End Of The Line // Ralph Dibny

Chapter 31 - No More Lies

I looked into her eyes briefly then turned my attention to the front of the room. I knew I had practiced this illusion before, it was one of the many I was planning to showcase to our team. I closed my eyes and filled in the details of what I wanted to see in front of me when I opened them. I clenched my fist and my eyes opened, slowly the illusion started to form.

It was like watching a movie, the entire front of the room had morphed into the inside of a bus, particularly bus 405. In the seat on the center of the bus sat me, hunched over a book and headphones dangling down from my ears.

I turned my head and glanced at Iris. As I expected, her jaw was left agape and her eyes were wide, she looked between me and the one sitting on the bus multiple times before she said lightly, still putting the pieces together, "You are a... a metahuman?"

My eyes quickly darted to my double and she turned her head and pulled out an earphone. "Yep," she smiled and I mentally cursed myself for making her so happy. Her smile quickly dropped.

Iris's head snapped in her direction and her eyebrows knotted.

She glared back at me extremely confused, "You control her?"

The double responded, "not just me," she motioned to her surroundings, "everything here." I quickly fluttered my fingers and a blast irrupted outside the bus causing the girl to fall down and hit her head, knocking her out cold.

Iris gasped and then slowly approached the illusion. She stood directly in front of it for a minute then tentatively reached out her hand, almost as though the image would suddenly snap and bite her like an animal. Though when she touched it she sent a ripple effect of glitches throughout the illusion and I tried to concentrate and keep it up.

"It's not real," she realized and turned her head back to me. "It's like an... illusion."

She returned to my bedside and I let the mirage drop, I tried to take in a deep breath but it was cut short from the pain bubbling in my throat. Iris quietly sat down in the chair at my bedside.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she finally asked and I looked away ashamed. I knew that question would come up eventually.

I couldn't respond. When I tried to set up another illusion to tell her but my hand didn't respond, instead I felt the weight of it being held up and I let it fall to the bed. I didn't even realize how tired I suddenly felt... the illusion was too big, too detailed, and I was too weak.

I rolled my head to look at her, I tried to convey the pain I felt about lying, that I was guilty.

I winced, and used all my strength to formulate words, "I..." I felt a tear roll down my cheek, "I... couldn't-"

The pain was overwhelming, it got to the point where I wanted to cry out for it to stop, but I knew that if I did, the suffering would triple.

Iris knew I was in pain and she told me that I could just tell her later after I heal, and I after I get a much-needed rest.

I let my eyes lids finally close.

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This time when I opened my eyes the room was dark. I sighed in relief, having no big bright light shining in my eyes was something I needed to cherish.

Unfortunately, the peace didn't last as long as I had hoped, for one, very simple question bounced into my mind... How long was I out?!

My eyes widened and darted around the room frantically. No one was here.

"H-hello?" I croaked out and surprisingly the pain was not absolutely excruciating, but don't get me wrong, it hurt like a bitch.

I pushed on the bed and sat up, still scanning the room around me. Then I had a mini heart attack, this wasn't the place I fell asleep in. My hands seemed to leap to feel my surroundings, whatever I had been sleeping on was way softer than the medical beds at S.T.A.R. Labs. It was, to my surprise, a queen-sized extremely comfortable mattress. I squinted and scanned the room again, this wasn't my room, or Dibny's for the matter.