Sell Some Lives

Flakes of Red

"We'll go in Father's study. He is out, he won't find us there." Ellie huffed and puffed a lot as she pushed the invalid chair through the tall, winding labyrinth corridors. The curtains were all drawn so that no light shone in, but anyone could tell the walls were multicolred mosaic. The huge house was horribly silent, so the wheels echoed all around. 

"It's here." Ellie said suddenly and violently steered the wheelchair left. She knocked on a large metal door, jiggling the knob though she'd said her Father was still out.

She opened it and then came behind the wheelchair and pushed me in. 

"What do we do now?" I asked, looking around. Jaquet had a very large school desk with a hinged surface that opened to reveal a storage area underneath. The top was almost entirely covered with papers, receipts, account books, inkwells, Indian erasers, a printer and a Remington typewriter.

"We'll eat a match."

"Eat it?"

"Lit it. Light." 

She pulled out a matchbox from her pocket. I stared at her, wondering if she'd gone crazy. Or maybe she always was. She was a stranger, it was possible. 

She scratched her match, holding it up to one of Jaquet's many loose papers. It caught fire and started spreading so she dropped it on the desk, flinching. 

Immediately the flame died.

"Ow, I should have worn my gloves."

"You really should have."

She lit another match anyway, and held it up to another of the papers. 

She touched that paper to another and then another making the fire spread. Then she held it up to the wooden desk and waited. The flame darkened a corner of the desk and then started dancing over the surface, licking all the books and papers, and receipts, going down the desk too, over the floor. Ellie stared in horrified fascination. I stared too, at her. Then I started coughing because the fire was spreading faster now. It reached the door just as someone burst through and ran at us. Jaquet!

"Father, what are you doing back so early?" Ellie said hoarsely.

He shook his head at her.

"Are you a moron? As soon as I found out there was a fire I rushed back as fast as I could. Come on, let's get out of here." He tried to pull her but she pulled back.

"No!" She pushed him. He lost his balance and staggered, falling backwards on top of a fiery flame. It caught on his hair and he screamed, tapping at it.

Red flakes of blood mixed with fire sparks leak from the lacerations forming on face.