply.
With whatever she had left, Whisper ran. It was not her best, but it was her best to give. She was feeling everything in her body alerting her. Shoulders were aching. Hands were bleeding. Feet were sore and her legs lost feeling. The gravel-rock on the roof threatened to make her lose grip.
But these things didn’t phase her like they should have.
Once again, she planted, pushed, and soared.
Whisper knew she undershot the edge, but despite that she had done yet another cat-leap. Her soles hit the wall and her achy hands grabbed onto yet another gritty brick ledge. She tried to pull herself up when
the brick crumbled off.
She watched her right hand fly back as the old stone fell straight down. Whisper couldn’t help the alarmed yell that somehow squeezed out in between gasps for air. She reestablished her grip. Her left hand pulled off more brick as she vainly tried to lift her body with her aching shoulders. Whisper panicked, refusing to look down.
To her left, she spotted a small pipe that was screwed along the wall. Either this, or fall! she decided. Whisper reached and latched onto the pipe before moving all of her bodyweight off the broken section of brick and onto the pipe.
The mix of blood and sweat on her hands was no help here, though. She moved along the pipe whenever the deadly concoction of liquids was threatening her grip. Whisper’s energy was running dangerously low. She could barely lift her legs to reposition her hands to gain grip until they slipped again. What was actually a couple minutes seemed like forever as her hands failed to grip the old pipe. Whisper’s arms screamed at her. Her lead-heavy breathing made it hard to call out. Whisper couldn’t take it any longer—if she was going down, she had to know how far.
Her eyes slid down. There were seven floors of sheer wall with noting, not even a window ledge. There was nothing at the bottom—no dumpster, no crates. Just hard, dark, shadowy concrete in the alley. She recalled her death she imagined earlier.... The concrete. The blood. The darkness.
Her fingers were slipping. She had a drop of strength left to lift herself once more, and it wasn’t coming through. She couldn’t feel her hands gripping the pipe, for they were numb. She looked up to see them vainly try to hold on with little success.
Azure had looked back to see if Whisper made it across the gap. She was nowhere to be seen. He stopped, and waited. She did not climb up like he had expected. Azure Overdrive was standing on the last building in the set. He waited again, breathing a little heavy from the extra run. “Whisper!” he called. It only took seconds to realize that her lack of appearance meant trouble. Worry parked itself in the back of his mind. He sprinted back, leaping back across the final gap to the make his way toward the one where Whisper had disappeared.
The longer he went without seeing the girl rise over the ledge, the quicker worry became panic. The blue-haired boy’s breath was leaving his body at the thought that he would look over the edge to see her dust-black and crimson body, with an added splash of bloody scarlet at the base of the wall. “Whisper!” he called again. His panic rose to fear, then to regret, then…
He looked over at the crumbled brick, then saw the crushed chunks in the alleyway, but no body. Azure also spotted a wet, dark smudge on the brick just below him that looked like blood. He caught sight of another one just next to it. This was when he heard Whisper’s intense breathing, of which she was counting each one before the inevitable happened. His eyes followed the train of smudged blood as it ran along a pipe and to Whisper's failing hands. She had moved every time the blood and sweat became too much for her grip.
Azure, upon seeing the crimson-haired girl a little to his right, almost dove there. He saw that her fingertips were slipping fast. Whisper looked up to see him scrambling along the wall over to her. There was raw panic in her gaze for her hands had given out. She was free.
Azure reached down to clasp both of her wrists, the distance being a two feet or so down from him. “Gotcha!”
Whisper, having closed her eyes, opened them to see that she was not falling. She couldn’t feel that Azure was holding her.
“You okay?” was whatever Azure blubbered out after hauling her up from the ledge.
Whisper shot him the nastiest, most vile look her soul could produce.
He shifted uncomfortably before trying to find a silver lining. “Hey, you’re not dead. You’re welcome.”
“Is… Is feeling dead… okay?” she angrily breathed. She stopped to catch some of her breath back. The two just sat there in silence while waiting for Whisper to speak.
