Work Text:
Hurricane by Fleurie
This couldn’t be how it ended. Not for him.
Her life was made of confusion and bad decisions. This was how her life should end.
Yes. She loved him. But not with the easy and predictable happily ever after kind of love. Her love for him was broken at best and wouldn’t lead to anything other than further heartbreak. It no longer mattered if he understood. It no longer mattered if he loved her, too. She was finally brave enough to tell him without saying a word. And all it took was one simple, desperate kiss. Over in the blink of an eye. It was nothing and everything all at once.
The next few moments of her life were focused on getting Thomas to safety. All she wanted now was to ensure he had a future. But he was in so much crippling pain that, for a moment, she was afraid. Afraid she would fail her last mission in life. So very afraid to watch him die. But suddenly with strength she didn't know she had, Teresa pushed Thomas towards his friends and let him go one last time.
This wouldn't be how it ended. Not for him.
“TERESA!”
A feeling of peace washed over her. Peace with her decision to not move forward. To deny herself safety and the promise of a new, perhaps better life. With shaky resolve, she remained where she was. Keeping distance between herself and the life that she could’ve lived. Maybe even a life lived with him.
The others hesitated before reaching out to her. She could sense their conflict. How they struggled to forgive her just as she still struggled to forgive herself. She turned around as the building next door toppled over causing the weakened structure beneath her feet to further crumble. One last time, she looked at Thomas as the ground gave way and she began to fall.
“NOOO!”
Her life was made of confusion and bad decisions. This was how her life would end.
For all the mistakes she made, all the people who died because of her and the organization she stood behind, all the trust she destroyed…this was it. In her very last moments she had apologized the only way she knew how. She’d wanted to change. Many times. But a lifetime of brainwashing and being led to believe that wrong was right, clouded her vision. She made bad decisions both knowingly and unknowingly. She knew she was fucked up. Fucked up for thinking she was doing the right thing. She had been selfish and reckless. Her decisions had brought about consequences that could never be reversed.
So this was her fate and she would welcome it with open arms.
She shut her eyes as falling debris surrounded her and flames engulfed her. But she didn’t feel any pain. All she could feel was his arms around her and his lips against hers for the briefest single most happiest moment in her existence. And all she saw in the permanent darkness was him. The only light in her life. Thomas and his kind eyes. His outstretched hand. Every smile, every moment spent with and around him was permanently etched in her mind. He was the only thing she wanted to remember about her life before she left this world for the great unknown.
This wasn’t death.
It was an ending, sure. But also a new beginning.
This was freedom.
A baptism by fire.
Her body would soon burn brightly laid among the twisted wreckage of the WCKD headquarters. But still she smiled. Because she knew that no matter what happened to her, the world would go on turning. The memories of a dark haired blue eyed little girl would become nothing more than a vapor in the wind to hide in the spaces between stars on a cloudless night. Thomas and the others would be the change needed in order to move forward. It would take months, years and decades even. But they would adapt, rebuild and the world would eventually be as it once was before everything had fallen apart.
This wasn't how life would end. Not for him. For him, this was his life beginning once again.
Finally, Teresa knew and understood that this...this was love and this was life.
Sometimes it’s painful.
Sometimes it’s beautiful.
But most of the time, it’s both.