"Celine?!"

"Mommy!"

"Baby is that you?!"

Scarlet can hear the clear desperation in her voice as she screams her daughter's name. It really sounds so Hollywood but she just can't believe it's really her. In her mind, all she keeps repeating is; "she's alive! She's alive!"

The stranger stays there, eyeing her curiously with a pair of creased eyebrows. Hopefully he has nothing better to do. Note the sacarsm.

She can almost see the questions stirring behind the wheels of his already nosy mind. She couldn't blame him if she wanted to, if Northgate wasn't a too-busy town, everyone else would have been convened around her from the way she is screaming but Scarlet can't help herself.

Then again, it's not like her to care what others think anyway.

Or she could actually; blame him that is. Scarlet thinks. What is he doing following her around? The man is becoming a pain in her back side. Whether or not he's here to kill her, or extract information is beyond her. For now.

The little lady on the other side of the line doesn't sound like a kidnapped five year old though. Far from it, Celine sounds like she has just come back from a stroll in the park and a drop by at an icecream parlour. And she has, because at the moment, she is retelling her "amaz-jing" experience to her mother.

"The word is 'amazing' my love. I've told you this a million times." Scarlet corrects gently. She doesn't want to scare her baby, she also desperately needs to know where she is. There's no way on earth she can be at home. But even in her current panicked state, Scarlet decides to tread lightly.

"But it was only one time mommy!" Celine screeches.

"Um," Scarlet pauses, trying to find a way to explain to her. "...yes honey 'a million times' is something we grown ups use figuratively."

"Oh." Celine sighs contentedly. "Mommy?"

"Yes honey?"

"What is 'figuratively'?" she asks.

Great.

Scarlet takes a deep calming breath. She really loves her daughter extremely much but sometimes she just wants to put her at a shooting range. Ok bad joke, but the little thing is frustrating to no end. She asks questions at completely inappropriate times. Right now Scarlet is afraid, desperate. Are they forcing Celine to say she's at home? Scarlet doesn't know- and not knowing terrifies her.
But then how would Celine know of her mother's tension? Because apparently she doesn't feel like she was kidnapped. She can't blame her daughter.

"Um, why don't we do this baby? You tell me where you are, I come get you and explain figuratively, sound good?"

"I'm on my bed with Mr. King mommy I've told you!" The little girl whines, displeased.

Her mother pauses for a moment. She remembers leaving King at home, and Celine wasn't there then.

Maybe Celine is telling the truth, maybe she's actually at home. Tears- they brim in the corners of her eyes, she's been doing more crying in the past two days than she has in her whole lifetime.

That's weakness! She can almost hear Victor's voice bellowing in her ears. I don't train weaklings, I train people with no weaknesses- strong as machines.

But in the moment, Scarlet doesn't care. Because the happiness she feels in that moment is nothing like any kind she's ever felt before. 
Her little girl really is at home. It's surreal. It doesn't matter how she got back, it matters that she's at home and unhurt.

A wide grin that has never before met her face appears. She can practically feel it tearing her face in two.

After a whole two days of feeling empty and cold inside, warmth settles somewhere inside her, in shape of the safety of a five year old curly haired girl with green eyes.

The lump that's been choking the life out of her finally dissolving like an ice block placed under the sun. Her whole body heats up as she says her goodbyes and sends kisses to her baby. With promises of getting home in a second and tear soaked cheeks, Scarlet removes her scorching phone from her ear to hang up on her daughter.

Except her phone is burning.

Literally.

She'd heard insinuations about phones that burn and explode but couldn't imagine her three year old beloved phone doing it. Hydra; her best friend, gym trainer, IT guy...you name it. He had had it shipped to her straight from the company.

That conning little son of a...

She makes a mental note to demand a refund from him.

Except the phone isn't the only thing burning.

Scarlet releases an audible gasp. It's almost like a loud hiccup, the kind of sound that should be illegal coming from someone like her. She's supposed to be a fucking machine for crying out loud! Scarlet can hardly recognise it but it's really come from her mouth.

And so is the ocean blue burning bright light being emitted from her hands. Her phone slips through her palms as she looks up to see if anyone else is seeing what she is.

She ought to be imagining it.

Or so she thought.

When her confused and afraid eyes meet the stranger whose are wide as saucers, Scarlet realises that she isn't the only one seeing the light.

He sees it too!

Scarlet screams. Her eyes burn with fresh tears as her shriek fades.

What the..?

What is going on?

Oh my god!

Scarlet Greene has always thought she's seen everything there's to see on earth, but boy has she been wrong. Because this, she has surely yet to see anything like it.
Shaky breaths escape her lips as horror settles in and fills Scarlet's whole being, every vein, every nerve ending, outweighing any nerve calming training she's ever received from NATD. She does what she thinks might help the situation.

She runs.

He follows.

Scarlet can't even bring herself to wonder what kind of man follows a burning woman or whatever she is. She's too horrified to think of anything else but what's happening to her. Once she had let the phone slip out of her hands, the light stopped scorching her body, but it is still there; in her palms.

With jumbled and terrified thoughts, Scarlet continues running down another alleyway, it's a short path and soon enough, she is back on to the busy main roads. The tears haven't stopped but she can't bring her hands up to rub them off.

Scarlet has been chased by dangerous people her whole life, she knows how to defend herself, or run, or even hide when shit gets out of hand.
She's good at all these things.

But what happens now?

What happens now that the person she's scared of is her own self?

