Link to Come (Kealey)

Kealey’s world was working in flashes of color, emotion, and pain. Her head throbbed and the emotions around her careened in wild directions. Malice, frustration, bravery, concern, urgency, embarrassment… there were simply so many. It set the blonde’s already fuzzy brain to spinning as she struggled for some kind of control.

She was still, then she was moving…floating it seemed. For a moment, Kealey wondered if she was dead. Was the Almighty bringing her to heaven? Why wasn’t her life flashing before her eyes? Where were the Pearly Gates and St. Peter? All there was, was the darkness and the musty smell of the bag she’d ended up in again.

Kealey inhaled once, experimentally and groaned at the pain the action brought to the side of her face. She inhaled again, more slowly and pulled in a breath’s worth of fresh, clean air. Her eyes shot open to dimming sunlight and open sky…and Shin, then closed again at the way opening her eyes felt.

>>"Kealey. Kealey... wake up... and don't look down."


It took a few moments to register the words, and Kealey’s blue eyes opened again. It wasn’t so bad to keep them that way anymore, so open they stayed. Shin had said not to look down, so she kept her eyes everywhere but down. It was shockingly quiet, emotionally speaking, wherever they were and all Kealey could feel beyond a low hum in the distance was Shin's exhaustion and how serious he was. What had happened? Where were they going? All questions for later...for now.

”You got my text….” Kealey finally managed to say.

Shin was distracted, his actions every bit as indicative of that fact as his comments. He said they were going somewhere trustworthy, and Kealey nodded slightly and kept quiet. Somehow more conversation didn’t seem right at the moment, and the blond chalked it up to the mood of her rescuer. She’d never seen Shin this single-mindedly…serious. Well, maybe that night at the bar…but it had only lasted a short while. This was all encompassing, and his proximity wrapped Kealey tightly in the blanket of seriousness as well. There were other emotions present, the doubt Shin had verbally expressed being one of them. The somber mood was definitely the most prevalent, though, and the overflow had its effect. Kealey didn’t really mind, though. Shin’s seriousness was better than her own panic and terror at what had just happened.

Forgetting Shin’s warning, Kealey peeked down and her stomach dropped a bit, renewing the throbbing of her head. They were really high up in the air. Shin had said they were safe, though, and Kealey trusted him. Actually, she owed him her life.

That thought brought the events of the night crashing into sharp focus and Kealey shuddered, trying to put the pieces together.

Shifting slightly, but trying to stay as still as possible, the blond brought her hand to the throbbing side of her face, then studied her fingers. No blood. There would definitely be a bruise though. Kealey sighed, then glanced at Shin. At least this time there would be someone who knew the truth before it was too late. Kealey frowned at that thought. Was it already too late? Roland had been very clear in his motivations and the reasons for his actions. He’d known she was at the coffee shop, and had planned out the details of his attack meticulously. He had to be rid of her because if he wanted someone dead, they died. It was as simple as that. Kealey played the words over in her head, analyzing them and their implications.

”Shin…are we almost there? I think I’m going to be sick…”

Shin said to hold on, and Kealey held on, fingers white-knuckling in the thick canvas of the bag and breathing shallowly as her stomach rolled. She was going to die…Roland was going to kill her. The man was going to follow her, hunt her down, stuff her in another bag, and nobody was going to be there to save her. Suddenly, Shin’s emotions weren’t insulation enough against the panic welling up inside of Kealey. Her eyes welled up with tears, and she hardly noticed when Shin set her down on the ground.

As Shin turned and walked away, Kealey forced her fingers to uncurl from their grip on the inside of the bag. She stayed where she was for a moment, knees pulled up so she could rest her forehead against them. It was only hard to breath for another few moments, then Kealey got a hold of herself, slowly stretching the top of the bag open and rising to slightly unsteady feet.

Shin said he’d gotten her call, and Kealey frowned slightly in confusion, then bent to retrieve her phone from the bottom of the mail sack. She checked the timer as Shin ended the call from his end, it really hadn’t been that long. Kealey let the phone drop to her side, turning back to Shin…who was on the phone. Kealey tilted her head.

