And then I see it. A white dusting lines the floor. Snow, like on the coast.
My mind struggles to work it out. It feels like more than one hundred degrees in here, yet the snow stays crisp and solid. I swipe a section off the floor beside me. The flakes melt the instant they touch my warm hands.
The bag slips away from the Pearl.
I watch it move, impossibly, from the ball of red, as if the cloth has come alive, wriggling along the floor in retreat. Free from the dark material, the red Pearl pulses with an intense glow. Waves of heat push into me-concentrated blasts like scorching currents of Fringe air. Snow continues to pour from the other side onto the ground, collecting in piles. I shield my eyes from the light. There’s nothing I can do about the heat.
It’s in control, I realize. This isn’t like the rest of them, where I have the power. I can’t touch it. I can’t even get near.
My bracelet vibrates, forcing my wrist into my lap. I feel the tips of my fingers bake as the heat intensifies. The Pearl trembles, quivers back and forth. Then, without a sound, it rockets straight into the air.
I’m convinced it’s going to slam into the ceiling, but it stops midway and hangs in the center of the room like a red star. Whatever’s inside wants out.
The bracelet spins around my wrist, matching the heightened frequency in the room. I pull in my knees to make myself as small a target as possible. The Pearl energy fills the entire room now, radiating off walls, flipping on the overhead lights only to yank them off again. It’s a physical presence-a spirit set on pushing me away.
The heat fizzles, replaced by an arctic blast that hits me in the face with gale force. Particles of ice settle in my hair and along the ground-a snowstorm in the middle of the jail cell.
The Pearl explodes.
I shout as energy collides with my skin and envelops me. It’s not the bolstering feeling green Pearls give. This scratches all over my body like a thousand little insects biting me at once. My skin revolts. I’m convinced that I’m burning alive, though from heat or frost I can’t tell.
The cell door flies from its hinges and shoots into the hallway, leaving a chasm behind. The corridor fills with red. The outside wall bulges with the added force before bursting open. A gaping hole spreads across the metal. I see insulation, pipes, wires-inner workings of the ship before the view of the dark mountains outside is unencumbered. The blast has blown a hole straight through the side of the Skyship.
Fragments of dust and shrapnel swirl about the room, kicked up by the force of the explosion. Everything’s murky red. I can’t tell what’s happening around me.
Something tackles my side, so forceful it feels like a boulder after a mile-long build-up. I’m helpless to react.
Before I know it, I’m thrown into the air. Something grabs me. Arms, maybe. I can’t see anything but red energy, a blinding wall of light directly in front of my face. My skin screams.
We land on the ground. My ankle twists. I hardly notice it past the other agonies. I’m pushed against the floor like a dummy, then lifted up again.
The prison cell disappears altogether.
It takes a moment to understand what I’m seeing. The air is cooler now, and cleaner.
I watch the side of the Academy pull away as we tumble through the sky. Whatever was inside that Pearl knocked me through the hole in the outside wall. There’s nothing to grab onto, even as invisible arms hold me tight.
Mountains swallow me on all sides. The Academy walls grow distant. We’re in freefall, half a mile straight to the ground.
I can’t see anything but Pearl energy in front of me. I feel like I’m floating in fire. I know there are mountains. I know the ground’s approaching fast. The air pushes on my back with so much force that I’m certain I’ll snap in two.
All the while, something holds me tight.
I watch as the energy begins to fade, sucked into the swirling wind on both sides of me. I expect it to disappear altogether and leave me falling like this, alone-a tiny kid lost inside the sky.
But the red glow warps into something else. A figure appears from the light, a dark silhouette against the stars.
Features begin to carve themselves into the ether and I suddenly realize how close we are. Face to face.
Arms stretch up around mine, connecting with hands that interlock below me, holding tight in what could either be an embrace or a stranglehold. Body definition, beneath an unadorned black shirt, gives the figure shape. Brown hair flies wildly around the face, whipped around by the wind as we plummet.
The face.
A mouth appears, grim and silent and inexpressive. Not concerned or worried at all. A nose, then wrinkles. Lines on the forehead, under the eyes.
Eyes. Pearl energy forms around them, swirling and crackling until it disappears altogether. The irises turn red, like two Pearls right in front of me.
The man doesn’t blink. He doesn’t open his mouth or move his face at all. For a moment I wonder if he’s dead, but he continues to stare at me, eyes locked onto mine as we tumble.
His grip tightens on my back. My own expression loses all composure. I must look more horrified and pathetic than ever, but if the man notices, he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t scream or shout. His attention never strays.
In one fluid motion, he lays pressure on my right arm and flips me. We twist so that his back is to the ground. I watch the tundra grow closer and closer, a dark sheet of dirt and rock that will mark my last living moments.
We begin to slow. The wind calms as we defy gravity. The sky feels heavy. We crawl through it. I have a moment to tilt my head and watch the mountains. But I can’t see the Skyship. We’ve drifted too far away.
We fall, slower until it’s like we’re not moving at all. The man stares at me the entire time, wide-eyed and mute. Never blinking.
I consider speaking-screaming, even-but before I can make any sound at all, his fingers unlatch and he brings up his knees to prod me in the stomach. I fly in an arch over his head, rolling through the air until I hit the dirt and land hard on my chest.
It takes a moment before I’m able to compose myself. The breath flows back into my lungs. I push myself onto my hands and knees and cough. I’m covered in dirt. Tiny shards of rocks dig themselves into my skin.
As soon as I’m able, I stand and spin to see if the man is still there.
He is. Closer than I remembered.
He stands several yards from me, arms at his sides. Black shirt, black pants. Only his face is visible in the moonlight. From this distance, all I can see clearly are the eyes.
They pierce the darkness like twin beacons, reflective in the night like a cat’s.
And there’s something else-a loop of black metal attached to a chain around his neck. I wouldn’t notice it against the dark shirt, except that it shines with a glint of moonlight. It’s the only adornment on his simple clothing, and matches the sheen of my bracelet.
I back away, fearful of what he might do. But the fact is, at the last possible moment, he saved me.
I cough again, trying to find my voice. The man stands in silence and stares. Then, with the only whisper I have left, I clear my throat and speak. It’s probably a shot in the dark, but I have to try.
“D-dad?”
It comes out smaller than I mean it to. The wind snaps most of the sound away before it even reaches the guy. I try again.
“Dad?”
He blinks. Then, without a word, he turns and runs.
“Wait!” I follow the best I can, but he’s too fast. “Don’t run away!”
His legs pump like pistons along the barren terrain until he’s running with more velocity than a shuttle. I keel over in exhaustion and watch him. His silhouette shrinks as he escapes into the distance. Then, just as he’s about to disappear altogether, he crouches and jumps.