The Source: Observer Chronicles, Book 3

Chapter 1: Strangers

Reetho pulled back a bunch of yellow vegetation after walking towards a building in the distance. When the boy got closer to this building, a woman appeared. His body tensed without any warning, him not really knowing what to do nor say.

The woman's eyes were wide, her mouth open as she dropped the keys she held in her right hand.

The boy could feel an imminent heat boiling inside as the woman bent down to pick up those keys. When she looked at him again, flames had engulfed the field, the blaze licking at the air, as if it had been here for some time already even though it hadnʼt.

The fire crackled as the two strangers signalled to each other their shock and worry. It spread faster than either of them thought possible, and Reetho might have had an idea why.

The woman ran into the house immediately, as if she was afraid of something the boy Reetho did not know about.

The blazing fire stretched wider and wider, and in turn, forced the boy to freeze amidst the action.

He could not will himself to move, something inside had taken him like never before and said things that day that only he himself could understand, and maybe, just maybe, one other.

A sudden high-pitched scream crashed through the air; it seemed to come from within the house, the building Reetho sought refuge at.

Another building appeared and shook the boy that was Reetho, seeing a barn at the side of the house, it also in flames. A tremendous terror leapt into her voice as soon as she herself saw the fires. "Stop this," Lauret said, but the boyʼs eyes were blank, only responding with a mere blink and glance at her face.

Lauretʼs attention directed to the sound of banging on a window at the top floor of the house she was near to. She could see a single little girl hit the glass, yelling.

"Lauret," said Clarabelle, running closer, "what's wrong with Reetho?" she asked, looking at him on the floor, her panting and gasping for breath.

"People are in the house," replied Lauret, worried.

"I'll go," said Clarabelle, "stay here with him."

"Clarabelle," said Lauret with worry, she turned to look at the speaker, "please be careful. The six of us are all we have now." Clarabelle nodded, then ran straight to the home.

The girl looked at the entrance before jumping over the spitting flames in the doorway, and without any kind of hesitation; it appeared to happen with a mighty leap no ordinary human could have achieved, at least not without some great help.

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"Eve," shrieked a voice from the bottom of the stairs inside the home. Clarabelle pulled the woman yelling, back, when she was about to thrust herself into the scorching fires upon the stairs. They both tried their best to cover their mouths as they moved, and were coughing some because of the dark, thick smoke all around, it blocking their view after a few feet.

"Get off me," cried the older woman as she pushed Clarabelle back off her, making the girl fall down the first few steps and land on the floor. "Eve, I'm coming." As she ran farther up again, some creaking wood moved from above, making the woman hesitate for a moment, then, a ceiling support crashed down as she began to move towards the second floor, flames had already taken the support beam and made it fall upon her. Clarabelle closed her eyes in dread, knowing she would not be able to move fast enough to protect this helpless woman.

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