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The house was gone. Sydney had blown up the fucking house.
She looked at her mother. There were tears running down her face and she had a hand over her mouth. Quiet sobs escaped her.
Sydney stared back at the house. It was then that it dawned on her that Liam was still inside. Her brother was still inside the house that she had destroyed. He was probably dead now.
It was then that the shock caught up to her and she ran. She ran as far as she could. She vaguely heard her mother calling her name weakly, but she didn't care. She kept running. She passed Stan's house. He was outside but she didn't notice.
She ran all the way to the tower in the woods.
As she caught her breath, she began to cry. She noticed glass shards on the ground. A thought came to her, sudden but strong: If I leave, I won't ever hurt anyone ever again.
She furrowed her eyebrows. Where had that come from? She wouldn't.. no, she couldn't..
I should just do it. Get it over with.
She thought about it for a moment, then gave in. There weren't many reasons why not to do it.
So, she reached for the glass. She sat down and rolled up her sleeve. She made a few good cuts before she heard someone running up the stairs of the tower. She quickly stood up and held her hands behind her back.
Stan finally made it up the stairs, out of breath. "You run.. really.. fast." He said as he leaned onto a support beam for (ironically) support and clutched his chest in pain.
"Stan? What the hell are you doing here?" Sydney stood still. She could feel the blood trickling down her arm to the palm of her hand.
"I was," he took a deep breath, " worried about you. I saw you running down the street." He looked up as he spoke, finally having caught his breath.
"Oh. Well you can go now, I'm fine." She spoke unconvincingly and he gave her a look that told her he knew something was wrong.
"Sydney, I saw your house." He took a step closer. Sydney felt the blood drip from her fingers to the floor of the tower. Stan took three more steps and Sydney instinctively held her hands out to stop him.
Stan's eyes grew wide. His hand twitched by his leg as if it wanted to grab Sydney's arm. He stopped breathing for a moment.
"Syd... you're bleeding." That was all he said as he stared into the cuts Sydney had made. His voice sounded strangled. He hadn't even noticed ththe glass in her other hand.
"Shit." Sydney had finally realized what she was doing. She was no better than her father. "Stan I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry." She didn't even cry. She just stood there with her arms out, staring into Stanley Barber's vacant eyes.
Suddenly the boy rushed into Sydney's arms. He held her tight as she let her arms fall around him, neither caring if the blood got onto Stan's shirt.
"Syd, I-" he let out a shaky breath, "talk to me. Please. I need to know.. why?"
"I just wanted.. I thought if I.. if I 'got it over with', I'd never hurt anyone ever again. I just wanted everyone else to be okay." She held him tighter as she spoke.
Stan broke the hug and held her by the shoulders at arms length. He looked into her eyes as he said, "Sydney, leaving us wouldn't have been any better. If you did go through with it... I can't imagine living without you. I need you." He wiped away a tear.
"Stan, Liam was in the house when.. it.. happened." Syd let the tears fall down her face. "I fucking killed him, Stan. He's dead because of me."
"Syd, no.. he's okay, I know he is." He tried to tell her, to let her know, but she ignored it.
"No, Stan! You don't fucking get it, do you? You think I'm 'The Incredible Sydney Novak', but I'm not, okay? I'm just some fucker who has magical powers that are ruining my fucking life. So get this through your thick skull: Liam is dead. He's not fucking coming back." They stood staring at each other for a moment until finally Syd broke and started sobbing.
Taking her into his arms, Stan held her as she cried. They slowly lowered themselves to the floor of the tower, Sydney still in Stan's arms. There they stayed for a while until eventually they fell asleep, and even after they woke up the next day, they sat together on the floor of the tower.
Stan helped Syd get through this and together they healed and learned how to manage Syd's powers.