Chapter 63 Marlena
The third explosion was bigger.
It came from somewhere deep in the tunnels behind us and the sound was so loud it hurt, making the whole chamber shake violently while pieces of the ceiling started falling, small rocks first and then bigger ones, crashing down onto the stone floor and breaking apart.
I was still behind the pillar, frozen, my ears ringing so badly I couldn't hear anything else, just a high pitched whine that wouldn't stop.
Then I saw Elena.
She was still tied to the chair against the far wall but she was awake now, her eyes open and focused on me. One of the FBI agents was running toward her with a knife to cut the ropes but he wasn't going to make it in time, I could see it happening like it was in slow motion, a huge piece of the ceiling breaking loose right above where Elena sat, starting to fall.
I ran.
I didn't think about it, I just moved, across the chamber toward my mother as fast as my legs would carry me while the ground shook hard and I stumbled twice but kept going.
Elena saw it too, saw the stone falling, saw me running.
The FBI agent cut through the last rope and Elena pushed herself up from the chair, her legs weak and shaking but she moved anyway, toward me, and we were both running at each other while the stone was falling and everything was noise and dust and chaos.
She hit me hard.
Her whole body slammed into mine and knocked me sideways and I felt myself falling and then I hit the ground several feet away from where I had been standing, the air rushing out of my lungs so I couldn't breathe at all for a second.
Then I heard the sound.
The massive stone hit the ground exactly where I had been running but Elena hadn't made it clear, the edge of it caught her and crushed her against the floor with a sound I will never be able to forget.
"No," the word came out as a scream, "no no no no."
I scrambled across the ground to her, my hands shaking so bad I could barely move right but I got to her and pulled at the stone but it was too heavy, way too heavy, I couldn't move it at all.
"Mom," my voice was breaking, "Mom please."
She was bleeding, there was so much blood, spreading across the stone floor dark and fast and wrong while her breathing came shallow and wet sounding and her face was white.
"Marlena," her voice was so quiet I could barely hear it over the sounds of everything falling apart around us.
I grabbed her hand and held it tight. "Don't, please don't leave me, please."
She smiled, small and sad, and her other hand lifted a little and touched my face, her fingers cold.
"Live for me," she whispered, "my girl, live for both of us now."
"No," I was crying so hard I couldn't see, "you have to stay, I can't do this without you, please."
Another explosion rocked the chamber, closer, right next to us, and more of the ceiling came down while someone was yelling for everyone to get out now but I couldn't move, couldn't leave her.
Elena's eyes started to close.
"Mom," I shook her hand, "Mom stay with me, look at me."
But her eyes kept closing anyway, slow, like she was just tired and going to sleep, and her hand went loose in mine and the small smile faded from her face and she just stopped, stopped breathing, stopped moving, just stopped.
"No," I pulled her hand to my chest, "no you can't, you can't leave, we just got you back, we just got you safe, you can't go."
But she was already gone.
I bent over her and held on to her hand and cried so hard my whole body shook and I didn't care that the ceiling was falling, I didn't care that people were screaming at me to move, nothing mattered because my mother was dead and I hadn't been able to stop it and I was alone again.
Hands grabbed me from behind.
Strong hands, Nikolai's hands, and he pulled me back from Elena while I fought him, screaming and hitting his chest and trying to get back to her but he held on tight.
"We have to go," he said against my ear, his voice rough, "Marlena we have to go now or we both die here."
"Let me go," I was still fighting him, "I can't leave her, I can't."
"I'm sorry," he lifted me off the ground and started carrying me toward the tunnel, "I'm so sorry."
I kept fighting but he was too strong and he carried me through the falling rocks and the dust and the chaos like I weighed nothing while I could see Elena's body getting smaller behind us and then we turned a corner and I couldn't see her anymore at all.
The tunnel was collapsing behind us as we ran, the FBI team ahead with their flashlights bouncing wild in the dark while Nikolai's arms stayed locked around me and I had stopped fighting but I was still crying, the sound coming out of me not sounding human.
We made it out.
Up the stairs and through the wooden door and into the grey morning light while the church behind us groaned and part of it collapsed inward as the catacombs underneath gave way completely.
Nikolai set me down on the ground and I just sat there shaking, my whole body shaking so hard my teeth were chattering and I couldn't stop, couldn't breathe right, couldn't think past the image of my mother's face as she closed her eyes.
She pushed me out of the way, she saved me, and now she was buried under tons of stone and I would never see her again, never hear her voice, never feel her hand in mine.
I had lost everyone, Luka and my mother and everyone I loved was gone and I was still here and I didn't know why, didn't know what I was supposed to do with all this pain that was too big to fit inside my body.
Katya appeared in front of me and knelt down and pulled me against her without saying anything, just held me while I cried.
I couldn't stop crying, the sound kept coming and coming and I buried my face in her shoulder and held on to her like she was the only solid thing left in the world.