Rouge

by Isabella Modra

  Her mother was right. She needed to focus on what was good in her life and have faith that things would turn around. Get up off the ground Hunter. Move on, she ordered herself.

  She moved mechanically out of the bathroom and back downstairs where Eli and Jack were talking in hushed tones to each other. They looked up at her, Eli with pain and love in his eyes and Jack with dark shadows across his face.

  “Hunter, are you-”

  “Can we get out of here?” she interrupted Eli.

  He shut his mouth and nodded, reaching out to take her hand. That’s when he saw the blood.

  “What did you...?”

  “I broke your mirror,” she said in what would have been a sheepish manner, but instead she sounded hollow. “Sorry.”

  Jack’s eyebrows shot up.

  “It’s fine,” Eli assured her. “Come on, I’ll get that cleaned up.”

  The two of them moved into the kitchen and Eli gently put her hands under the cool water from the tap. She winced and watched the blood wash down the plug hole like red wine. Then she looked up at Jack, who sat at the bench directly opposite the sink. His deep brown eyes were pained. No longer did he look at her in amusement or with awe, as if he knew her secret. Maybe he did, but right now she didn’t care. Miss Smart was dead. Nothing could take that back.

  Hunter let her head flop and burst into tears. Her hands shook as she took them from under the water and held her palms over her eyes. Jack stood to comfort her, but Eli was already there with his arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug. She cried against his shoulder and couldn’t see whether Jack and Eli were looking at each other or simply standing there in shock.

  “I’m going to bandage your hand Hunter,” Eli whispered gently against her head.

  She nodded, sniffing, and let him wrap up her wound. He looked into her eyes to see if she was okay, and she gave him the smallest of smiles. Satisfied, he squeezed her uninjured hand and returned her smile.

  “Where do you want to go?” he whispered, brushing the tears from her wet cheeks.

  “Weren’t we going to the Aquarium?”

  “Wait, I’ll get my coat,” said Jack, swinging off the bench.

  “No Jack.” Hunter stopped him dead in his tracks. “Please, I... I need time alone with Eli.”

  Jack froze with his back to them. An awkward moment passed in which Eli looked guiltily at the floor and Hunter kept her gaze steady on him. As much as she hated being so harsh, she didn’t think she could handle being around him any longer. His presence just added to the list of things she had to fret about. Eli was her only sanctuary.

  Jack slowly turned. His expression was soft, understanding, and he smiled. “Sure,” he said and walked towards the stairs. “See you later.”

  Eli seemed satisfied that his friend wasn’t hurt at being left alone and began gathering her things and his, plus some money for the day. But no matter how hard Hunter tried, she couldn’t ignore the darkness that clouded Jack’s eyes. It was like a black part of his soul had leaked, visible only to those who looked closely. Why couldn’t Eli see that?

  Eli wrapped his fingers through Hunter’s and they walked towards the door. They squinted in the burning sun and hailed a taxi. Once inside, Eli gave directions for a place downtown. Settling against his chest, Hunter felt her cares fall away with each breath she took.

  “I’m so sorry Hunter,” he muttered into her hair, rubbing her back gently. “I know how much you liked Miss Smart.”

  Hunter didn’t answer as pain bit into her heart, but being in Eli’s arms made her grasp on sanity just a little tighter.

  Weaving through morning traffic, their taxi passed Lower Manhattan to a shipping dock not far away from the Brooklyn Bridge. There, a few yards down, was an old abandoned warehouse that had been transformed into an aquarium, or an ‘orphanage for sea life’ as Eli liked to call it. He took her through the back way past the great garage loading doors, and soon they were inside.

  The aquarium was beautiful. Rows upon rows of different sized glass tanks were set up along the walls of the warehouse. Some were lit beautifully with colorful plant life, and others dark and sinister like the very depths of the ocean. Eli showed her the rare fish they’d saved from extinction and the cleaning room that smelled like rot and made him laugh at the look of disgust on her face. They reached the end of the long room - actually, room was too small a word for the magnificent space - to a large meter-high circular tank. Eli knelt beside it and, after rolling up his sleeves, pulled out a turtle about the size of his hand.

