⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

“your mistakes will cost us all”

I AM CONSUMED BY NOTHINGNESS.

Literally. 

I'm standing in the middle of nowhere, and the darkness creating itself in front of me, behind me, and beside me is all I see. A cold wind surrounds me, stroking my arms and the hair on them. It doesn't take long for the hair follicles to contract, causing the hair to straighten. An unpleasant shiver runs down my spine. I rub my hands over my shoulders to loosen up my tense muscles and keep warm, because I admit it, it's cold. I try to look around to see if I'm really alone here. Although I don't know what's worse, being here alone or with someone. 

Where am I? 

I swallow nervously and take a slow, surprisingly safe step forward. I can't see anything, I can't hear anyone, I can't even feel myself. This fact terrifies me, and rubbing against my own arms doesn't change my temperature one bit. 

Where the hell am I? 

I looked around again for the light, as if that would help. I'm heading in a distant and dark direction, I'm trying to watch the steps I take. Furthermore, I sigh heavily as I feel a strange lump in my throat. I raise my hand, palm up, and push the other just a little over it to create a ball of fairly bright light. Eventually, white splashes across the darkness, and I'm standing in the center of our resort's lobby. 

“What the hell,” I mutter, blinking a few times to get used to the sudden light. All of a sudden, I see a group of young children, the same height, wearing the same gray school uniforms, start to settle around me.  

They line up in a symmetrical circle, circling me on all sides. I just feel powerless to see their critical gaze on me. I bite the inside of my cheek, and as their circle shrinks, and they stagger closer and closer to me, I lose control of my lungs. My breathing is getting heavier, I can't control it. I dig my nails into the palm of my hand. 

I look around them, we are in the main hall of our resort, our second home. 

“It is your fault!” they exclaim in unison. Their words strike me, though I don't understand their meaning at first. “Your mistakes will cost us all,” they add accusingly. They suddenly stop, release their hands, and start pointing at me. They kept repeating those words. 

I lower my gaze as their fingers descend to my palm. Only then did I notice the bloody arrow in it, it wasn't stuck. She was just held. I freeze, drop the murder weapon from my hand, and swallow hard. 

I begin to dig my nails deeper into my palms, and I try to close my eyes to leave this nothingness for a moment. However, nothing helps. The screams of the children get louder and louder. The accusatory tone gets to me more and more. 

“Stop saying that all the time!” I scream, trying to accomplish something initially impossible. “Stop it!” I scream again. My eyes change the color of their irises, from a beautiful blue to a vivid green. 

My mistakes will cost them all.  

Your mistakes.
 
My mistakes… 

I open my eyes immediately and to my surprise I find myself back on the bus, so I breathe immediately and thank God that what just happened didn't really happen in real life. It was all just a bad vision, a bad dream.  

It was just a nightmare that will come to my life sooner or later. 

I look at where Freya should be sitting, but to my surprise, Athena takes the position. I frown and wet my lips with my tongue. Then I shift in place and stare at her, pretending that my earlier greedy gasps of air didn't even happen. 

“Didn't you by any chance sit with that self-righteous…” I started a quiet monologue when I saw Casspian's and mine's eyes meet in the darkness. He wasn't happy with what I had on the tip of my tongue, so I made up another ending on the spur of the moment, “wonderful man?”

“Yes, I did,” she replies immediately, then shows me a stack of messages about how terrible Athena is. She had received such information from Casspian, who had previously been sitting right next to her. “I just texted him that he was a surly boor, and he told me to find a new friend, and someone to sit with.” She explains, gesticulating even more, I smile crookedly, and even try to control the laugh that wants to leave my mouth immediately. 

I roll my eyes and bite the inside of my cheek, then try to look away, because I swear a wave of laughter is about to be heard all over the bus. 

“Because I hurt his pride,” Athena quotes, showing the quotation marks with her fingers. “If he still had it, he would have something to put me on, moron” I start laughing, first giggles, then I start giggling hysterically. She puts a hand over my mouth to silence me.  

It was only after this act that I remembered that we were not alone on the bus, the dark colors of the gloomy sky squeezed through the windows. It adds quite an interesting charm. But that's not the point. My eyes return to Athena and her blue irises. I stick my tongue out and use the tip to wet her palm from the inside out. The teenager immediately removes her hand from my mouth in feigned disgust, and a soft wave of laughter leaves both her and mine mouths. 

“Moron,” the blonde says languidly. 

“Mhm,” I reply flatly.  

“Idiot,” he adds quickly. 

“Okay,” I shrug 

“Hey you. Are you done trying to insult this untamed lunatic?” Casspian asks from the other side, neither of us responding. Blue-eyed Athena just shows him her middle finger. 

And I still don't understand how our paths joined together. 

I'm too fixated on my phone, or rather its start screen, that I don't notice when the bus just stopped. My arm became a punching bag for the bored blonde in ten minutes. 

“You hit me one more time, and I'm really going to set that dork on you,” I hissed through my clenched jaw. In my words, of course, I mentioned Casspian, who would probably try to bite me if he heard me. “And I warn you he was not vaccinated for rabies.” 

