Playing With Fire

by Jordan Mendez

  There was one flaw with my method. I had to make every trap Enzio disappear whenever Vaze was about to step into it. It was hard to only hit Enzio without hitting Vaze. If they had been going at a slow pace it would have been easy, but they were moving so fast my eyes had trouble tracking them.

  While still in the air after jumping away from another trap, Enzio knocked Vaze back with one arm. Vaze flew backwards and landed with a thud, but the second he hit the ground he had already started to get back up to his feet. I thought for sure that Enzio was going to use this as an opportunity to attack Vaze, but to my surprise he turned to me. “Get her!” He yelled, with one badly charred finger (which to my satisfaction, was the hand that I had burned) pointing at me.

  The Shadows went completely nuts. I had thought their screeching before was loud, but the sound they all made together at once was mind numbing. Luckily I caught on before it happened. The sea of Shadows rushed to one point in the town square: me.

  Surprisingly enough, I was calm. Wait no, that’s not it. It was more like my mind completely cut out my emotions and let my body take control. The last thing I heard was Vaze screaming: “Scarlet! NO!”

  The first Shadow to reach me was the first Shadow to meet God, or where-ever they went to after death. The Shadow lunged at me, but being the self-confident idiot I was, I didn’t even flinch. When it was an inch from me it burst into flames and fell to the ground screeching. In a matter of seconds it was reduced from nature’s ugliest creation to nature’s ugliest pile of ashes. However, it became quickly clear that the Shadows were going to be too many for me to pick off one by one.

  An idea sparked into my mind. I slammed an open palm into the ground, and immediately a wall of fire erupted between the Shadows in front of me, killing some but keeping others at bay. I whipped out the dagger I had taken from the Bookworm and sliced behind me. A Shadow dropped dead as I made a one eighty to face the other Shadows trailing around obstacles to reach me.

  The first time I had fought Shadows, I had no idea what I was up against or what my opponents were capable of. I still didn’t know much, but I knew enough to figure out that they pretty much thought the same. I also realized that they didn’t do too well in a large group. They were falling over each other to attack me, and there wasn’t enough room to use their speed, like I had seen when they attacked Vaze and me the night before.

  One by one the Shadows dropped around me as I lashed out with the dagger. My aim was deadly accurate, though every thrust and lash was completely reliant on luck, which for once in my life I seemed to have an endless supply of. The fact that I couldn’t fully concentrate on fighting because I still had to concentrate on my firewall behind me made it harder then it seemed. Regular fire wouldn’t last a second in the pouring rain, so I couldn’t let it subside into regular soulless flames or else my one defense would disappear and unleash all hell on my weak side

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Vaze wasn’t having much luck without my help. He was covered head to toe with shallow cuts, but he didn’t seem to notice. He kept up a flurry of slashes and punches and kicks that were all blocked one after one and greeted with a tiny counter attack that always left a trickle of blood. It didn’t take a fool to see that Enzio was toying with him.

  A small pile of dead Shadows had begun to form at my feet, and I was growing more and more tired with every Shadow that fell. For most of the beginning of the fight, I was scar free, but eventually some Shadows had managed to snag me with their claws. The injuries were hardly anything more than scratches, but the fact that I was getting hit not only meant I was growing weary, but that the Shadows were getting better. It suddenly popped into my mind that there was no way I could get out of this alive. Even if I managed to kill every last Shadow in the place, there was no way Vaze could kill Enzio, and we’d still have to deal with him, and by then chances were I’d be way too tired to even stay conscious.

  Over the screeching of the Shadows I could faintly hear laughter from Enzio. “You make this far too easy Vaze; your feeble attempts are hardly a step above committing suicide.” A quick glance showed me Vaze pinned on the ground by Enzio. Enzio reached beneath his cloak with one hand and pulled out a short sword that looked like nothing I have ever seen before.

  Its handle and hilt looked like it was made of a glossy black rock and it had intricate designs that I couldn’t clearly make out. The blade gleamed white like pearls. The weapon itself was beautiful, but I knew the man that held it used it for an evil intent.

