Chapter Text
“Where’s my mom?”
The question hung in the air around her, a frantic and angry Tinya demanding an answer to something Iris didn’t know. All she knew was that her head had hurt like a freight train was running through it, then everything felt frozen, as if time itself had stopped. When the moment passed, Tinya’s mom was gone, and even Sue beside her was a little shook up.
“Iris…”
“What happened?” she whispered to Sue. “I can’t- I didn’t- I don’t…” she trailed off, starting to panic herself.
“What happened is my mom turned into a pile of green dust and disappeared the second she touched you, you bitch!” Tinya shouted, cheeks streaming with tears now.
Iris stood up, horror coursing through her.
“Tinya, I-”
“I don’t know what you are or who you think you were helping,” Tinya sniffled. “But stay away from me, and stay away from anyone you care about, or they’ll be dead too.”
Iris froze, chills wracking her entire body, as Tinya took off out of the apartment.
“Tinya, don’t- I’ll go after her,” Sue told Iris. “You just…stay here, okay?”
Iris nodded numbly and sank into the couch, wondering a beat later if it would disappear from under her any second.
Had this been a horrible mistake? Could she have avoided the entire awful disappearance of Tinya’s mom if she’d stayed put in the hotel suite like Barry would’ve probably made her do?
But Deon thought staying in Coast City in general would be fine. How come it wasn’t? And why couldn’t she control any of this? Was Tinya right? Was she a hazard to anyone she touched?
Minutes passed, and she suddenly couldn’t take being so alone in the empty apartment of a woman she’d just unintentionally murdered. She dashed out into the hall and ran down the steps. When she got outside it was dark and neither Sue nor Tinya were in sight.
She broke down and fell to her knees. She wanted Barry. She wanted him more than anything. She wanted him to hold her in his arms and tell her that everything would be all right, that it wasn’t her fault, and it wouldn’t happen again.
But she was scared to death that if he came near her, he would disappear too.
“Deon!” she cried out instead, and like magic he appeared before her.
“What happened?” He crouched down in front of her. “Did it happen again? Walk me through exactly-”
“I killed someone,” she ground out between sobs. “They touched me, and I killed them.”
Horror washed over Deon’s face. He was speechless for what felt like forever.
“Do you want to tell-”
“No!” She shook her head rapidly. “Barry can’t know this has happened. He’ll want to come and help and be with me, and what if I touch him during an episode, and he’s gone, and then I can’t- I can’t- I can’t live without him, Deon. I can’t. What is wrong with me? Why is this happening?”
And she started to fall further, so he caught her, and she didn’t think to push him away.
She was trembling and distraught, and not all his knowledge of time and the still force could possibly tell him what to do next.