Point and Time

Chapter 4: Macie: A New Face

Once Seth got through the window of what once again looked like a building that survived a kitchen fire, He looked at me and we both began running. The further we ran from the building the less Chase, Ever, and Ethan's faces had been glowing less on the sheet, but Ari's had been glowing a lot more. I wasn't sure what to expect but it felt like the air was foggy now, which worried me. Usually, fog meant there was-

"Fire," Seth said pointing at a house about a mile away.

"Yeah, I figured that wasn't too far away," I added.

"Stay close, it can get hard to see the closer we get." He grabbed my hand, squeezed it, and began running again to try and find Ari, wherever he had been.

The closer we got to the fire the brighter Ari began to glow on the sheet. Seth wasn't the type to run into danger, something tells me that once he had defended himself from those three cheerleader demons something changed. He had to kill one, I hated saying it because he wouldn't have done that if he didn't have to. He was so sweet. He got suspended once for defending me from a group of popular girls, who hated me because he liked me. He always did, and the feeling was mutual but he never acted so I wasn't ever 100 percent sure of it. He didn't really try to hide it anymore though.

When he grabbed my hand I blushed and had we not been trying to save someone's life I think there probably would have been a hug or kiss involved instead. I followed him closely but I could tell he was a lot more in shape than me. I hadn't been involved in any sports since my seventh-grade year in school. I was in track and field but tore my ACL in the middle of the season and since then I usually just go to the gym. I kept to myself but most of the time I just smiled at everyone. I was told by my teachers that I always brought life to the classroom and was one of the more determined students because I always asked questions, and got pretty good grades. Every teacher I had, told me I was going places which was weird to hear. Knowing that someone other than my parents believed in me was odd, well parent. My mom had been trying to date but when people found out she has a kid, lives in a California apartment, and is a teacher at an elementary school they didn't really want to stick around. I do hate that I'm part of the reason people don't want to get with her. Tears filled my face as smoke filled my lungs from the fog.

"Look," Seth said as we reached the end of a street that went into Longcrow Road.

"Oh no..." I looked as every house on the road was in flames, firefighters had been up and down trying hard to put all the fires out and had no idea where the fire was coming from.

"I'm gonna need both of you to get away from here." A cop flagged us down and told us to turn around.

"Sir our friend lives right down there!" Seth added pointing at the house the arrow on the sheet had been pointing at.

"No one has been located in those houses, sir." The cop responded.

"There aren't even any trucks near the house sir! How do you know if you guys aren't even down there?" Seth snapped back.

"Turn around now, it's too dangerous this way." The cop said as he walked us back down the street.

I knew Seth wasn't going to let that stand so he started looking around for places to try and sneak to where Ari's house was collapsing ablaze. The bad news was every building on this street was three or four stories tall, so if Ari was on the top floor he, most likely, was not going to make it through that fall.

"Look, there are fences around every backyard. Most of them are wooden, meaning if the firefighters didn't catch the fires fast enough we can find a way straight to Ari's house." Seth said pointing at a fence that had lost about half of its distance.