  “This is Murphy,” he said and sat the turtle on his lap. It flapped about and hid inside its shell. Hunter bent beside Eli and touched the deep scratches on Murphy’s murky shell. “We rescued him a year ago from a fishing net on the other side of the city. His foot had been chewed off by larger fish, and his shell was badly scratched from boat rudders and the walls of the harbor.” Eli’s voice thickened in anger, as though the very thought of what Murphy went through was torture to him. Hunter looked into his bright green eyes and felt his passion, craving a desire such as this. She’d never seen anyone so driven to save something so helpless, and she loved him more by the minute. “Murphy would have died, had he not had this shell to protect him.” Eli’s eyes lit up, as though they were trying to tell her something. “And he’s got the battle scars to prove it, don’t you Murph?”

  Hunter smiled as the turtle peered very briefly out from under the protection of his shell. The shape of his mouth made it seem as though he were smiling, and his round eyes shimmered. Eli let the turtle gently back into the water, and he disappeared into the rocks, camouflaged against the underwater environment.

  “Come on, there’s one more stop on my magical marine tour,” he grinned and took her hand again. They passed through another door into a wide open room where the biggest tank Hunter had ever seen loomed before them, bright blue like the sky with sunlight crinkling in the ripples of the water from a skylight above them. Inside the tank were two dolphins, one small and pale pink and the other larger with a long scar down its belly. They swam playfully in circles, grinning at Eli and Hunter who stepped up to the glass. They made loud clicking noises and splashed about, happy for some company.

  “This is Halle and her daughter, Rose. We rescued Halle a few months ago when she was found beached and pregnant. Our vet and a good friend of mine had to remove Rose, or both she and Halle would’ve died. We were lucky that one of them survived, let alone the pair. Halle is still healing, but Rose is healthy.”

  “They’re beautiful,” Hunter marveled. She’d completely forgotten about the horrible news she’d received that morning, and Eli was to thank for that. She slipped her hand into his. “I could stand here and watch them all day.”

  Eli looked down at her with glimmering green eyes like pale emeralds and his smile flashed in the reflection of sunlight off the clear water.

  “How do you do it? How do you have such a heart for this when others couldn’t give a shit?”

  Eli watched the dolphins as though their dancing motions helped him think. “I once read a quote that said ‘Often, the greater our ignorance about something, the greater our resistance to change’. People don’t see the horrible things that others do to animals simply because they can’t hear or feel or see their pain. Or they just ignore it. And ignoring that suffering only means they are stuck, that they resist change. I’m just doing something about it.”

  Hunter wrapped her uninjured hand around his neck and pushed her mouth against his. The dolphins clicked loudly in the background. Eli smiled against her lips.

  “You don’t understand how amazing you are Eli,” she said softly, tracing gentle lines down his face, from the corner of his eyebrow along the ridge of his cheekbone down to the dip of his lips. His eyes were closed.

  The fire inside of her blazed, but it wasn’t menacing, merely content. She didn’t want to get back to reality, because she knew this day wouldn’t last. Soon she would be hearing from
Joshua, who must have seen the news by now. He’d be worried something happened to her after she left last night. Then there was the funeral. She couldn’t bear the thought of it.

  Tears began to form in Hunter’s eyes, so she turned away from Eli and brushed them away.

  “Are you okay?” He rested a hand on her shoulder and his fingers brushed the skin of her neck. He paused. “You feel a bit hot.”

  Hunter backed up immediately. “What?”

  “You just feel a little warm. I’m sure it’s fine.”

  She checked the fire, but felt nothing. No burning through her veins. Her skin was normal, her heart rate only a little faster than usual, but that could be because of the making out. What’s wrong with me?

  “I think I need some fresh air,” she muttered and ran from the dolphin room.

  “Hunter!” Eli called, his footsteps and hers echoing through the warehouse as she ran to the front door they’d come through. She couldn’t feel the heat at all, but she didn’t want to take any chances. After all, she didn’t feel the fire creep up on her last time until she was setting Eli’s sheets on fire.

