The star is in the wishing well
The wishing well
where it can’t be heard
can’t be heard
can’t be heard
Vessa could end it all. Couldn’t be made to murder more if she wasn’t alive to torture. No one could stop her. Except everything in her was screaming no. Was it self preservation? Or the years of resisting the opposite side of her curse. Or was it this side of the curse?
The star is in the wishing well
The wishing well
And thus all is well
All is well
All is well
Vessa’s head began to pound, and she felt herself being dragged back, but she gripped hard to the stillness of space. Where she could finally be alone. Her power was having none of it and her mind’s reach snapped back to the ship.
Vessa’s headache wasn’t as bad as when she spent all the time she could in the planet’s ocean of numbers. It still wasn’t great. Vessa stared at the wall where the door should be. She stared until it opened. Another agent, a lot more green in his uniform than the last two, came in with a tray.
He stood over her as she ate and drank. Everything tasted of nothing. She kept looking at his hand on the handle of his gun. If he started hearing numbers, he’d probably shoot her. Vessa would have to slow down the process for him to shoot her enough to overcome her healing.
Her mind kept rebelling at the idea, intent on keeping her alive. It turned out it was really hard to contemplate suicide when her mind was geared for homicide. She tried switching back, something she had been able to do, but not now.
Vessa finished, and the agent took the tray and the cup and left. It turned out even this far away, the base still had her fully under their control.
Vessa laid down, pressing her hands to her head. Her headache hurt a lot less than when she snapped back from the planet, and it was fading even now. She fell asleep to the child’s rhyme, afraid of what the next meeting with the Umbaan rep would bring.
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The star is in the wishing well
The wishing well
Down within its depths
In its depths
In its depths
Vessa jerked awake. Her eyes popped open, trying to find oranges and evade the cloying smoke, but no endless field of orange flowers greeted her. She was in her cell. Vessa reached out to the numbers to see if she could find the Umbaan rep’s number. What was he playing at?
Female 24: 64%, Male 71: 50%, Male 17: 69%, Female 44: 53%, Female 15: 68%, Male 27: 51%, Male 28: 63%
No Umbaan rep, but the numbers were lower than they should be. What was happening? She grabbed a number to dissect and find the cause.
Male 27: 54%
46% close to death: 40% unknown, 25% friendly fire, 20% the ship hitting an asteroid, 15% heart attack.
Vessa pushed against the unknown and got nothing. The first time in her life. She pushed again, harder, but all she got was an endless nothing. Again and the nothingness felt like…
It was as if there was death breathing onto the numbers, but past that… nothing. Her power was hitting up against a wall. She could dive deeper, push harder to find the answer, but….Did she care? No, not really. Her number had yet to drop, but given so many dropping, it was inevitable. A way out. Vessa started humming again.
The Star is in the wishing well
The wishing well
Where it can’t be heard
Can’t be heard
Can’t be heard
Vessa’s number began dropping. The nothingness surrounding her breathing death as if someone was heavily breathing at her ear. Vessa shivered. She could almost hear rattling. She grabbed her number and brought it to 100% before Vessa remembered she wanted to die. She let go. Her fingers gripped the bed as she felt like she was falling.
100%, 90%, 80%, 70%
Vessa was shaking, her breathing coming fast, her heart beating in her ears, and thudding against her chest. It was all she could do to not reflexively fight to lift her number.
60%, 50%, 40%
She was going to die; she was going to die. She should do something about it. Something, anything. Vessa held the image of the little girl in her mind. It was better this way.
30%, 20%, 10%
Vessa felt like she was going to vomit. Her nature was rebelling, but she was almost there. What she couldn’t do for herself, someone else was managing. All Vessa had to do was hold on.
9%, 8%,7%
If she didn’t move. Escape, she’d suffocate. Slowly, as her healing tried to fix the problem. At the knowledge, Vessa stopped fighting her nature. She couldn’t escape, so there was nothing she could do.
There was a long pause before Vessa heard a wushing sound, and her lungs began to hurt. Her heart pulsing. She was gasping for air. Her nature warring against something new. A command she couldn’t hear.
She was clawing at her throat when she heard felt a pop. And she could breathe again. She was gulping down air.
I Wish you would never teleport except with aids given to you and that you wouldn’t know that it was your power, instead of the tools.
Vessa could hear the voice. Knew she had been a child in that moment. Confused and panicked. Relieved and terrified. Were her father’s hands gripping her shoulders? Was her mother crying, begging them not to. Apologizing over and over again?
Then the memory faded, and all she cared about was breathing.
