Fifth Avenue
Chapter Twenty

Hartley was asleep; her head was resting on the bed where Justin laid, her hand still holding his. “Hartley” a groggy voice called, she groaned and slowly opened her heavy eyes which grew wide as she saw a now awake Justin looking to her tiredly.

“Justin!” she squealed launching onto him and pulling him into an overly tight hug.

“Hartley” he gasps “air” she nods releasing him, her hair turning yellow. The room began to fill with the lovely scent of flowers and the floor began to get covered in them. Justin chuckles before his eyes go down to their hands. “I’m sorry” he whispers “I promise I didn’t know what I was doing” Hartley looks at him with a smile.

Hartley rubs his cheek with her hand before punching him as hard as she could without knocking him out. “Ow and I deserved that” he smiles and reaches to where she had punched him rubbing it lightly

“I had to do that and I know” she says tiredly before she hugs him again “Thank you for finally waking up” she whispers sadly and he hugs her back.

Shooter and Kit come charging into the room, Kit held a broomstick and Shooter held an overly long lamp which seemed to have been ripped from the wall. “What are you doing?” Hartley laughs at them and they both drop their ‘weapons’ and give guilty smiles.

“We thought somebody was being attacked” Kit says awkwardly.

“Yeah, we heard a scream” Shooter explains and Hartley’s face goes red, her hair turning pink “And I’m assuming that was Justin” he says with a sly grin.

Shooter walks up to Justin doing that weird high five hug thing guys do, and they began to talk. Hartley sat back down and Kit joined her by sitting on her lap. “Morning sleepy head” Hartley says messing up his hair making him giggle.

Kit yawned and snuggled into her slowly falling back to sleep, Shooter turns and sees this and picks him up lightly “I’ll take him back to bed, don’t you guys forget to sleep” he says before pointing to both of us “oh and both of you need a shower, you stink” he exclaims before leaving the room.

Justin laughs before looking to Hartley “Want to try for a third time?” he asks and Hartley gives him a weird look “I promise I won’t ditch you” he says with an eyebrow wiggle making Hartley chuckle slightly.

“I don’t know, I mean I got pretty lost last time” she says and he pats the place beside him on the bed which she happily takes before resting her head on his shoulder. “Okay, let’s do it tomorrow” she yawns.

“After you shower” Justin says quietly “You really do stink” Hartley closes her eyes with a small smile playing on her face.

“You’re one to talk” she yawns before allowing sleep to take over for a second time that night.

When Hartley woke up she was alone in the bed, she was slightly saddened until Justin walked in with wet hair and a new change of clothes on “Your turn” he says tossing her a towel, she got up and walked down the hall and into the bathroom which was still filled with smoke.

She turned on the shower and quickly stripped of her clothes, before stepping into the shower she caught a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror. Scars covered her body which was no longer only skin and bone.

Her hand traced the longest one she had, it went from the top to bottom of her stomach and had healed horribly, her eyes close and the sound of her screaming began to echo in her head. She shook her head and gulped back the fear stepping into the shower.

She took her time, when she finally came out everyone was sitting in the make shift dining room around the horribly made dinner table eating sloppily made pancakes “Hartley!” Bullet says placing some of her barely cooked pancakes onto a plate “Here sit down and eat” she says happily, the look of slight fear must have caught the attention of Justin as he runs to her side.

“Sorry sis I’m taking her out for breakfast” he says quickly making Bullet pout.

“Anyone would think you were running away from my cooking” she says sulkily making Shooter laugh and pull her into his lap, he gave her a kiss on the cheek making her smile and her face go red.

Justin linked his arm in Hartley’s before leading her away, he looked back to her with a smile and mouthed for her to close her eyes which she did.

Soon they were at a beach, the sound of crashing waves sounding like heaven to Hartley “I made reservations” he says happily before leading her to a small little restaurant just off the side of the beach.

“Daniels” he tells a lady standing out the front and she nods before handing them off to a waiter who lead them away from the rest of their guests and up a hidden staircase which confused Hartley because on the outside it looked to be only one-story high.

The waiter opened a door and they stepped out onto the roof, a small table in the middle filled with foods, the smell of sea salt making Hartley smiled “Kit told me you had a thing for roofs” he jokes before they both take a seat.

