Gold Fever (m×m) ✔

XXIX: Don't become the monster they think you are

《 ASPEN GRISWOLD 》

My chest was heaving with the effort to fill my burning lungs. My legs were going to give away underneath me any second from now. Still, I kept running, pushing my body past its limits. I knew it was too late, the closer I got. The air was heavy with the smell of burning electricity, buzzing with it.

A blinding bright, blue light exploded in my vision, and as it faded I had to blink the whiteness away. I stumbled and fell to the ground, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth as I bit my tongue in the process. I blinked again, and I saw a familiar quiver laying on the dry earth and the arrows, each snapped in two, strewn all around. Only then did it occur to me to glance over my shoulder to see what I had tripped on.

When I did, I gasped harshly enough to send fire up my side. Willow's red hair had escaped from the braid and strands of it stuck to the bruised side of her face. For one horrifying second I thought she was already dead, but then I saw the slow rising and falling of her chest. I got back up, my knees buckling but not giving in.

I supported my weight on the trees while passing them, trying to recover from the sight of an unconscious Willow. No one could say she hadn't asked for it, or say that I hadn't warned her. The thought of Pierre and whether he was still alive was only a distant wonder on the back of my mind, soon fading away altogether as I stepped into the heart of the crackling, buzzing magic.

I wasn't surprised to find Phoenix standing there, his hands glowing with bright, cold light. At the first sight it looked like he was wearing gloves, half way up to his forearms. Next, I made out the jagged edges and the reddish color, gleaming in the bluish glow. Itisbloodohmygoditis—

"You." Phoenix's voice was deep, filled with hatred and bone-deep anguish. He was staring straight back at me. When he took a step forward, I saw the body laying on the ground and the two of his friends gathered around it.

"Wait, Phoenix." I cried out, my stomach dropping the second my brain put together what I was seeing. "I didn't do that, I-I swear, I'm—"

Phoenix didn't give me a chance to finish my plea, but instead sprang towards me. He lifted his hands, aiming at me with something that could only be called a flash of lightning. It landed on the ground a few feet from me, scorching it with a black, steaming splotch. I swirled around, ignoring the pain it caused, and ran like my life depended on it.

By all accounts, it did.

"You want to kill me?" Phoenix shouted after me, his voice gaining a ragged edge, as he sent another flash of lightning on my way. "You want to murder me? Get in line, bitch."

I was too winded to answer, and it wouldn't have done me any good anyway. All I could hope was to elude him, and shouting back at him would have only given away my location. I needed to find a place to hide in, some fallen tree or a pit on the ground..

"But my friends.." His voice cracked, and I realized with a surge of panic that it had nothing to do with him tiring out. If anything, he was gaining in on me. "Leave them out of it!"

My calves were burning, my chest about to explode with the lack of oxygen. I couldn't go on much longer. So much for being an athlete, when a few weeks of starvation and a battered side could render my body weak, useless. I slowed down despite all my effort, and gulped in a lungful of air.

The next flash of lighting hit the back of my feet, heating up my heels and filling the air with the stench of burning rubber. It didn't hurt, but it was enough to make me lose my footing and fall on my hands and knees. I hissed, and gritted my teeth to keep in the cry of agony.

It was a miracle if I got out of this without repealing all the hard work my body had done to heal my fractured rib. Cross that. It was a miracle, if I got out of this alive.