  The sun still shone outside and it near blinded her as she burst into the open street, the calm harbor to her right and a line of buildings to her left. Eli wasn’t far behind her and when he caught her by the arm, she made to turn around, to explain that she was just feeling sick thinking about Miss Smart. But she didn’t want to lie to him again.

  Which was why it was almost a relief when the sound of sirens silenced them both. She and Eli turned back to the street where, above the line of buildings not a block away, rising smoke was climbing into the calm New York sky.

  thirty

  Eli called out to Hunter as she took off running and was by her side in seconds. They ran along the pathway and turned down Gibson Street. The road was blocked, a crowd forming around a burning restaurant she couldn’t see the name of, for flames surrounded it, snaking out of the windows and bending toward the onlookers, as though teasing them. Firemen and police officials blocked the crowd a clear distance away. From inside the building, someone was screaming.

  Hunter pushed through the crowd and tried to pretend there were no butterflies in her stomach. She thought of Miss Smart, poor Miss Smart, who was granted only a few more days to live, and this time she felt no fear. This time, she knew it was up to her.

  “Hunter!” Eli called, grasping her hand and then slipping away. People grunted at her as she weaved towards the barricade, and when she reached it, she came face to face with the door of the restaurant. Only an orange and white striped barrier stood in her way.

  “Is there anyone still in the building?” she asked an elderly man dressed in a chef uniform, leaning against the barrier beside her, rubbing his hands together anxiously.

  He didn’t glance at her. “The uh... th-the w-waitress... and a few of th-the customers-”

  Adrenaline filled her. She knew what she had to do. But then Eli called her name. As if in slow motion, Hunter turned and saw him squeezing his way toward her, scared and panicked, desperate to reach her. In a split second, she knew that it was time to make a decision. If she ran inside the building to rescue whoever was left alive, she wouldn’t be able to lie to Eli any longer. People would see her. The Agents might see her.

  But if she didn’t use the power she was given, then what else was it good for? Who else could save them?

  It was given to you for a purpose, Hunter’s mother had said in the letter. It will lead you to greatness.

  With a glance at the firemen scrambling to unroll the hose, Hunter ducked under the barricade. She had only a moment to catch onto Eli’s green gaze. A connection so real struck her, she almost froze up in shock. He knew, even before she flipped her black hood over her hair in an attempt to hide her identity. He knew.

  I’m sorry, she mouthed and turned and ran straight for the door.

  “Hey!” One of the policemen had seen her, and some of the onlookers began to shout, but Hunter didn’t care. She knew what none of these people had any clue about: that to Hunter, the restaurant was simply a house of cards on the verge of being knocked down with so much as a breath of air.

  The moment Hunter passed through the front door, it was as if she’d stepped into another dimension. The fire roared around her, snaking between her limbs and gripping her tight. The heat was immense, but it was somehow comforting for her, as if this fire was her friend. A brief flash of a distant memory brought her back to the past, a time she couldn’t remember, where she lay on a steel table encased in flames. She shook herself back to the present. Focus Hunter, lives are at stake here.

  The restaurant would have seemed larger, had the roof not crumbled in and chairs and tables burning to a crisp not blocked her path. She craned her neck, searching for any sign of life. It occurred to her that perhaps she was too late. Perhaps the fire was too deadly for anyone to have survived it.

  Hunter shielded her eyes from the smoke and breathed in deeply. It amazed her that although there was no oxygen in the air, she could still breathe as though she were outside.

  “Hello?” she shouted and jumped when a table beside her fell in on itself. “Is anyone in here?!”

  Focusing all her energy on keeping still and searching through the blaze for any sound at all aside from the crumpling restaurant, Hunter’s heart leapt when the faintest of screams reached her ears.

  She moved further inside the restaurant. The cries were coming from what she assumed was the kitchen. Hunter pushed through a fallen bench and over the counter into the back room. It was clear the fire had started here; the room was ablaze and black with charcoal. The screaming was coming from a steel door at the back of the room, and she ran without thinking through the fire towards the freezer door that had been bolted shut.

  “Help!” someone screamed and pounded on the door.