Hartley looked out at the view of the beautiful blue ocean, “It’s beautiful” she whispers happily before looking at Justin happily “Thank you” Justin smiles plopping a strawberry in his mouth.

“I’m glad you like it” he says with a wide grin. A small pounding sensation began in Hartley’s head and she did her best to ignore it but as she did the feeling began to grow.

“No” Hartley curses holding her head, Justin frowns and tilts his head to Hartley.

“No? Hartley, are you ok-” before he could finish his sentence Hartley fell from her chair and onto the ground, still gripping her head. He rushes to her and touches her shoulder.

Hartley blinked and saw herself sitting on the ground sobbing, she looks down to her hands which were covered in blood “Oh god” she cries “what have I done?” Hartley gulps and moves closer but is stopped by a force.

“What the hell?” Hartley looks to see Justin looking around but before she could say anything the room flashes white leaving them now on top of the roof.

The other Hartley is laughing crazily as she stood over the dead bodies of Fifth Avenue. The real Hartley covers her mouth. “You’re ready” a voice whispers in both Hartley’s ears again and she turns to see Justin standing smiling evilly at her, slowly he raises a gun at fake Hartley’s head making her smile wider.

“Do it” she laughs.

A sound of a bullet ripples around the real Hartley and as she looks up she replaces herself now standing in the ashes of her old orphanage. The other Hartley was on the ground lying in a pool of her own blood, Justin on the ground crying as Reaper approaches him.

“No...” The real Hartley whispers.

Hartley sits up gasping only to replace Justin doing the exact same thing, he looks her worriedly “What” he gasps “what the hell was that” Hartley looks down.

“What are you talking about” she whispers and Justin looks at her like she’s mad.

“What do you mean, what do I mean? What was that?! I saw you and me but they weren’t you and me because we were both watching us, I think I shot you but then I ended up being dead!” Hartley gulps.

“So, you saw everything then” she says and Justin nods slowly “oh, sorry about that” she laughs nervously scratching the back of her neck “Um you remember our, second, attempt at mending our friendship?” she asks and Justin gives her a small nod.

“Remember when basically I passed out?” she asks and he nods slightly “see, I get these visions” Hartley says before she went on to explain what she had told Doc and by the end Justin was just sitting there with wide eyes.

He clears his throat “Wow” he says before standing up “I think we should explain to Doc what just happened” Hartley stands along with him.

“Doc already knows about this” she whispers “I had nobody to go to so I told him” Justin breaths in deeply.

“Yes, but nobody has shared one before have they” he claimed, Hartley thought about it before shaking her head, he stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on her head “Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you” he whispers before they teleport back to the storage box.

They both storm into Doc’s room “Doc!” they shout at the same time making him turn around quickly and knock most of the stuff from his desk.

“What?” he asks tiredly.

Justin took Hartley’s hand “You know Hartley’s visions?” he asks and Doc nods slowly still bored, but slightly intrigued “Well while we were out for breakfast she had one and I grabbed her shoulder to see if she was okay only for me to see everything she was seeing” Hartley’s smile falters as she remembers her newest vision.

Doc leant forward in his seat “What happened in this vision?” he asks and Hartley explains in the best detail she could afterwards Doc stood up interested “Okay this is interesting” he says before rubbing his hairless chin “I have some business to attend to, you’ll have to excuse me” Doc says before leaving his room hurriedly.

Justin looks to Hartley confused “He would never leave us alone in his room” both of them followed Doc to the cells and hid behind a corner. He knocked on the door and Shooter stepped out and nodded to whatever Doc was saying, both him and Bullet left the room, removing there slightly blood covered gloves as they did.

Doc stepped in and closed the door; afterwards screaming could be heard throughout the entire hideout. Hartley flinches at the memory and shoves her face into Justin’s chest hiding, he understands and hugs her close, never wanting to let her go.

The next day Doc came into the sitting room wiping his hands with a slightly red wash cloth, Hartley pushed away her cereal at the sight.

“Wisdom plans to destroy society of this we already knew along with her plans of Hartley to be the one to do this” he announces “Candii has happily told me that sending her after Hartley was her last idea in taking Hartley onto her side, the sickness was just something to clear way for the battlefield and is the least of our worries for the moment” Hartley gulps and moves closer to Justin, Doc looks to her with a smile she had never seen before.