She stated back up. “I went on your trek. I went on your jerk-move, prove-a-point stunt safari so that maybe,” she spoke through her teeth. “Just maybe, you, and even that idiot Bolt Stride, would stop bashing me after every mistake! And trust me,” she glared directly a the other nightwalker. “I know I’m a girl! I don’t need daily reminders that I will never be as physically strong or as fast as you.” She paused.
“But, you know what! I wanted to prove it to you—and only you—that I have the heart to do this! Little did I realize that I could have gotten myself killed—killed!—just trying to prove to some hard-headed guy that I can fit in!”
Then there was silence once more. Whisper rolled over onto her side to turn away from him.
The sun was still hanging above the horizon, still generating some warmth despite it slowly going away. Whisper watched it as a lone tear rolled down her cheek and onto the sunbathed concrete rooftop.
The blue-haired boy fumbled with his fingers as he sat, his knees in the crook of his elbows like an elevated Indian-style cross. He noticed that Whisper’s breathing was still heavy. “Sitting up can help you breathe better.” He did a sidelong glanced to see if she would move. Nothing. “Here,” he began to move her direction while reaching out to her. “If you’d just sit upright, it’ll help—“
“Don’t touch me.” Whisper’s low, even reply stopped him where he was. Azure sat back down, then resumed fumbling with his hands. He noticed that he had blood on them. It wasn’t his.
“I’m sorry.” He mumbled.
“No, I’m sorry.” Her words came out like they just did, low and even. She did feel sorry. Sorry that she let herself get caught up in other’s opinions, for once. Sorry that she ever thought she could perform the same way. Sorry that she pushed herself far past her limits. Sorry that she wasn’t with people who cared about her and supported her.
A cloud-grey boy and the dust-black girl stayed there until the sun slipped under the horizon. They watched as the orange haze disappeared into the dark, familiar nighttime indigo. Their eyes transitioned into their natural slit as the light went away. Whisper had stopped crying now, but the tears still left glossy trails from her eyes.
She broke the silence. “I need to go home.”
Azure lifted his head from his knees and blinked his thoughts away. “Okay. We’ll swing around to Horseshoe Street to pick up our stuff.” He rose to his feet.
Whisper propped her body up on one arm before moving her sore legs underneath her to stand. Azure watched Whisper get to her feet. He thought to lend a hand, but said nothing. Once to her feet, Whisper looked back at the newer part of town where most of the lights were. “All right.” She wiped the moisture away from her face. “Let’s go.” Azure did a lot to make sure his eyes did not roll when he saw that there were tears. He can’t handle criers.
“There’s a fire escape on the other side.” He said.
By the time they, or Whisper, got down the escape it was dark. No hint of a sun under the horizon, but instead the moon. The world was strangely quiet around here. But the feeling of concrete underneath her feet instead against her back felt strange. To know that in twice in a day, death could have conquered her. Whisper looked up at the brightest stars that penetrated through the city’s lights. They were few, but strong. One hung in a black vacuum all alone.
She returned her gaze earthwards, peeking out her peripheral to Azure. She dared not look at him directly. She couldn’t muster up enough humbleness to thank him. Azure couldn’t muster up enough humbleness to seriously apologize to her. Instead, they moved silently along the beaten sidewalk. To avoid her conscious, she pulled out her phone to text her aunt she was on her way home. She texted Rainbow, too.
She looked back up at that star. I could have joined you today, she confessed. I do not know who or what kept me here today, but I thank them. She took another sidelong glance at Azure before resigning her eyes to the ground for the rest of the trip.
Author's Note
Okay... As an athlete, there's some things about a warm up to keep in mind:
-It's meant to be before any performance
-To get better results, always go longer than what you think is necessary. Even if it means breaking a sweat.
-Get every point, joint, muscle, aspect, or idea in.
-Then go have fun!
I had no idea how long this was going to be when I started this thing out. I apologize to anyone who thought this was going to be short.
And please... tell me where the driest parts are. Don't be that guy that tells me "all of it."I know with length there comes the risk of a story running dry during certain parts.