  Hunter looked at the latch and realized it was padlocked. Someone locked her in here. Hunter didn’t have time to question why and grasped the padlock, hotter than a stoker, and felt it start to melt between her fingers. In a matter of moments, the padlock was no more than liquid metal that dribbled like wax to the floor. She shook her wrist and yanked open the freezer door.

  A burst of cold air collided with the flames surrounding Hunter and she was caught amidst a raging war of fire and ice. She threw herself inside the freezer, cold air hissing over her skin. When she turned, she saw a young girl gaping at her with mascara running down her face and her skin tinted blue. She shook from head to toe.

  The girl didn’t speak. She simply gazed at Hunter.

  “Are you okay?”

  She shook her head, gaping like a fish out of water. “How did you-”

  “There’s no time,” she snapped and they moved to the door. “We have to get out of here. The place is burning to the ground. Is there a back way out?”

  The girl nodded vigorously. “Y-yes, to the left,” she managed to chatter. Hunter wished she still had her jacket on to warm the girl up, but her clothes had been burnt to a crisp. She barely wore half her jeans and T-shirt. Holes showed her bare skin, making her look like some sort of savage.

  Hunter scoured the freezer for some sort of oxygen device. Part of Joshua’s training consisted of mountainous piles of research on fires. Hunter knew that most people who died in fires lost the oxygen to breathe before they burned to death. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the freezer that she could find. Hunter only hoped that the fire had diminished in the kitchen and the girl’s cold body was enough to protect her from the heat.

  She was watching Hunter closely, her arms clasped tightly across her chest. “Wh-what are you doing?”

  “Nothing. What’s your name?”

  “K-Kate. What’s y-yours?”

  “I’m Hunter,” she said automatically. Then she realized she’d just given this girl her identity. If we ever make it out, Kate and I will be having a chat. But right now, there were more pressing matters. “I’m gonna get you out of here,” s
he said. “Do you trust me?”

  Kate nodded, the tears on her cheeks turning into icicles.

  “Good. Now let’s go.”

  Without hesitation, Hunter threw open the freezer door.

  The heat hit her like the burst of a sandstorm wind, blinding them both and causing Kate to scream and stumble back. But the warmth filled Hunter, overpowering the cold behind her and helping her breath well again. She didn’t have time to wonder what would happen to Kate, because it was this or freezing to death, and Hunter didn’t like the sound of that at all. She stepped into the burning kitchen, pulling Kate along with her.

  “Where’s the exit?!” she shouted, but Kate was unresponsive. She was coughing violently and shaking in the impossible heat.

  Hunter’s heart rate accelerated. I have to get her out of here before she suffocates. Wrapping herself over Kate like a shield, she directed the heat away from them and pushed the girl to the floor where oxygen was more likely to flow. Kate practically collapsed, bent over with heaving coughs, and Hunter gazed in panic at the burning restaurant. How are we going to get out of here?

  And in that moment, as if God had heard her desperate prayer, part of the roof to their left collapsed in an earth-shattering crunch. Concrete rained down upon them, smothering the fire. Hunter didn’t have time to dive out the way, and the two of them were covered in debris. Pain shot through her shoulder. For a moment, Hunter wondered if she was stuck, but found the strength to pry herself out of the wreckage and search for Kate.

  “Kate!”

  When the air cleared, she could just vaguely see the outline of the blonde girl lying covered in slabs of concrete behind her. She was grazed badly and a large chunk covered her leg. Hunter pulled herself together, ignoring the flames that stuck to her as if feeding on the energy radiating from her skin and used her last ounce of strength to pry the girl from beneath the rubble. I should get a medal for this. Hunter nearly cried out in pain as she lifted Kate by her arms and struggled over the unstable ground to the hole in the wall made by the fire. She could sense fresh air, the coolness of an alleyway that hardly saw sunlight, and the unmistakable sound of sirens that meant safety. As Hunter climbed over the jagged steps leading to the alleyway behind the restaurant – dragging Kate with her – she looked up at the cloudy blue sky and breathed a sigh of relief. She had done it. She’d saved another life.