《The First Gift》8.2 The Last of The Gifts
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The older woman coughed and spluttered, tears streaming down her face as she pulled desperately at Lara's hands, but the younger girl's grip was firm and unmoving.
Lara stared blankly at her struggling aunt. Her lifeless eyes were unblinking as she watched the naked throat snap in half with a loud crunch. Blood splattered all over her face, and Arianna's body crumpled onto the ground like a broken doll.
Just then, the door slammed open and armed guards poured into the room. Lara did not bother facing them; she barely even noticed them firing their weapons at her. The winds hummed and buzzed around her, slapping the bullets away and smashing the windows into smithereens. Stray bullets created holes all over the room. One by one, every single guard fell onto the ground, dead from their own bullets.
Finally, Lara turned away from the fallen Arianna. What used to be a lovely, cozy bedroom was now a bloody, battered wreck.
She stepped out of the room and walked down the familiar hallway. This was the building she grew up in. It was the only place she ever knew, and she basically memorized every nook and cranny. The training rooms, the cafeteria, the trainees' quarters; this was her childhood, her entire life. She had wasted so much of her life training, studying, working towards her stupid goal. All a bunch of lies.
As she drowned in her thoughts, she did not realize that every guard, every Operative, every trainee, everybody she used to be friends with, was charging at her. But it did not matter how equipped they were; no weapons could touch Lara, no Gifts could defeat hers, and no defenses could save them from Lara's unknowing wrath. Soon, everyone, even those who chose to run away, found themselves thrown mercilessly against the walls. The cracks of their bones added to the deafening echoes of destruction, while their blood painted the white, glossy walls completely red.
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The hurricane whirred stronger and faster, until the metallic walls cranked under the pressure. The building came crumbling down, falling all around the blood-drenched Lara like chalky, grey waterfalls. The teenage girl stood, silent and unfeeling, as she stared at the only place she had ever known turning into unrecognizable rocks and dusts.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Lara slowly turned around.
The First Lady was standing behind her, donning her signature tiara and long gown. Her platinum blonde hair seemed to glow; her temperate beauty and elegant calmness was a stark contrast against the dull, ashen surroundings. It was as if she was an angel sent down from heaven, tasked to save the world from an imminent threat.
"Elena," Lara said.
"Lara," Elena answered coolly. She was the only person not affected by the growing windstorm around her. "What happened to Ryan? Did he die?"
Ryan.
Lara's eyes twitched. A wave of emotions hit her, instantly jolting her out of her trance state.
Ryan.
"Did you kill him to get his Gift?" Elena asked with a derisive smirk. "I didn't know you were the cruel type, Lara."
"You." Lara's voice was shrill and shaky. "You are the one responsible for everything."
"No, you are." Elena lifted her hands. "Have you looked around, my child? This is all you. You're the real terror here."
Lara blinked. For the first time, the fog cleared from her brain and she finally took in the surroundings. Immediately, the images of the bloodied corpses and debris flooded her vision. She gasped, and staggered a little; the winds came to a complete halt.
"No, no, no..." she mumbled. "What have I done..."
Elena smiled. She raised a pistol.
"Just die already."
The words were spoken with so much force that Lara felt them weigh down all over her body. They reverberated throughout her head; her skull throbbed in pain and her heart clenched up.
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Then, Elena pressed the trigger, and time seemed to slow down. Lara watched helplessly as the bullet flew towards her. She wanted to move, to dodge, to run away, but an invisible force was holding her back from it.
The bullet touched her forehead, and she exploded.
Lara screamed. All the pain, confusion, sadness, grief, anger; every emotion that was brewing inside her, was let out into one harrowing, ear-piercing scream. A strong blast of wind ejected from her, blasting everything away; its force was unmatched by any atomic bombs, any massive air strikes, any weapons of mass destruction known to mankind. Everything was annihilated at once; everything, including what was left of the building; everything, including the shell-shocked First Lady; everything, including the rest of the city, country... Earth.
In the aftermath, everything had become nothing. As far as Lara could see, there was nothing. All through the horizon, it was plain, empty, nothing.
Lara whimpered and fell onto her knees.
The sky rumbled. Rain plunged from the dark clouds as tears flowed from Lara's eyes. The grayness of the heavens seemed to be embracing the grayness of the ruins, like a mother caressing her newborn baby.
Earth was reborn.
And the sole survivor, the last of the First Gift, sat alone and forsaken, doused in the torrent of rains.
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