Chapter 20

Sounds and voices echo around in my head and pain flows through every fiber of my being. The sounds bounce around, but no matter how hard I concentrate, I can't make out words. I try to move, but I can't.

I'm dead, bullets finally took me out.

At least I can't harm anyone anymore, and at least I had saved as many as I could.

Laughter bounces around in my skull, causing the pain to spike.

"You saved all you could, but yet you couldn't save your parents." A haunting voice whispers to me as the black of my sight begins to shift into dark mist.

"You saved people that would have loved to see you locked up like the monster you are! You even revived a man that was hunting you down. Pathetic." A figure materializes in the mist, but I don't need to see her face to know she's the dark me.

"They had no choice, they were just protecting their world from danger, my danger." I argue to her, and she laughs.

"You do have one thing correct, we are a danger. We're a danger to those who stand in our way, for those who dare go against us. We-"

"We?" I interrupt. "No, you. You are the danger, you are the one who has these sick interests of mass murder, of domination, and for what? What do you have to prove?" I say as her wicked grin fades from her face.

"No matter how much you deny," she takes a small step towards me, "No matter how much you pretend, you know deep down, we are the same, you and I. We are the same person, though born dimensions ap-" She hesitates, and suddenly it clicks in my head.

"You're the girl, the me, from this universe, the one who was murdered."

She sighs. "Guess the cat's out of the bag, huh? Was never good at keeping secrets for long." She says, slightly turning from me.

"You were a kind person, why do you feel the need to murder? Please, think about this! This isn't you." I try to plead some sense into her, but she shakes her head.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" She screams, and I feel myself flinch. "I never had an opportunity to become who I wanted to! The people in my life didn't care about who I was, only what I could be used for! They thought I would never amount to much, but I'll show them," She looks to me and smiles, "We'll show them who we are."

"No. No matter how much bad is in this world, it doesn't mean there isn't good, and it's a shame you never got to experience the good."

"Oh, I got to experience the good, but the second I was beginning to become happy, it was yanked away!" Her image shifts to mangled and bloodied, her head half bashed in and her arm missing. "Do you see me, do you see me after I had become happy? I had a car, a license, freedom! And it was snatched away by a pair of bolt cutters and a tree." Tears mix with blood as they run down her face, and I strain to move. Slowly, I move to wrap my arms around her, and I hold her as her body shakes with sobs.

"The people that harmed you, they're dead. They can't hurt you anymore, and killing people won't reverse anything from the past." I pull away and watch as her gruesome image fades away to a tired-looking teenager with puffy eyes and a tear-stained face.

"You can't dwell on the events of the past, you have to move forward and work with the cards you've been dealt, not try to shoot the dealer." She sniffs, and looks to her feet.

"Come on, we're both dead, so let's go." I try to walk, but she looks at me, confused.

"Wait, you're not dead, though." She says, her face fading.

Bitch, what?

The mist dissipates with her, turning my vision black. I open my eyes and find myself standing beside a shrouded body. Looking around, I see a couple of armed guards chilling on their phones, sitting next to the open door.

Looking back to the body, I start feeling queasy. I grab the top of the sheet and pull it back, revealing my own face underneath, the left side of my head caved in and open, but the opening is crammed full of cotton.

I look pale and, well, dead. What had other me meant when she said I wasn't dead?

"Yes sir?" The guard's voice startles me, and I turn to see who he's talking to. He still sits next to the doorway, pressing a finger to his ear. He looks right at me but then looks away.

Good, he can't see me.

"Yes sir, all quiet." He removes his finger and turns to his partner.

"Boss said to transport her to lobby. Let's go." They stand and walk through me, then push the cart out the door, and I follow. We get into the elevator and I decide to take it with them.

When we reach the ground floor, I follow them to a small group that had collected by the glass doors.

Natasha stands on her phone while Bucky sits off to the side, right next to Sam. The guards stop the cart next to another with a simple wooden box, then they lift my body and place it inside.

The group walks out into the evening sunshine and heads towards a hole under a tree. When we reach it, my box is lowered into the ground and covered in dirt.

"Alright, let's get back to work," Nat says after the hole is completely filled in. The group files back to the warehouse, but I stay. Looking to the sky, I sigh.

Guess I can officially cross attending my own funeral off of my bucket list. Next up is learning to fly and go back to my own dimension.