  I had to do something, but what I decided to do was just plain stupid. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the head of a Shadow and shoved it down. As I had hoped, the Shadow used its powerful legs meant for speed to keep itself upright, giving me the momentum to get high enough in the air for the next step.

  As carefully and quickly as I could, I landed on the head of another Shadow and immediately sprang to another. It wasn’t a long process, but Shadows figured it out and angled their mouths up and I had to watch out for razor sharp teeth while I sailed towards Vaze and Enzio.

  Enzio poised the blade so that it hovered dangerously close to Vaze’s throat. Vaze struggled to get away, but eventually seemed to make up his mind to submit. Instead of looking defeated, he looked directly into Enzio’s eyes fearlessly. Enzio laughed coldly.

  “In your last moments you choose to act like the prince you always wanted to be,” Enzio said trying to rub salt into Vaze’s wounds. “Do you have any last words?”

  “Burn in hell,” Vaze hissed. Enzio only laughed again, his voice deep and gravely.

  “I have. Longer than you can comprehend,” he replied. “Devour him, Alma Ladron.”

  The blade began to glow as Enzio pulled back to strike. I launched myself off of the last Shadow towards Enzio. Time seemed to stand still in those few seconds. The only thing I could see was the look of Enzio’s blood red eyes swimming with rage and victory. It wasn’t a pleasant sight.

  It was all over the second I made contact with Enzio. The impact knocked the wind out of me, but I wouldn’t be subdued so easily. Before Enzio could land on the ground or recover from shock, I did my best to restrain his movements. The blade was knocked out of his hands and clattered across the wet stone pavement as it returned to normal. We hit the ground hard and luckily, Enzio took most of the impact.

  Vaze snapped off the ground and snatched up the blade that Enzio had tried to kill him with. The second he clutched it in his hand he yelped and dropped it. His hand was red and the hilt was smoking.

  Enzio snickered. With an incredible strength Enzio threw me off of him as if I were a fly. He turned to me and I realized this was the worst idea I’d had in the past forty eight hours. I had seemed to be making a lot of bad mistakes in that time span.

  “You, child, are truly one of a kind,” he said casually. “First, you save a prince from the Shadows, who, in my opinion, are only a few steps above useless, but then you manage to inflict some damage onto me, and escape. But no matter how unique that was for a twelve-”

  “Fourteen,” I interrupted, just for the heck of it. If I was going to die what did it matter?

  Enzio looked at me in disbelief for a moment. I bet he wasn’t used to little girls back talking him.

  “My apologies,” He said tonelessly. “As I was saying, no matter how extraordinary that was for someone like you, you make incredibly moronic decisions. You could have escaped when we first met, but you chose to risk your life to save Vaze, a complete stranger. And on top of that, you brought him to Draco Hale’s home to get him help. Not only have you exposed to me where an old enemy of mine is, you have also revealed your brothers to me. You alone are their protection, since Draco decided to renounce his powers. When you tried to stop Vaze from going after me, you left them and now, after I kill you two, I am going to send each one of them to the afterlife, slowing and painfully.”

  My eyes grew wider with each word he said. My brothers were my entire world and the only reason I was ali
ve. Without Jake, I would have probably died of starvation in the forest, and without the rest of my brothers, I’d probably have gone insane.

  “Touch any of them and I swear I’ll kill you!” I screamed with rage. Enzio laughed. “Such anger, such passion,” he said jokingly. “And here I thought the youth nowadays only cared about themselves.”

  The ground began to shake beneath us, knocking Vaze off his feet. “Finally!” Enzio sighed. “I truly do hate baby-sitting the new Shadows during a Convergence, it takes so long, and has gotten incredibly boring.”

  An earth-shattering roar broke through the air from the street behind us. I looked around in confusion, expecting some new creature. Enzio’s eyes widened with a mixture of surprise and disbelief. I turned my head to find Shadows sailing through the air in all different directions. If I had been in a dumber, more ‘I just woke up five seconds ago’ mind-set, I would have thought that they were a flock of crows flying away.