The woman who walked out onto the roof was not exactly what Kealey had expected out of someone Shin would call. The confidence radiating from her seeped into Kealey like hot chocolate on a freezing day. Standing didn’t seem quite as difficult now.

Kealey missed most of what the woman said, but nodded back slightly at the gesture from Shin and followed him into the building.

So much had happened, and Kealey’s mind was still reeling. The side of her face throbbed and she walked down the stairs still trying to put together the pieces of what she was supposed to do next. They walked into the room behind the woman, and Kealey followed Shin to the couch, looking around as he sat.

It was his emotions that made her turn, the sudden shift from serious to something else entirely. Kealey’s eyes followed Shin’s line of sight to the television and widened, a strangled gasp escaping her as she sunk down. All the confidence in the world from the other woman couldn’t help, a tear ran down Kealey's cheek, followed by another.

”You should have left me…” she whispered as the runner along the bottom listed casualties.

Something in the way Shin spoke made Kealey look at him, and the intensity flowing from her made her maintain eye contact when what she wanted more than anything was to look away. That boat sinking was her fault. Any people who died…their blood was on her hands, and Shin was trying to tell her that it wasn’t her fault. Kealey almost shook her head, almost argued the point, but she only got as far as saying, ”He would have stopped with me…now…now…look…”

Shin went on, and the conviction in his voice and in his emotions struck Kealey to the core. More traitorous tears slid down her cheeks and she scrubbed at them with the palms of her hands,nodding her head as she tried to pull herself together. Shin’s determination helped, and for once Kealey was grateful for her abilities…until his emotions swung again.

The look on his face and the way the bottom simply dropped out of what he’d been feeling left Kealey reeling a little bit as she sat and tried to puzzle out exactly what had happened. Shin was stunned, shocked…horrified? What had he just realized? Kealey wanted to reach out and shake him, but she clasped her hands tightly in her lap and simply watched.

”Shin?” she said, after a few moments, "Shin? What's wrong?"

Shin spoke and Kealey’s frown deepened. He thought….something, but she didn’t know exactly what. There were so many feelings swirling around in him as he sat next to her, that Kealey had a little bit of trouble just sorting them out from one another, let alone attempting to place an intention with any of them. There was something familiar there, something different from the other feelings and slightly out of place…the blond couldn’t exactly put her finger on it though, and Shin seemed to be struggling to put words to what his revelation had been.

She was about to open her mouth to ask for more information when the woman who had led them to the sitting room returned….

The confidence was back, but it felt misplaced now. Kealey did her best to push it to the back of her mind and concentrate on what Shin had said and felt. It was strange for a person to go through such dramatic mood swings…but then again they’d just been through something quite traumatic. That thought distracted her from analyzing Shin’s feelings and drew her eyes back to the TV. The situation did not look good, ”I should have just ran in the alley….or opened the door of the van. If we’d have never made it to that boat…all those people…”

The mug was hot in her hands, and Kealey held it tight, watching the steam rise from the top as she returned to the old problem of figuring out what she was going to do next. Could she even go home? Was there anywhere that she could hide from Roland? He seemed so determined to achieve his goal, how many complete strangers…and friends….was she going to put in danger.

Apparently Shin had missed the memo that said steaming things were hot, and the surprise and shock that coursed through him at what had to be significant pain in his mouth made Kealey jump a little.

Hot chocolate sloshed over the cup and onto her hand, and the blond hissed a little under her breath, moving the cup to one hand to shake the other off. She looked at Shin, ”Are you alright?” she asked, literal empathy in her eyes as Shin attempted to cool his mouth and she reached out a hand to pat his shoulder.

Raising her own cup to her lips to take a slow and careful sip, Kealey suddenly felt strange. Here she was, sitting in what had to be one of the opulent New York Skyscrapers, drinking hot chocolate and sitting on a couch that probably cost as much as her last two months of rent in her apartment, next to someone who had just saved her life.

