Fire's Catching

Chapter 5 - Suspicions

"What?" Joy asks. I look over at her to see her face drop. She never looks this concerned and ... sad. "Do I ... die?" I see tears welling up in her eyes. She takes this very seriously when there might be another completely logical explanation for this.

"No, you won't die. I'm sure you just stayed home or something, don't get all worked up over nothing." It was meant comforting, but I realize that Joy took it as an insult. I leave it be for now, I'll just apologize after, Forrest's vision is more important at the moment.

"What else?" I turn back to Forrest.

"Well, there's something worse."

"What is it?"

"I saw someone."

"Who?"

"Actually, two someones."

"My question still stands, Forrest."

"Right," he takes a deep breath. "I didn't see who one of them was, but I did recognize the other one."

"Forrest! Get to the point!"

"Alright! It was Valentina."

I squint at him. "Are you sure? You're not just seeing what you want to be seeing?"

"I'm sure," he says, a little bit too concerned for the situation. "That's not all I saw."

"Well ... spill!" I huff.

"I-" Forrest starts before a loud bang is heard in the distance. The three of us jump and turn to the line of trees on the left of us. There, from the top of the trees furthest away, is smoke. Smoke is ascending from the greenery. Fire.

We're running through the woods. Lucky for us, rain hasn't appeared in days, so the ground is dry. I would hate to have to run on wet roots. I quickly surpass the other two, it must be the extra strength in my legs or something. As we get closer, the smell of smoke and burning wood gets more and more overtaking. Wild animals are running in the opposite direction, removing themselves from the situation. That would be nice right now.

I look behind me, still running. I can't see the others anymore. As I'm about to turn my head back into its normal position, my foot hits something, and I fly forward, my body hitting a thick tree stump. Dazed, I look around. The grass around the tree stump is dead. Covered in coal. I check out the stump itself; burned from the inside out. What. The. Fuck.

A sudden sound comes from behind me. I spin around on the ground, now on my back, propping myself up with my elbows. To think that I almost had this exact pose just a few days ago on the hill we usually hang out at. In front of me is a dark shadow. I can barely make out the contours of the mask covering the shadow's face. It's a dark red mask with some engravings on the cheeks and forehead. The eyes are holes with black fabric inside so the shadow can see through it.

The shadow moves closer, now only a couple of feet away from my legs. It leans down towards me and cocks its head to the side, as if fascinated. For a second, I'm frozen in place. Still from the shock of this unknown figure standing in front of me. I look down at the shadow's hands. They have burn marks and have streaks of black coal on them, upwards towards their sleeve. Ouch, it looks like it really hurts. That's when small sparks start to appear within one of the palms. They raise their hand up to my face, sparks almost reaching my nose.

I quickly put my foot on the ground in between of their legs before sweeping them off the ground. With a loud thud, they fall to the coal-covered dirt. I gather all the strength I can muster and push off the ground, launching myself into the air. Cool. I grab onto a branch up above and look down. My eyes search for the dark figure, but they're gone, a small flame dancing where they fell before.

Okay, what?