Behind the mask

Chapter 4

April took Asher inside the woods far away from her house. It started to rain really hard, so she walked faster. She put Asher who was still fast asleep down and started going back. Lightning struck and seconds later came the thunder.

'The storm's right above me, I better hurry back,' April thought to herself. When she took a step forward, everything turned white for a moment and another loud boom was heard from behind her. She turned around surprised, and saw a giant tree about to collapse on her. It was struck by lightning, and now was set on fire.

'Shit...' April thought and ran as fast as she could. As she was running, she tripped and fell to the ground. Her legs ached and she couldn't get up. As a last attempt to protect herself, she crawled into a ball, covered her head with her arms and closed her eyes. A loud thud was heard extremely close to her, and she opened her eyes. The tree had landed right next to April, who quickly stood up to run away from the burning tree. However, she looked around her and the only thing she could see was the fire that had spread everywhere. The smoke was making breathing difficult, and April started coughing. Despite that, she tried to find a way out of the fire. Then, she bumped into someone.

"Huh..?" she mumbled trying to see.

"April??" Asher said slightly panicking.

"Yup that's me," April said crossing her arms.

"Did you start this fire?" he asked.

"Why the hell would I do that?!" April asked angrily.

"Dunno, just seems like a you thing," he replied.

"You think I would start a whole freaking fire just to burn you alive? If I wanted to kill you I'd have already done it," April shouted at him. "Now we're all gonna fucking die,"

"Well we wouldn't have been here if you had just let me go," Asher shouted back.

"We wouldn't have been here if I had just killed you on the spot!" April replied again.

"We wouldn't have been here if you hadn't kidnapped me!"

"This would never have happened if you weren't sticking your nose in my business!" the fight continued.

"I was just doing my job!" Asher shouted, when another tree falling made them both come back into reality.

"Ok this is not the problem right now, we gotta get out first," Asher said.

"And how do you insist we do that, Mr Big Brain?" April asked. Asher thought for a moment.

"We need to get up on that tree. See? Its branch reaches the area without the fire. If we can walk on that branch, right above the fire, we can get to the other side and just jump off." Asher concluded.

"Yeah... but how do we get up on that tree? It's quite tall." April asked.

"You have to lift me so I can get on, and then I'll help you up," Asher said.

"No way, you'll just leave me behind," April said with that dead look in her eyes.

"You just have to trust me," Asher said crossing his arms. "That's the only way."

"Well guess what, I don't trust you!" April declared.

"But would you rather stay here without any chance of surviving than help me up and at least have some chances to get out?" Asher asked.

"Listen here, if I die, you're dying with me. I ain't helping you up." April said. There were sounds of wood snapping and crackling, and some sparks of fire landed next to Asher's shoe. He took a step backwards worried. Asher let out a sigh.