Absolute Gravity

“I’m so tired,” Graham told me as he slumped down on the end of my bed. I was terrified. Panicked. But I couldn’t stop the memory from flowing.

“I bet,” I told him. I was trying to fold my laundry. But the reality is that I was trying to stop. As if I could jump back to that moment. Force myself out of it. “Chaos,” I pleaded. But she didn’t listen. “Bucky—Wanda—anyone?”

“I’m grateful for this job. I really am. But sometimes, I kind of wish I’d been thrown headfirst into a career that doesn’t involve representing an Avenger. Like a marketing firm. Maybe a good small-town library.”

“You wouldn’t last ten minutes in a library. You think chucking burritos is bad? I can’t imagine the penalty for books. But I get it. I don’t envy you. And both of you have more backbone than I do. I couldn’t handle the stress.”

“Says the woman who took on Hydra with her bare hands.” I snorted.

“And look where that got me.”

“How are you feeling, though? Everyone’s been so distracted by all this interplanetary drama that I haven’t been able to check on you. You’re up today. So that’s a good sign.”

I shrugged and went back to folding shirts. My monitors were on, but Tony didn’t like it when I let people into my space anyway. Clara was in the other room talking to Secretary Ross, and I’d made an exception for Graham. One, so she could have privacy. And two, because the poor kid needed a break. I figured we were safe as long as I kept an eye on my monitors.

“I’m tired,” I admitted. “It’s been a few days since the last time I threw up. So that’s a bonus. But I’ll never get the taste of it out of my mouth.” He didn’t say anything, and I breathed in deeply. My breath came in and out raggedly and sharply. “I’m not getting any better, but it seems to be stagnating again. Which just means it’s about to get worse again.”

He still hadn’t responded. So I set the shirt down and turned to an empty room. I knew what this meant. Sometimes the memories were so real that I didn’t realize it was something I’d seen before. But I knew this one. I remembered. I’d never forget it. The pain was too sharp. Too real. It kept me grounded even when the memory kept flowing.

“Graham?” I asked, taking a cautious step forward. There was no response.

I didn’t want to move another step. I didn’t want to see the rest of this memory. My feet moved anyway. I hurried around the corner and found Clara right where I left her. But it had already started. Some people went faster than others. Graham disappeared while my back was turned. No words. No acknowledgment of what was happening to him. But Clara—she’d been conscious enough to understand something. To see her own fingers flake apart and break into clumps of ash.

There was terror in her eyes as they found mine from the other side of the glass.

“Jo?” she asked. As if I had an answer. As if I could stop what was happening to her. Her phone dropped to the floor. The dark ash of her fingers began to travel up her arms, breaking my sister into dust. I approached the glass on the other side. “What’s happening?” she asked. But even her cheeks were beginning to turn gray.

“You’re dying,” I said. “I wish I didn’t have to see this again.”

“I’m scared,” she said. But the gray spread faster. It moved over her arms like a dark, living thing. It took her chest. She looked back at me just as her face began to break apart. She hadn’t done that in the memory. She’d been there and gone in a matter of seconds.

“Don’t worry,” she told me. “She’s alive.” Then she crumbled to ash.