Chapter 362:

Museworld

Once Katie’s head whipped around to see the foreboding sight, the strength all but left her body. She turned back to her sister. Slowly, her fingers moved from the girl’s eyes. She wanted her to see what she was feeling.

That rigid smile was not something Frankie would forget. Katie’s teeth jutted themselves out from under her lips and bore together under the quivering eyes of a little girl.

“…Katie.”

Frankie felt raindrops on her face.

The hand on her head shook, wavering from it until it fell to the ground beside her and her sister collapsed in on her.

Holding the girl in her arms, she looked upwards.

The sight in the sky was terrifying, for sure. She despised to imagine the hell that had surely befallen the people of the moon on this hour. Whoever was still alive was in more fear and pain than she.

Frankie smiled and put her hands atop her sister’s head and back. Patting the girl, she let her sniffle into her chest.

“Hnkkk-“

“Still afraid?” Frankie whispered. It wasn’t that scary having a live bomb of a human being atop your bleeding body when the grim reaper was giving you the thousand-yard stare just above.

The way Katie saw it, she couldn’t well respond after what she’d tried to do- what she’d already done. Frankie winced as she cupped the jagged rift leading to a puddle of blood just beside her right breast.

“…I’m sorry.” She finally managed. Frankie just rubbed her head.

“I know.”

They laid there for minutes. Even as the moon-shrapnel grew close enough to rip the crust from the Earth, even as Frankie bled out on the concrete park ground, they laid there like it was Sunday.

It felt good, not to worry.

It felt good, to just stop and rest for awhile.

“…You know I’m still scared too… right?”

After an eternity, Katie nodded.

“…Yeah.”

“…But it’s not a big deal.” Frankie beamed. “I’m still here, aren’t I…?”

“Somehow…”

She stroked her big sister’s hair.

“I just had the funniest thought.”

“…Yeah?”

“Imagine if I was worried about school right now. My past, I mean.”

“Being alone?”

“Yeah. Imagine if I was worried about that.”

Katie stared out into the red ocean around them that had now deeply stained Frankie’s custom-made Percy shirt.

“…What about Cheryl…?”

Frankie’s eyes softened as she swallowed the truth.

“She’s… probably hurting right now. And I’d do anything in the world to see her, just one last time.” The girl’s throat buckled. “…But I didn’t make a mistake by coming here. In fact… I don’t regret a thing. Even if I didn’t get everything I wanted… even if spent most of my life as an outcast.”

“…I don’t see why you wouldn’t be… I’d regret a life like that.”

She heard immediately the somber undertone in her sister’s murmured words.

“…You regret your life?”

Katie felt her nose coldly burn.

“…Yeah. I do.”

“But your life’s not over, Katie.”

Katie muscled what will she had left in herself to lift up her body and face her sister again.

“You can do whatever you want to with what you’ve got left. Doesn’t matter if it’s years… hours, or seconds. It’ll be enough.”

Katie’s cheekbones trembled.

“Then… if that’s the case…”

She stood up to her wobbling knees and extended a hand to her.

“One more…?”