He ran and he ran. Most of the time, running calmed the constant pressure of his mind.

Now he ran with desperate purpose. The ringing of the phone had been the first clue that one of them tracked the wrong way. He trusted Chayton and his sense of smell. He may not know how strong it was but he never underestimated the natural world. He suspected the ringing phone had been a trick but when it went to voice mail and the sounds matched, he wondered.

When they reached the picture, he knew it couldn’t be right. Falling out of the ride? But still, it couldn’t be ignored.

When he confronted the park employee, and the indifferent confirmation of the falling girl proved that everyone in the park but them had fallen under the influence of the attackers.

When he pulled him back around and Crazy Annie dispelled her illusion, he knew he’d been wrong all along. Chayton had been manipulated. He had to get to Allison before she died.

So he ran. He could hear Barbe panting behind him, her steps slowly fading as he gained ground with his long eyes. That didn’t matter because she would gather the others and bring them here but he couldn’t wait.

The math was easy, his mind calculating the most direct path and trajectory with ease. So he ran.

He ran.

When he climbed through the rocks and the supports of this section of the water ride, water splashed over him, but all he could see was the broken and bleeding body crumpled on the concrete twenty feet below. How could he have doubted his own senses

He panicked. He scrambled down. He couldn’t lose someone, not again. Hope and panic intermingled. He had found her and he could heal anything. He’d healed Felix after all. He’d saved Jeremiah even if he’d left him. That doesn’t count as losing, did it?

He knelt beside the young woman he’d come to love, feeling for a pulse. Was it there? The blood and contorted body pushed fear into his mind.

He pushed back. He could do this.

Power pulsed and he shoved his power into her body. A sigh rippled through him as he felt the pain of wounds hit his body. He’d made it in time after all.

Then…..power pulsed again as he ripped the wounds from her, but…he screamed as vertebrae shatter, blood spurted from shattered limbs, ribs splintered, piercing the skin to the outside, tearing lungs on the inside.

As blood filled his lungs, he leaned forward, planting a bloody kiss on her forehead, murmuring, “I love you.”

The scent of orange and honey shampoo wafted on the bloody breeze as he gurgled a scream as his skull shattered and the power collapsed, dragging him into the never ending black.