The Child of Scraps

Chapter 22

Avery cursed. There was no better way to react in that kind of situation.

"My, my," Aguirre said in an uncle-like tone. "That is certainly not the kind of language that a proper lady must learn. However, I'm very sure that you were not raised properly, for what kind of parent teaches their child to break into private property? Certainly not the kinds of parents that should be allowed to raise such children."

It was just like Leandro, only more refined and even more annoying.

"Also, Elias," he said as he turned to the boy and knocked his hand lazily on the table, "Remind me to fire the guards we have and hire those of the higher classes. I thought that they would be sufficient enough to guard this factory safely, but it seems like they aren't worth their pay, if they let such children into this place."

"Regardless of your upbringing, I'm afraid I'll have to bring you to the police. After all, I cannot allow such naughty children to go about undisciplined."

He started walking forward, almost casually-

-so Avery raced forward and kneed the man where it hurts.

He finally let go of his cool demeanor, and his eyes burned with fury at Avery as he clutched his stomach.

Avery signaled the others to run, as she began to speed out of the room. They raced out, and they heard Aguirre yelling behind their backs, telling Elias, "Chase after them!"

They ran as fast as they could, remembering the superhuman speed that Elias had shown them before. They tried to go back to the direction of the door connecting to the storage closet, but Elias blocked them off. He yelled at them, "Why did you come here?"

They didn't answer. They ran off to the left, since they couldn't go out the way they came in. Avery, leading the others, hurried to the stairs, wondering if they could jump out the window and run from there. It was a really bad plan, and she would've gone to the main entrance if she wasn't scared of the fact that Elias would just block off the other exits on the ground floor.

They ran up the stairs as quickly as they could. Avery grabbed the little bits of stuff that she had put in her pockets while at the condominium and threw them over her shoulder. She was hoping that the two kids were dodging, while the superhuman didn't know about it previously and tripped. Avery felt her leg starting to cramp up. She tried not to think about it and focused on escaping.

They finally got onto the metal platforms after some shenanigans. They started slowing down, because they had used up their leg energy in coming in earlier. Avery thought of a plan. "Let's try to defeat Elias! If he's down, maybe we can escape without much else of a fight!"

Leandro just looked at her with the most distraught look ever, but started to grab as many metal objects from the ground. The other two girls proceeded to do the same. They held them in their hands and treated them as a weapon. They got ready to face off with Elias, who had gotten on the platform and noticed the aggressive positions.

Elias just looked dumbfounded. Avery got the feeling that he was irritated about the fact they were back here again. She noticed that he kept staring at Noah in particular, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Noah with an apologetic face.

Elias started grabbing metal objects and throwing it at them. It was fast, but Avery had managed to block it by throwing her own defense. The three kids did their best to defend and block the incoming attacks, dodging quickly if they weren't successful. They moved backwards slowly as they did it, trying to get closer to a nearby window. Leandro was the one backing up the most, as he seemed to be the most afraid, while Noah trailed behind the three, since most of the attacks weren't even headed in her direction. Avery started realizing that this was a terrible idea as Aguirre could be calling guards as they wasted their time in defending, so she called out, "Hurry!"

Then something really, extremely, gigantically, galaxy-sized bad happened.

Avery and Leandro threw in the same direction to block off one of Elias's biggest attacks, which hit a hanging piece of electrical equipment. Since Elias, Avery, and Leandro had hit the equipment all at the same time, it broke off and crashed into an extremely large power generator on the ground floor.

A fire, the size of a fully grown tree, started.

Avery, who was on the second floor, could feel the heat of the flames emanating from the ground. She felt its power, gloriously burning bright, like a star in the dead night. She could've sworn that the flames were for them, if not for her. The fire reached up onto the metal platform, so everyone had to back away.

But Noah, who was the one closest to the flames, kept moving around to dodge the flames and was presumably heating up too much for her good. And Avery was reminded of the fact that Noah was deaf, because Elias sneaked up on the deaf girl and caught her from the back, pulling her away from the fire. Avery watched as her friend, at first panicking, suddenly closed her eyes and went limp in his arms, probably due to some kind of magic that Elias was doing. And understanding that this situation was getting out of control, Elias, as quickly as a person could move while dragging an incapacitated girl, hurried downstairs

Avery would've wanted to rescue her best friend, but she had bigger and hotter problems to deal with. She looked at Leandro, and with one glance, they turned around and hurried to get out of here.

But Avery, from the beginning of this tale, was never meant to escape the flames of the factory.

Her leg, feeling the exhaustion that its master kept giving it, cramped painfully. She screamed out in pain as she collapsed on the metal floor. Then the platform collapsed from the damage of the heat, and she nearly fell, grabbing onto the railway. She tried to hold onto the railway, but she felt her hand getting slippery from the sweat.

Leandro dropped down on his knees, ignoring all logic to escape immediately, and reached out for the first friend he had ever befriended. Avery tried to use the other hand to reach out as well, but she could barely keep her weight up.

She noticed a golden aura suddenly surrounding Leandro. The feather, the wishes of the heart turning into real life, was reacting to the magic and the strong desire that was in Leandro, begging to live. Avery felt the flame of hope inside of her burn brighter, and she tried to reach out to Leandro.

But she remembered him saying how the magic in the feather was limited, and how it couldn't grant all wishes. She suddenly wondered how far and how strong the magic would go, and if it was enough to save them. She realized that it was too hot for her to cry.

The light surrounding Leandro was getting brighter, and Avery looked into his eyes, the eyes of a lost boy that was scared and trying his best to be good, even if it failed. But then she thought of the flames that were burning beneath her. She felt the flames calling out once more, and she realized that they were for her.

You're going to burn in Hell.

She cried out loud, "Save her!"

Avery wondered if she should still watch her friend, or whatever she could see of him in the blinding light, as he left for safety. She wanted to see someone that she was starting to care for, as she felt the seconds tick by. But then she closed her eyes, and let go of the railing.

Then let its flames engulf me.