The Last Apothecary

Chapter 20.

My lungs burned, sweat dripping down my arms as I ran faster than I ever had before in my life. Gasping for air, I skid to a stop only to choke on the high volumes of smoke starting in the air, ash coating my tongue. I bent down, putting my hands on my knees. The air was less congested there, and I pulled it in greedily before finally glancing at the street.

The situation had only gotten worse. The first thing I noticed was the fires, eating away at roof after roof, leaving nothing behind but caved in walls. It was followed by the image of bodies on the ground, twisted and trampled from the crowd. As I watched a sickly red ooze spreading on the asphalt, I wasn't sure what was louder: The pleas for help, or the sirens of cop cars trying to get through an area too condensed and chaotic to drive through.

I choked, acid shooting up my throat as my stomach rejected the sight. The reckless feeling was starting to die down, my backpack sliding off my shoulder as I stood there, completely frozen.

"Aww man, I never thought we'd catch up."

What?

I whipped around to find Blyke walking up to me, Dustin and Liesel not too far behind. A low whistle pulled out of his mouth as he surveyed the scene, flickering orange light casting a deathly glow on his face. Then he shook his head, focusing on me. "So, what's the plan?"

"Plan?" I repeated, the word empty. Up close, it was even harder to imagine me being able to do anything. Dark figures in robes stood tall and menacing, lifting black veils only to drink potions. My potions.

"I don't have a plan! I just-" I cut myself off. What had I honestly thought I could do? Fight? The only experience I had in that was a record of aggravated assault, with an emphasis on the aggravated. Now I could only watch as the ground shook beneath my feet, another building crumbled in the distance, scattering rubble to the pavement. This was nothing like a school fistfight. This was... a whole new level.

I grit my teeth, fist clenched as Dustin and Liesel finally came to a stop next to me. "You weren't supposed to follow me here! Eileen said to stay put! What about that did you not understand?"

Blyke raised his hands, backing up as I took a step towards him. "No, I got that. But-"

"It was my idea."

Huh? My eyes flicked to Liesel, wiping at her eyes before fixing her glasses to look at me.

"I mean, why would you do that? We should have stayed put, but you ran off, completely alone-" Her high-pitched voice was cut off as she coughed on the flaky air. "You can't just blame yourself and going running into a suicide mission. Not by yourself! It's... It's not your fault, so if you're really, really set on this, then let me help."

"Yeah, us too," Blyke chimed in, wrapping an arm around Dustin. "I just wanna know how we're going to avoid the dying thing. You have a 'stop cultists' potion or somethin?"

"No."

"Can you do elemental magik?" Liesel prompted, slipping her wand out of the pocket of her dress.

"No. I can barely use any of that," I admitted, my voice starting to crack. "I didn't think this through, okay? I just ran! The only thing I've been able to do is Apothecary work, and look where that led to."

I went to fling out my hand to gesture to the crowd, when something bumped into my shoulder, my body roughly thrown to the side. As I staggered back, Liesel reaching out to catch me, a woman burst past me in complete panic.

Instead of a 'sorry' for crashing into me though, her gaze flicked down to my shirt. Then she was scowling at me. "Goddamn Witch! Here to finish off what you started?"