In White Robes

Chapter 18 - Lost and Found

By some ungodly miracle, Larson was not dead.

Out from the fire he came waddling, reaching for me, though burned from head to toe. Blood caked on his body; his black suit was soon torn and melted onto him; his walk was a lurch. He was more determined than that fire, dead-set on getting to me.

The halls were empty, no longer crowded with the army of Concealed. This gave me ample time and space to see just how beautifully the fire burned, stretching its hands along the sides of the hall, ripping down the floor. Still beating at Larson's back, too, but it seemed he was not affected by it.

As if the fire was just a memory to him.

He continued inching toward me as I laid on my back, struggling to get to my feet fast enough with all the chaos leaking out around me. Somewhere in the facility, I could hear flurrying footsteps. Tabby. The Concealed. Perhaps even Avery.

"I didn't ask for this!" screamed Larson, his voice broken by the fire. "I wanted only to hold you again! Hold you away from the angels! I found the solution at one point, but this . . . mutiny. This mutiny shall not go unpunished!"

Soon I found myself screaming, too: "Why won't you die?!" I raised the pistol again, hands shaking, pulling the trigger with such speed and such purpose that I was sure he would be gone this time. One shot to the head. But nothing happened. The gun clicked hopelessly. Empty. Damn it.

All I could think to do next was back up, scoot my body away from him as I continued rising to my feet. The fire never stopped glowing. He never stopped in his tracks. Just kept walking, kept looking at me with his mangled face, melted features. It was like he was already dead, just led on by his ambition and in turn, granted life where he did not deserve it. A walking corpse, a shell of a tainted man.

"Let me fix things, my beloved Kay . . . my beautiful little boy. Let me be your angel."

At long last I was able to get to my feet, the panic in my heart going numb finally. I stood across from him, watching the fire burn orange around us. The material on the walls had begun melting, sending a strong metallic scent into the air. I could taste it mixing with the putrid aroma of hot smoke.

With no time to waste, I took the handle of the gun, aimed it at Larson's head, and swung. If that was my last resort, so be it. I would strike his skull, not with a bullet but with the solid body of the pistol. He looked as if he were ready to fall into my attack, succumb to death.

But then I was stopped.

So abruptly that it shocked me.

Something had taken ahold of my arm, handling me with such force that I stumbled for a moment before being launched backward into the hall. The pistol dropped from my hand at that moment, left behind at Larson's feet.

I was quick to steady myself after being thrown by this third person. I had to see them. Know who they were. Fight them off.

Standing beside Larson now, I caught sight of them. White combat boots on their feet. Black dress pants, a black suit. Antlers. The faint smell of lavender and honey wafting in the air.

"Avery?" I said slowly in disbelief.

He had the body language of Koko. His eyes, too, had lost color and only looked cold now. He was standing at attention, body stuck in a stiff stance. Like a puppet on strings. Like Larson's puppet.

"No, no--not you." I was crying at this point; glad he was alive and well, horrified that he was guarding Larson's life. The man I had learned to love in that little prison cell of ours, the man I wanted to feel for myself. I had always wanted to hold myself against him. Hug him. Smell him forever. Now the only piece of contact we made was when he took me by the arm and threw me backwards with a strength similar to Koko's.

He said nothing, just glared at me through the inferno with his dead eyes. Eventually he was helping Larson stand up straight, protecting him from me. Suddenly I knew this was no longer my place. I remembered the plan: let Tabby find the exit to the facility, kill Larson, find Avery, and then escape.

Now Larson was alive, Avery had been found in the way I never expected, and Tabby was . . .

Leaving. He had to be leaving. Not caring where I went, I turned to the hall, away from the blaze, and ran. Ran until I heard from behind me, "Avery, don't let him get away!"

And then footsteps speeding after me.