  A path was being carved through the black sea of Shadows until finally, a new visitor arrived. To put it simply, an enormous bear burst into the center of the sea with us. I kid you not. It charged straight for me and I ducked down as close to the ground as I could manage. It was going so fast that it looked like it had no chance of stopping, meaning I was about to be trampled by a thousand pound power-house. It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

  I dared to look up at the beast as it was an inch away from me. Its fur was thick and deep brown. I braced for an impact—an impact that never came. As I looked up again I saw the bear sailing over my head and was glad I had chosen to duck.

  The bear sailed right over me and onto Enzio. I looked up and expected the fight to be done in seconds. Enzio was deadly but so was a massive bear on a rampage.

  “Get out of here!” a familiar voice yelled. I looked around trying to see who had said it. I saw Vaze sprinting towards me with his wings spreading. I turned to look at the bear expecting to see Enzio getting mauled, but instead saw the bear facing its head towards me.

  “Go! Find your brothers and get somewhere safe. I’ll hold him off!” It had a human voice. My mind went completely blank. I had seen its lips move and heard words coming out of its mouth, but I couldn’t accept it. Animals did not talk. When I was little I had tried for hours to get a squirrel I caught to talk but it just stared at me until it passed out. Or maybe it had stopped breathing. But the point is animals can’t talk!

  I stayed grounded in that spot, gapping at the bear as it turned away from me and struggled to restrain Enzio. I hardly noticed when Vaze scooped me up off the ground and into the air. I didn’t come back to my senses until Laetus was behind us. I wished I hadn’t come back to my senses then. They only left me again. I was staring out at Laetus thinking about how that was the only town I had ever known, and suddenly, it was gone.

  Chapter Four

  It wasn’t dramatic like being sucked into the ground gone. It was just gone. Not there anymore. It happened in the blink of an eye. Laetus was a big city too. Instead of the town, now there was a dead valley. The ground was dry and cracked and the only thing that seemed to grow was flowerless thorny rosebushes.

  I was too shocked to speak. I didn’t know if it had affected our Warehouse, though the forest was still there. My fears were quickly extinguished as the ivy covered roof of my home peeked slightly out of the trees. Vaze slowly floated closer to the top of the wooden roof.

  He landed silently, leaving only the sound of the rain pounding on the wooden surface. He put me down, which wasn’t the best thing for me. I was so shaken I almost lost my balance and fell off, and I felt a sting of embarrassment as Vaze caught me by the arm. The roof wasn’t very steep, and I had been up there plenty of times before, but under the circumstances I think any normal person would do the same.

  “What just happened, Vaze?” I asked in the calmest voice I could manage, but it was still a struggle to keep my voice from cracking. I looked into his eyes for answers, but they were hollow.

  “I’ll explain when we’re all together,” was his solemn answer. He jumped towards the ground and snapped out his wings at the last moment, landing silently. He motioned for me to jump and held out his arms to catch me, but I only scowled at him.

  Jumping to a nearby tree I grabbed one of its branches and tossed myself to the lower branches until I was close enough to the ground to leap down. I stumbled a bit upon landing, but despite my gracelessness I was satisfied that I had done it without his help.

  Vaze just shrugged and walked towards the broken mess that I called home. None of the windows were intact, and the only thing besides broken glass covering them were shreds of clothes that were so worn or small we couldn’t wear them anymore. The door was a tad pathetic. The building had giant wooden hangar doors with rusted hinges, so we had to cut our own door. It was a small opening that was also covered in cloth to help keep out the cold during the winter. The hangar doors themselves were rotting. The whole place was a safety hazard. And since it was mostly made of wood it was a fire hazard too. Ironic, isn’t it?

  Vaze entered and I was right behind him. The first thing I saw was Al. It wasn’t that I was particularly looking for him; he was just waiting by the door and decided to tackle me in a bear hug.

  “Don’t ever scare me like that!” He yelled in my ear with his voice cracking. “What happened?”