Kealey studied the other woman for a moment, weighing her and her emotions quickly. The woman was obviously powerful and important, otherwise she wouldn’t have had the authority to do everything she’d already done. She’d been nothing but friendly and polite, though, and had brought them the chocolate. That counted for something, even more because Shin obviously trusted the woman.

The woman’s dark head turned and Kealey caught herself staring and blushed slightly,

”Thank you…for the hot chocolate and the shelter. I’m Kealey.”

Kealey was paying attention now, trying to puzzle out exactly what Shin was going through in his head. It was another welcome distraction from the events that were still transpiring on the television. He was puzzled and a little conflicted about something, she wanted to ask, wanted to know. Mostly, because all the concentration on Shin’s had Kealey feeling conflicted too, and she really wanted to know exactly what she should be puzzling out.

Shin’s emotions swung again and he was cool…cool as a cucumber about the whole situation. Kealey was disappointed, apparently he’d come to grips with whatever had him conflicted. Unfortunately for her, the uncertainty remained.

He said he was fine, and Kealey nodded her head, eyes traveling unbidden back to the television as she shook the hand of the woman, Megara. The question was harder, and added to Kealey’s uncertainty. Her eyes flicked to Shin for a moment, then back at Megara. This was where he’d brought her to be safe….this was who he’d called to let them in. Megara had to be trustworthy. Kealey nodded her head.

”It’s all my fault….” the blond started, ”And it all started one night when I decided to take the subway home…”

The back story wasn’t much, and it wasn’t all that long. Kealey outlined the basics and brought them to the present. ”I thought he was dead….but there he was today at the coffee shop.” Kealey stopped and shuddered, ”There were so many people around, he said he’d kill them…not me if I didn’t go along.”

The blond paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, ”He said the same thing in the street, then in the van there was….a bag….he drove, then we were on the boat and he was going to kill me. Shin stopped him.”

Kealey looked at the TV again, watching as the rescue teams worked to pull people from the water, ”If he’d gotten what he wanted….none of that would have happened.” Kealey pointed at the TV. ”So yes…it’s connected to me. It’s all my fault.”

If Megara had a reaction to what Kealey had said, she didn’t hear it. Not immediately anyway, Shin was intense again, and it was directed at her. Kealey didn’t really have a choice in whether or not she paid attention to what he was saying and she digested what he said word by word, trying to figure out if she could actually believe the things he was saying.

It sounded like the type of thing you would tell someone to make them feel better when a situation really was their fault. The problem with letting herself believe that, though, was that Kealey knew that Shin honestly believed every word he said. It was hard for the blond to ignore that, to allow that maybe Shin was right.

Kealey opened her mouth a few times to interject, but Shin wasn’t leaving any holes in his logic for her to attack. The more he spoke, the more she found her head nodding, she felt pressure on her hand and looked down to find it clasped in Shin’s. She squeezed back, going over his words in her head.

Roland had been determined to kill her, just as he’d been determined to kill that man in the subway, just as he’d been determined to bring ruin down on her old apartment. Nobody had forced him to do those things, it had been his obsession because she’d gotten in his way. Was that any more in her control than the weather? All she’d done was the right thing….for the most part. Self-sacrifice was noble, in its own way, but it was selfish in others. Shin would have been sad…really sad…if something had happened to her. Other people probably would have too…

Suddenly, Kealey flung her arms around Shin, squeezing him tight, ”Thank you….” she said, ”And I won’t ever do that again….with my powers…It was so wrong…I just didn’t know what else to do, and he had that gun and I was so scared he’d hurt you and it’d be my fault too.”

She released her grip and sat back, dashing the last few tears away from her cheeks, feeling lighter for all the admissions and the guilt that had lifted from her chest, ”You…you’re right though. I can’t control the weather…no matter how hard I try.”

Kealey looked back at the TV and shook her head, the other woman in the room still forgotten for the moment as she pondered a critical question in her head, But who can….