City of Fire

Chapter Twenty-One

Ilona"

Everything was ringing...

Ilona opened her eyes, staring at a white ceiling and frowned. Where was she? She sat up, her whole body screaming with the effort and touched her temple. It was bleeding and she blinked. Why was she bleeding? She looked around, seeing blown over tables and fuzzy figures scrambling around as flames danced up the walls.

Then she remembered...

"Tidus? Tidus?" Ilona called, her voice fuzzy, and stood on wobbly legs. He wasn't there. Where was he? She turned around, doing a slow, unsteady circle. Flames had engulfed the back half of the shop, forcing the people towards the front and they knocked her from side to side. She cried out with pain, stumbling and hitting the ground outside. She gritted her teeth while standing up.

Then she saw him...

He had bleached blonde hair, eyes unnatural amber and flashing white teeth with a tattoo that twisted and writhed on his body. He was looking right at her and Ilona swallowed, fear suddenly clasping her heart. She couldn't move, couldn't do anything.

"My, my," the guy whispered while running his eyes over her, "you're prettier than I thought you'd be." He sighed, his face twisting with sick remorse, "Too bad." With that he raised his palm and flicking it, a ball of fire erupted from his fingertips and flew towards her.

Then something slammed into her...

She went sprawling, landing hard on the cement and gasped with pain and rolled onto her back, prepared to lash out at whoever had tackled her but was alarmed to find Tidus above her. His face was battered, his lip bleeding, and ash smeared half of his face.

"Stay down!" He yelled and pushed himself off of her. He screamed something at the other Fire Dweller, catching his attention. Tidus raised his palms, sending balls of flame shooting out of them but the corrupted Fire Dweller only laughed, leaping out of the way. He shot his own fireballs at Tidus, but he deflected them by rerouting them so that they wouldn't cause damage but she saw that his arm was bleeding badly. She sat up, looking around as people ran and screamed. The ice cream shop was in flames and dread tightened around Ilona's gut.

Then she heard it...

A boy's wail pierced the screams and Ilona was on her feet, her eyes trained on the burning building. She strained her eyes, searching the dancing flames. Then a little figure appeared and her heart sank. He was pinned underneath a fallen booth.

"Mommy!" He screamed over and over again but the woman was nowhere nearby. Before Ilona realized what she was doing she was sprinting back into the burning building. She leapt over fallen tables, ducked underneath a low beam and was beside him.

"It's alright, it's alright." Ilona repeated and was surprised at how calm her voice sounded. "I'm going to get you out you just have to calm down and be brave. Can you be brave for me, tough guy?" Ilona said soothingly while brushing the hair off of his forehead. Tears streaked down his chubby cheeks and Ilona smiled. He nodded his head up and down and she did the same. "Good, now when I lift this grab onto my leg so I can pull you out." Ilona instructed and felt his arm wrap around her calf. "Alright, one, two, three." She grunted and lifted, her back screaming in pain but pulled her leg back, pulling him with it. Finally when he was free she let the booth go. It crashed to the ground and bending down Ilona gathered the boy into her arms. "Good job, way to be brave, buddy." Ilona whispered and started to move forward but halted when she heard it.