  “Isn’t it kind of obvious?” I said while shoving him off of me. “I tried to stop an idiot from being an idiot. It didn’t work out too well.” I gestured to Vaze’s many cuts and bruises. I realized that compared to him, I was hardly hurt at all. All of his injuries were minor but there were a lot of them. They’d be annoying, but he’d recover. After inspecting myself I found I had about ten cuts on my arm and a small shallow bite mark on my ankle that hardly broke skin. I’d say I was lucky.

  “What was Enzio talking about when he said all those things anyway?” I asked, remembering everything Enzio had taunted Vaze with until he finally snapped. Vaze looked at me, and if looks could kill, I’d probably have dropped dead then and there.

  “It’s none of your business, and I’d advise you to forget about it,” he said defensively.

  “You don’t have to be a jerk, I was just asking!” I snapped back. There was no way I was backing down. Apparently, neither was he.

  Al sensed what was about to happen first. He knew better than anyone how I get into so many fights in the first place. He was always my voice of reason, and my conscience. He got between Vaze and me before I had a chance to throw a punch.

  “Stop!” Al interjected, and got in between us. “If we start fighting among ourselves we’re dead meat. Mr. Hale said that those Shadow things and Enzio are probably going to be the least of our problems. If we’re going to make it, we’ve got to stick together. You two may not like it, but you’re going to have to work as a team. Scarlet, Mr. Hale said that Vaze would be the only one who would know where to go. Vaze, he also said that you and the survivors need Scarlet, and you know it. So if you’re done acting like five year olds, can we please start making a plan to get out of here?”

  Vaze looked surprised. I wasn’t. Speeches like this were normal for him, and though I was used to them, they always had the same effect on me. It calmed me down, and I always listened to what Al had to say. He may have only been a few months older than me, but the gap between our wisdom was like an ocean. Al could pretty much talk his way out of anything.

  “Well said Al,” Seth admitted, ruffling Al’s hair affecionately. He had always been proud of Al. In a way he was just as smart as Seth. “So, Vaze, where are we going? You can tell us what happened while we travel.” Vaze nodded and bit his lip. I could tell he was racking his brain for safe places and routes.

  “There’s a camp of rebels where all the survivors from Moraj live. My father is the leader there, since he was the king of Moraj. All those able are trained warriors, so we should be safe there, but it’s far from here since we’ll be on foot. The odds are we’ll run into bandi
ts or worse.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Do we look like we’re the kind of people that would have anything valuable?” I paused for a second, looking around at my home.

  “Taking valuables away aren’t the worst things bandits can do to you,” Vaze said, his statement plainly directed at me. “There are creatures out there that won’t care if you have money or not. Most of them would just as soon feast on your flesh as take your money.”

  While that cheery thought settled in my head, Vaze turned to Jake. “It’s your choice,” he said to my eldest brother. For a second, Jake looked unsure.

  “I don’t think we have any other choices,” Jake said soberly. “We can’t stay here, or else they’ll find us.”

  Vaze nodded. “Follow me then.” And with that, he bolted out the door, leaving behind five confused souls. Jake shrugged and bolted out after him followed by Seth and Al, leaving Darren and I alone.

  “He’s a real piece a work, isn’t he?” Darren said with a sly smile on his face. I laughed. Darren laid his hand on my head and ruffled my hair. “Let’s see who catches up first… Midget.” He always called me that and I absolutely hated it. He bolted out the door before I could sock him in the arm and I bolted out right after him.

  Vaze hovered in the air, waiting for us, the stragglers to catch up. We dashed through the trees straight towards him. The ground was slick and wet, making it difficult to run without falling.

  We ran deeper into the forest with our only way of direction was when we’d see Vaze through an occasional break in the trees. The sky was lightening up a little bit as the rain subsided from an endless shower to a slight drizzle. It didn’t take long to catch up, within minutes we arrived at the same clearing where I had fought the Shadows for the first time. The ashes of the Shadows from the night before had become murky black puddles slowly mixing in with the earth.

  When Vaze saw that we had arrived, he landed silently on the muddy ground as we joined the rest of my family. For the first time, I had noticed an absence.