The young goddess just rolls her eyes at my comment and giggles softly. I get up from my temporary seat and push Athene toward the exit of the vehicle. He quickly jumps down the last step and finally, after almost six hours of walking, I can stretch my legs or get some fresh air. I go to the trunk and pull out my bag. It is quite capacious, so I don't have to worry or drag my suitcase anywhere like the others. 

“So what? Here our paths part for an indefinite time?” Freya asked, and I turned to my friends and shrugged with a weak smile.  

“Apparently,” says Athena. So far, she has not said or revealed where she is going, maybe she is not ready to talk about her own parents? “We'll write, we'll talk up to three times a day,” I command, wagging my finger as I do so. 

“Don't take the role of Freya, she's the mom here,” Casspian grimaces, and I give him a weak nudge in the ribs, but that's about it. 

“But she's the second mom. We play this role together,” explains the girl. Casspian frowns at the response he's received. He probably expected a different response.  

“Okay, that's enough, Mom,” I snort, adjusting my bag over my shoulder and tucking a loose strand of reddish hair behind my ear. “You have two unbalanced kids. Are you really going to have this pointless conversation with one of them?” I asked to be sure, all three of them just rolled their eyes. 

It doesn't take long for me to literally be pulled into a bear hug, literally squeezed from all sides. I don't mind knowing how long I won't see this bunch of fuckers. 

“We've got to have a name for our wonderful four. Our unearthly beautiful group–” I start, overjoyed. I don't know where this burst of energy comes from, but I like it. 

“Ain't a bunch of nuts enough for you?” Athena asks wearily. Yes, like this. I have a surge of energy, and vice versa. 

“Mr. Hawkins came up with that,” said Casspian, looked at each of us in turn, and answered the young goddess with seriousness. “No, it's not enough.”

We're truly standing in the middle of some parking lot, brainstorming. None of us ordered a taxi, the only question is why. 

“Clever and smarter?”

“Maybe not exactly smart, Cass?” Freya snorts with a smile on her face, I lower my head and just mutter something under my breath. 

“How about Super Squad?”

“Shitty,” moans the blonde, Casspian slowly losing her best ideas.  

“Super Squad?” I repeat Casspian's question, popping two pieces of chewing gum into my mouth. 

“It's fine, it's just right,” Athena says again. I can already see Casspian's reaction before me, his hands drop.  

“But, after all… well, never mind—” he groans dissatisfied, I put my hand only to my mouth so as not to burst out laughing loudly. 

His hands are literally falling off. 

I get out of the taxi and I stand in front of a huge building otherwise known as Avengers tower, which is my home. From what I understand, Athena and Freya have gone to the brunette's house, while Casspian is waiting for his mother. 

I take a deep breath, the stress slowly subsides, but not so much that I dare to go inside without first saying the rosary three hundred thousand times. He slaps his hands a few times before I even reach the big door. I think I'm starting to dance to get rid of the stress, which is why I'm met with some old ladies appraising gaze. 

“The youth of today,” I hear the old woman's disappointed voice, moments before she completely disappears from my sight. I sigh, rolling my eyes, then look at where the woman was just moments ago. 

Grandma Ghost. 

Finally plucking up the courage to open the large doors, I head for the elevator and tap the button with my fingers to hasten its arrival. Faster. An extra moment of waiting for the elevator doors to open, so I can go inside and choose the right floor to stay on. A short conversation with myself helps me calm down before the official meeting with my heroes. 

“You look like seven misfortunes, Isla,” I say to myself, looking again at the mirror in the middle of the elevator. “Thanks, you too, Isla,” I tell myself. I really want to give myself a loud, hard slap to the forehead to get some sense into this empty head.  

The door slides open, and I cross the threshold of a large room. I pull off my bag and set it aside, then head deeper into the Avengers tower. I look in every direction and listen for voices that can guide me. And it does, I follow the voice a little hoarse. 

The glazed room from the inside allows me to see Uncle Clint lying on a bed-like-something, who probably got hit during some mission. Standing above him is none other than Tony Stark, holding a tray of several drinks. Right next to him is a red-haired widow. I smile and stand in the doorway, tapping my clenched fist against the wall for attention. 

“Oh huh, we're in trouble, the magic baby is back.” I hear Barton say, and I chuckle softly before looking around at all the faces. There is a hint of a smile on each one, but not on this one. 

I look at my mother with fear in my eyes, apparently she is not happy about my return. At least that's what I thought at first. It takes me a moment to see him put down a plastic cup of some kind of soda on an earlier tray and come over to me. I don't know what to do, so I smile as much as I can. Feeling a little stressed again today, I have concerns about this meeting. However, not right. As Natasha wraps her motherly arms around me and I can sink into her embrace, I begin to understand why she had this reaction and not another. She didn't expect my return. 

“Isla,” he begins incredulously, and I laugh briefly at the redheaded widow's reaction. “What are you doing here? You came back so early?” Questions left her mouth one by one, I just shrugged.  

He grabs her hands and squeezes tight, not wanting to let go, not going to for the next ten seconds. Since he's the first to let go of mine, I frown. She interrupted me with a wonderful moment, like from the movies. 

“It's not important at this point, the main thing is that we can spend more time together than before.” I smile, as sincerely as I can. Natasha snorts softly before squeezing me into a bear hug again. 

I can finally breathe easy. I am finally with her.