Chapter 152: A Little Thanks

Warnings came too late. 

My words, urgent, frantic, reached her… just as it always was with me, too little and too late.

Like the drop of a guillotine's sharpened edge, the fall of death's swift embrace was near-instant. I heard it - the slam, the explosion, the clunking crunch of shattered concrete. Felt it - the rattle in the walls, the floors, another violent tremor that unsteadied all. And saw it - Ash, Jay, disappearing in a thick cloud of dirt and dust.

For a moment, there was only the quiet, only the frantic beating of my heartbeat pounding hard against my eardrums. My lungs felt ready to burst at the seams, I needed to breathe but I just couldn't - everything just went rigid. 

It was like my entire body locked itself up, like it's forgotten to do everything else apart from staring - it wanted to just keep staring, keep hearing… hoping that my too little wasn't at all too late.