She has almost forgotten about the man chasing after her--another one of her problems --when she hears someone screaming out her name.

"SCARLET!" The male voice cries out.

Scarlet freezes in her tracks immediately.

The voice, if the prior occurrences were anything to go by, Scarlet is sure she knows this voice!

Shirley.

And she did not tell him her name. She hastily starts off again, running blindly to get away from the man and herself, now she knows why he was chasing after her.

He knows her.

That comes as no surprise to Scarlet, in fact, she never would've minded a little one on one with him. But not today, not right now, she feels too weak, too vulnerable to fall prey. She needs to get away from him before he catches up with her.
But Shirley doesn't stop screaming her name. 

And that's when she sees it.

Fuck!

A trailer truck is coming at Scarlet at full speed. A shrill ear splitting honk sounding from its horn.

Death is a cunning thing, it can trick your mind, make you think you have options a way out, when you really don't. Because right now, Scarlet's saviour can only be herself, she's her only way out of the truck's way. Yet, the moment Scarlet comes face to face with death, she just freezes.

In about two seconds, she blinks, finally coming up for her daze. Once, twice. She closes her eyes, momentarily forgetting about how scared she was of her hands a minute ago. She needs them right now.

Every one of your senses Scarlet,  all except sight. Victor's voice echoes in her mind as she tries to focus. Her heart is a drum somewhere in her chest, her legs experiencing their own exclusive earthquake. But she ignores it all, and in a move as swift as a lightning bolt, Scarlet somersaults out of the trailer truck's way.

But it is too late.

As the humongous truck rounds the corner, it's head brushes Scarlet's back. Scarlet goes flying through the air like a plastic bag, crashing into a gigantic bike on the opposite side of the road. She lands with a thump and disturbing sounds of breaking bones. An evanescent pain cuts through her skull, going through her whole body as if slicing her into two, then disappears all together leaving behind a head splitting headache with back and muscle pain.

Scarlet watches as her own blood gushes all over the sidewalk. She watches as people convene around her, and continues to watch as the man she had gotten to know as Shirley collects her body into his strong arms, shock written all over his beautiful face.

Why isn't she passing out? Scarlet wonders. Why is she awake?

She can hear everything and everyone's tale of the story as she watches. Even in her state, relief washes through her when none of the witnesses witnessed the main issue; the light in her hands.
She can hear the sirens approaching from a distance.
But she can't hear her own heart beat. And she no longer feels any pain. Is she dead? But she can't die! Not yet!

But dead people don't see, or hear anything.
This time Scarlet really is scared. Images of her little girl begin flashing through her mind. Celine sitting on the kitchen island waiting for her breakfast while clutching Mr. King tightly on her lap. The way she giggles when he tickles her with his paw, the way she pouts whenever she's leaving him behind.

Her bright smile.

Her scowl.

Her pout.

Her sweet little voice.

Her angelic laugh.

Being the devil's advocate, Scarlet can tell an angel when she sees one. And if Celine isn't an angel, then she doesn't know what is.
She's the most beautiful thing in Scarlet's life. The part of her that reminds her that even after everything, Scarlet is still human. Celine is the little bright light that burns in her dark, dark soul.

She's the one living proof that even the void that is Scarlet's heart can still give love, and can be loved just as much. And right here, now, Scarlet realises that even in death, she is going to carry the pain of losing her daughter, it's not like she's going to be best friends with the company awaiting her arrival in the underworld. But most importantly, if she dies now, only God knows what could happen to Celine. Images of her in a foster home with monstrous foster parents cross Scarlet's mind.
Celine being hit. Celine starving. Celine crying...Celine suffering.
How would she handle that? How would she watch in spirit as the little girl she has loved more than life itself  cries with no one around to hug her? She can not die!

Shirley's silver grey eyes look Scarlet dead in hers while he presses his long fingers on her neck, looking for a pulse maybe?

Please be there! She begs her pulse. Be there please! We can't even afford to go in comatose, you hear me? We have a five year old waiting for us at home!

Fight, you're not giving up! She presses as she continues to stare into the stranger's eyes, fighting, trying to blink, promising him that she's still in there. Begging him not to give up. But the look on the man's face says otherwise. He gives up.

"I can't feel anything!" Shirley shouts, running a hand through his brown curls as the paramedics approach. "There's no pulse, I don't understand. Her eyes are open!" He looks awfully frustrated and for a moment Scarlet is confused about why this stranger would give a damn about her. Of course, he was no stranger, for he knew her. But if he had been sent to kill Scarlet then shouldn't he be happy that his job has been done for him? Maybe he's just a psychopath who feels the need to finish things with his own hands. Scarlet comes to a conclusion. Yes. That has to be it.

Two paramedics brush past Shirley, ignoring his frustrated cries. They lift Scarlet's body onto the stretcher and take her onto the way to the ambulance.

Scarlet is alive. She is.

She knows this because she can see and hear everyone, but that little shred of hope too, is slowly being ripped away from her.
The people, the skyscrapers, the sky, Shirley and the parademics. They're all becoming but silhouettes. The silhouettes turn into a thick fog and that's when her eyelids succumb to the heaviness dragging them down.

Scarlet's eyes slide shut. Shit No!

Her mind's screams and pleas to herself not to sleep go unheeded as two last teardrops make their way from her closed eyes down into her ears, leaving behind a trail in their wake.

And everything goes deeply dark.

Dark like her soul.

"Shit! Shit!" A distant voice reiterates, "Do something damn it, she's closing her e-"