24. The Pros and Cons of Breathing
The Pros and Cons of Breathing
Dustin tried to scream, but the wind was literally taking his breath away. He wasn’t even entirely sure what words he was even trying to get out, he was just fucking yelling; desperate to get through to his brother in spite of everything that happened between them.
Chris, or rather, Qin Shi Huang wearing his skin, simply glared at Dustin and Bailey while he continued to batter them with a tempest. They still couldn’t move; the force of the wind too strong to do anything but submit.
The best-case scenario was that they’d lose consciousness soon, so they at least wouldn’t be aware of the suffocation that was clearly coming for them.
But… the wind suddenly ceased.
Bailey and Dustin fell to the ground, gasping for air as Chris still loomed over them, his body seeming to twitch involuntarily.
Dustin’s eyes darted up at him, waiting for him to incinerate them in their vulnerable state, but every time Chris raised his hands like he was planning to attack, they’d drop back at his sides, limp and useless.
“This one’s resolve is not to be understated,” the voice coming out of Chris’s mouth reminded Dustin so much of when Leo was taken over.
Such a familiar voice speaking in a way that was just wrong, “he was so eager to embrace my power. So willing to erase you from existence, as though you were little more to him than a persistent stain. But now, he resists? And is powerful enough to withstand my will? Fascinating,”
“Of course he’s strong enough, you son of a bitch,” Bailey spat, pulling herself off the ground and staring Chris down, “No one’s ever been able to force Christian fucking Ying of all people to do anything he doesn’t wanna do. Now let him go!”
“Chris” barked out a scoff.
“All things break. Some simply require more focused effort,” he turned his back, walking across the yard as Dustin helplessly watched, unable to form a coherent thought, let alone a sentence, “make the most of the time left to you. When we next meet, it shall be at an end,”
With that, another monstrous surge of wind forced Bailey backwards, and sent Dustin rolling a few feet away as Chris blasted himself into the sky, disappearing completely in a matter of seconds.
Only once he was gone, did Dustin find his voice again.
“CHRISTIAN!” the scream was mostly involuntary. More a pained shriek than anything else. So powerful and raw that it burned his throat as it echoed fruitlessly into the air.
He scrambled to his feet, running ahead as if it was possible to catch up to his brother on foot.
He was so single-minded in his reckless determination, that he hadn’t even remembered the fact that Bailey’s house was on a cliffside until he was almost falling, with Bailey’s well-timed pull on his hoodie the only thing stopping him from going over the edge.
“Dustin, hey, listen to me okay?” she said, turning him to face her and cupping his face in her hands, “it’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna find him, but right now we need to…”
“HE’S GONE!” Dustin cut her off, his voice somewhere between a whine and a snarl. The veins around his eyes blackened as his emotions churned, and he could faintly hear the water from the harbor below stirring with them, “how the fuck can you tell me it’s gonna be okay?!”
“Because I have to believe it just as much as you do!” Bailey shouted, grabbing onto Dustin’s collar in an attempt to stabilize herself as much as shake some sense into him, “if you think I’m not fucking gutted right now, you’re wrong!
But I can’t let you kill yourself chasing after him, because if I lose you too then I don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do!
So please Dustin, please calm down. For my sake,”
Dustin looked into Bailey’s eyes, seeing how the yellow light of her powers pulsed within them as they trembled…
And he completely broke down.
The next thing he knew he was on his knees in the mud, sobbing, coughing, and babbling as Bailey just held him close.
“I… I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Chris is gone. Bailey he’s really gone! God what do I do?!”
“I, d-don’t know,” Bailey admitted, her voice barely registering, “I’m so sorry Dustin,”
“Woah… what’s going on here?”
Dustin’s attention snapped to the source of the sudden intruding voice, only to see Chloe stepping out of her Mercedes that she’d parked right next to his dad’s Escalade.
“Chloe? What are you… oh fuck, we were supposed to spend the holiday watching Dreamgirls,” Bailey pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration at the recollection.
“Yeah,” Chloe said, tentatively stepping forward with a DVD in one hand, and a grocery bag overflowing with microwave popcorn packets in the other, “I can clearly see that something’s wrong though. Dustin, what’s the matter?”
“Let me explain,” Bailey said, patting Dustin’s shoulder in a way that silently reassured him he didn’t need to attempt to verbalize anything right now.
She made her way across the yard to Chloe, and relayed the events in a hushed tone.
The second she finished, Chloe gasped and dropped both the bag and the DVD, her hands covering her mouth as she stepped backwards.
“Oh my god,” she mumbled, her eyes slowly shifting to Dustin, “you poor thing. I won’t ask if you’re okay; I know the last thing you need is a dumb ass question like that. Do we have any leads on where Chris might be? Did the emperor say anything that might give us a clue?”
“No,” Dustin hoarsely muttered, “just that Chris’s will could be broken, with enough effort,”
“Shit,” Chloe practically hissed, “well, obviously that’s bad. But… it might work in our favor,”
“I’m really hoping you’re gonna explain how,” Bailey said, crossing her arms and furrowing her brow.
“Because it means that he’s not fully under the emperor’s control, which might buy us time to find a way to save him. We can ask Sima Yao what our next move should be,”
Right, Sima Yao. In all his hysterics, Dustin had all but forgotten their ghost mentor who was more familiar with all of this than any of them.
He tried to close his eyes and attune his element to the others, the way he did whenever they needed to head to the Palace of Radiant Clouds.
He could feel the depth and pressure of his water, the shaky but still firm presence of Bailey’s earth, the sharp focus of Chloe’s metal, and the distant but vibrant presence of James’s wood…
but instead of Chris’s fire, all he felt was static.
“I can’t sense Chris or his ring. It took all of our powers being awakened for us to transport to the palace at will…”
“Which means we might not be able to go back without Chris. Fuck,” Chloe shook her head, “okay, we need to regroup and work this out. But first, we need to make sure the boat doesn’t get rocked too much.
I know it hurts like Hell, but you’ve gotta head home and reassure your parents that everything is okay,”
“How the fuck am I supposed to do that?” Dustin said, finally pulling himself off the ground and brushing the mud off his pants, “my dad’s expecting me to bring Chris home,”
Chloe tapped her chin in thought for a moment, and then realization flashed in her eyes… followed by a beleaguered sigh.
“Tell them… me and Chris are back together and he’s spending the long weekend with me since my mom is on a business trip,”
“Wait, WHAT?!” Bailey cut in, “but you’re not into Chris like that! You said it yourself!”
“Girl relax, I’m not moving in on your territory,” Chloe said, briefly eyeing Chris’s T shirt that Bailey was still wearing, along with the hickeys lingering on her neck, “it just needs to be believable. Dustin’s mom loved me, so she’ll be thrilled and won’t ask too many questions,”
“I hate how much sense that makes,” Bailey reluctantly admitted, “do you think you’re up for it Dusty?”
Dustin weakly nodded; not so much out of any confidence in himself, but more because he was too exhausted to object.
“If you need anything, don’t hesitate to put those ‘Free Nights and Weekends minutes’ to good use. We’re just a call away, alright?” Chloe said, coming closer and putting a supportive hand on his shoulder, “We’ll call and get James up to speed, so don’t worry about that. We’re in this with you,”
Dustin nodded, knowing she was right… but completely unable to feel it.
It was like he’d forgotten how to breathe. Like he’d actually died when Qin Shi Huang was suffocating them and every moment since then had been a punishing underworld.
But if anything was painfully consistent in his life, it was that even in times of crisis, he had no choice but to force himself to keep breathing in spite of it all.
To keep enduring, no matter the weight.