"Ok, calm down. Take some deep breaths Sparkles. In," Nick inhaled deeply, miming for Alice to do the same, "annndd out." He let out a big whoosh of air as Alice did the same.
Alice had sprinted back to their apartment, where Nick was now trying to get her to calm down enough to tell him what had happened. The wild fear that shone in Alice's eyes made Nick nervous. He hasn't seen her this scared since their camping trip when they were seventeen.
Sucking in a deep breath again, Alice began, "Dude, oh my god! It was huge! Like the size of an obese raccoon, and oh god the smell. Nick, it almost got me-it was like this close!" Alice rushed out, holding up her hands so they were separated by a few inches to demonstrate how close the thing had gotten to her. "Waaayy closer than last time, you remember that thing? From the camping trip?" She was rambling, her words falling out of her mouth almost as quickly as she had run home. Nick just barely caught each word as she began each new sentence.
Nick's face screwed up in disgust. "Ugh how could I not remember? I only saw a flash of it before Missy knocked it into the bushes, but I remember how badly Missy smelled for the trip home after that."
Alice nodded wildly. Some of her curls had fallen out of her bun at the top of her head, and were now sticking to the base of her neck from how sweaty she was.
"Like raw sewage an-and also like somethin' had died, right?" Alice continued to stumble along as she told her story, her eyes big and wild looking.
Nick nodded his head along with Alice now. They both probably looked like a pair of chickens with all the head bobbing, but Alice was too distracted to care about how silly they might have looked to any on-lookers through the open window.
"I was getting ready to fight it, and then next thing I know, an arrow is flyin' past me and it hits the thing right as it jumps at me."
"An arrow??" Nick exclaimed.
"Yeah! At first I thought it was you, you know, comin' to the rescue. But whoever it was bolted as soon as the thing disintegrated, or melted... ugh whatever it did." She made a disgusted face at the memory of the horrible event.
"And it was jumping at you when it was shot?"
Alice was pacing now. "Yes. That's a difficult shot, right? Elevated angle and a small, moving target? Is there anyone on the team that could have made that?"
The "team" that Alice was referring to was the archery club that Nick had been a member of for the four past years and captain of for their senior year.
"I don't think so. There's me, and Emily who I'm pretty sure could have made that shot with little difficulty. But I wasn't there tonight, and Emily is in New York. At least I think she is. Neither of them have texted yet saying that they've landed safely. But I'm sure they're just busy.
There was a *ding* from Alice and Nicks phones just then. They both pulled out their phones and saw a message in the groupchat that the four of them shared.
From Emily, it read: "Landed safely. Connor and I had dinner together in the city. He's on the road now to Connecticut, should be getting in soon. Miss you two. xoxo."
"Speak of the devil." Nick laughed slightly, which lightened the mood in their small living room.
"Oh! Speaking of messages," Alice fumbled in the little pocket in her gym shorts to pull out the note that had been attached to the arrow. "I found this."
She handed the little slip of paper to Nick.
"Be careful?" he questioned up at Alice from where he sat on the old sofa. "What's that supposed to mean?"
YOU ARE READING
Fire Summoner
خيال (فانتازيا)Alice Barlowe doesn't remember where she came from. The only remnants of her past is a burn mark under her ear, and the power to summon fire. Raised by the couple who found her the night she was abandoned, Alice never had any desire to find her bio...
