Atlas (The Atlas Series) (32 page)
Read Atlas (The Atlas Series) Online
Authors: Becca C. Smith
Tags: #TV, #Writer, #Smith, #Fiction, #Becca, #Comic
It was as much of an apology as Kala was ever going to get. Kala walked over to Penny and put her hand out for Penny to shake. After a few moments of hesitation, Penny finally accept Kala’s offer.
“Sorry about shooting you… and breaking your neck… and lighting you on fire… and smashing you into a wall.” Kala felt the need to apologize.
“Jack can’t become Atlas anymore, can he?” Penny asked, brushing past Kala’s apology.
“No. No one can.” Kala sighed.
“You’re the Fated One.” Penny didn’t sound happy, but she didn’t sound angry anymore either.
“Looks like,” Kala answered.
Penny’s voice cracked. “Is Jack the Potential?”
Kala felt tears in her eyes. She simply nodded.
Penny closed her eyes in pain, then opened them, looking at Kala with sympathy. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” Kala turned to watch Jack sleeping peacefully. Then she focused back on Penny. “Asmodeus called you Pandora. You’re not the
real
Pandora are you?”
Penny nodded. “I’ve been training Atlases for centuries. I thought Jack was the Fated One. I didn’t know what the scrolls meant, but seeing you…” She left the thought unfinished.
Kala knew what she meant. She hadn’t expected this outcome, either. After everything Kala had been through, finding out that Penny was Pandora just seemed to be another layer to a very large cake. Something to be filed away for later.
“I want to be alone with him,” Kala asked of Penny.
Penny didn’t argue. “If you need my help in the future…”
Kala nodded.
Penny left the apartment.
Kala took a moment before she walked over to the bed. A part of her wanted to wake Jack up to spend as much time with him as possible before she’d have to make her life-altering decision. Instead, Kala snuggled up behind him and wrapped her arm over his chest. Even in his sleep Jack instinctively clasped on to Kala’s hand and held her tight. It made her want to scream it was so emotionally painful.
Kala glanced at the clock.
0d 06h 04m 12s.
11:56 P.M.
Kala closed her eyes, letting sleep take her.
“Kala, wake up.”
Kala opened her eyes to see Jack’s face staring down at her. He leaned down and kissed her deeply. “Where have you been?” he asked between kisses.
Feeling his body on hers and his kisses made Kala want to forget everything, but instinctively she pulled away and checked the clock.
0d 00h 03m 3s.
5:57 A.M.
Three minutes until the end of the world.
Kala jumped out of bed. “Jack.”
Jack was up next to her. “What is it? Did you talk to Atlas? Did you get him to fix it?”
Kala shook her head, not wanting to accept what was happening. “Jack.”
Jack stood there, staring at Kala, obviously trying to process the situation.
“I’ve seen it, Jack. We can’t exist together. If one of us doesn’t die, the world will instead. But I won’t do it. I can’t. I can’t kill you!” Kala was almost in hysterics. Standing in front of Jack, imagining shooting him…
Kala looked around the room.
It wasn’t just the same room from Talan’s vision, it was the room where she saw herself in every television killing Jack.
“We have to get out of here.” Kala grabbed Jack’s hand and started to pull him out of the bedroom, but Jack didn’t budge.
“I knew it,” he finally spoke.
“Jack, I mean it, we have to leave. We have two minutes,” Kala pleaded.
Jack grabbed Kala’s other hand so he was holding them both. “Listen to me, Kala: I
knew
it. I knew it from the beginning. You have to do this.”
“WHAT? NO WAY!” Kala couldn’t calm herself down no matter how hard she tried.
“Kala,” Jack’s voice cracked.
It smashed Kala’s heart into a million pieces.
This was the moment. The moment of Talan’s vision where Kala ran out of the room and Jack couldn’t find her. A part of her wanted to do it. To run and never look back. Never have to do what she knew she must.
But Kala stayed where she was.
“Jack,” her voice was so small she could barely hear it.
“I was never made for this. I let you kill the President.
I
couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to.” Jack seemed to feel the need to confess to Kala, but Kala didn’t want to hear it. She just wanted to throw him over her shoulder and hide him somewhere until… until what?
As if in answer, the ground started to shake.
“It’s starting,” Kala swallowed hard.
0d 00h 01m 10s.
“Kala, it was always supposed to be you.” Jack’s eyes were so full of light and hope it made Kala want to cry.
“I can’t do it!” she screamed.
The ground shook harder, almost causing them to stumble.
Jack went to his bedside and pulled out his gun.
The
gun.
The gun from Kala’s vision.
“No, Jack.” Kala shook her head. This wasn’t happening.
Jack carefully placed the gun in Kala’s hand and knelt in front of her.
Everything was the same.
Everything was the same, except Kala couldn’t shoot him!
A jolt nearly toppled Kala to the ground.
“Kala, you have to,” Jack pleaded.
“Jack,” was all Kala could utter.
“Please. Don’t let billions die to save me. I’m not worth it.”
“Yes, you are!” Kala was crying now.
“No, Kala. I’m not. No one is.”
“Jack.”
“Kala, please.”
Kala couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t think.
Everything hurt too much.
“I won’t,” she choked.
Her head was spinning.
Kala felt the metal of the gun as if it was made of burning ice.
No.
“Please,” Jack begged.
No.
Numb.
“Kala.”
No.
“I love you, Jack.”
Kala pulled the trigger.
3d 23h 59m 59s
Becca C. Smith received her Film degree from Full Sail University and has worked in the Film and Television industry for most of her adult life. In 2010 Becca published her first novel, Riser followed by the sequel, Reaper, in 2011, and the finale, Ripper in 2013. In 2012 Becca wrote the children’s novel Alexis Tappendorf and the Search for Beale’s Treasure. She is also the co-author of the teen graphic novel Ghost Whisperer: The Haunted. Becca currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with her husband, Stephan and their two cats Jack and Duke.
Her website is: www.beccacsmith.com.
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