Falling Apart

Adelaide walked into the facility slowly, watching to see if anyone would notice that she was out of place. No one did. The facility didn't even have a front desk or anything like that. There was no one around at all as she walked the halls and surveyed the rooms. There were people in most of them. Some of them looked sick and like they hadn't slept in a long time, and others looked fresh-faced and ready for the world. There were no offices or anything like that other than the rooms themselves, and she wondered where anyone got any real work done.

Finally, she found a door that opened on a staircase. She climbed the stairs slowly and quietly. As she got to the top, she could hear people talking. Adelaide paused, listening in. She could hear her sister and five or six people she didn't know.

"And they just let you go?" one asked.

"Yeah, but not before my idiot of a sister shocked me a few times, nothing major though," Adrianna said, sounding proud of herself.

"Your sister is the one with strength and healing, right?" another voice asked.

"Yeah, unfortunately. If she didn't fucking heal, we would have put her down a long time ago," Adrianna's voice came again, and her words shocked Adelaide.

"And the clown?" a third unknown voice questioned.

"He's alive, for now. After we exterminate Adelaide, he'll be much easier to get to," Adrianna said.

Adelaide stood there in shock for a few minutes, listening to the rest of their conversation. Suddenly, she heard someone coming up behind her. She turned just in time to be hit over the head with something. The hit wasn't hard enough, though, because she was able to stay upright. The man who had hit her looked at her confused and reached to hit her again. She grabbed his arm and pushed him backwards. He fell, making quite a bit of noise as he tumbled down the stairs. The people in the room above her could be heard scrambling and suddenly they all appeared right in front of her.

"Adelaide?" her sister asked, forcing her voice to sound sweet.

"Hi, Adrianna," Adelaide shot back, looking her sister in the eye.

"What are you doing here?" Adrianna asked, and Adelaide could see one of the men behind her reaching for a gun.

"I don't think so, mister," Adelaide said, whipping out her own pistol and brandishing it dramatically.

"Adelaide, you don't want to do this," Adrianna told her, taking a step towards her.

"Why? So you can 'put me down'?" Adelaide asked, using finger quotes around the end.

"Addy, you don't know what you're talking about," Adrianna told her, and before Adelaide even realized it was happening, she was raising her gun and shooting the people standing around her sister. All of them thumped down the stairs roughly, leaving her sister pale-faced. "Adelaide," she whispered, looking around her.

"Yes, sis?" Adelaide asked, smiling up at her sister. She moved up the few stairs between them until they were face to face.

Adrianna lunged for her once she stepped off of the stairs, making her topple backwards. They tussled for a while until Adelaide finally got her pinned up against a wall in front of her. Adrianna bit her hand, making her let go and take a step back. When Adelaide looked up again, she was holding a gun with a glowing green chamber.

"Did you know that when we shoot our little mixture into the brain of someone like you, it kills them instantly no matter what their ability is?" Adrianna asked, pointing the gun straight at Adelaide. She ducked just as her sister fired off a shot that whizzed into the wall right behind her.

"You're going to kill me?" Adelaide asked, tears rising to her eyes.

"You were dead to me as soon as you sided with that maniacal freak," Adrianna spat, shooting again as Adelaide dodged it just barely.

"Adrianna, don't do this," Adelaide pleaded, hiding behind a desk.

"It's already happening," Adrianna told her, laughing just slightly.

"Fine," Adelaide hissed, standing up and shooting her sister directly in the chest. Adrianna gasped, dropping her gun and falling to the floor.

"Addy," she wheezed when Adelaide crossed the room to stand beside her.

"You did this, Adrianna," Adelaide whispered, kneeling beside her sister. "You didn't give me a choice."

A moment later, Adrianna was gone. Adelaide stared at her in shock for a few moments, tears pouring down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she whispered, sliding her sister's eyes shut. She retreated to a far corner of the room, hysterically crying as she pulled out her phone to call J.

"Adelaide?" His voice was already concerned.

"J... I... did... something... bad..." she told him, sobbing between each word.

"What? What happened?"

"I... need you."

"I'll be there as fast as I can."

The line clicked dead as she tossed her phone onto the floor and sobbed.

It felt like years went by as she sat and waited for J to come. Finally, he bounded up the stairs, four of his men following closely behind.

"Adelaide? Addy?! Are you okay?" he asked, kneeling in front of her and taking her face in his hands, looking her over.

"I killed them. I killed them all," she sobbed, her face falling forward as he let go and surveyed the room for the first time.

"Is that..?" he trailed off, looking at the body closest to them.

"It's Adrianna. I killed... I killed... my sister," she whispered, her words still interrupted by rough sobs.

"Adelaide, what happened?" J asked, taking her face again and gently forcing her to look at him. "Tell me, doll."

So, she did. She recounted every detail she could remember, and J did his best to listen through the sobs that were still racking her body. When she was done, her whole body collapsed forward and he took her into his arms.

"Adelaide, we've got to get out of here. We don't know if anyone else will be coming to look for any of them," J whispered a few minutes later, kissing the top of her head gently. "Come on, dollface. Let's get you home, okay?" he asked her quietly and it was all she could do to nod slightly. J barked some orders to the men that were still standing behind them and then picked Adelaide up in a swift movement to carry her out of the facility.