Darkness around us

Chapter 15- Is she safe here?

As I let out one last deep breath, I exploded the fireball.

I yelled in pain as my hands burned and my eyes started to water. Although my sight was blurry, I could still make out the shape of Katrina drop Ray and hit the floor. Dad and Vin had themselves trapped in a protective water bubble, same with Ray.

With relief, I dropped to my knees and closed my fists. I was panting hard and my hands were really badly burnt. I felt Ray and my dad rush to my side and help me to my feet. It was then that I blacked out.

When I woke up, I was in a dimly lit room that looked to be a medical center. I had to blink to clear my vision and rid my eyes of tears. A sudden panic came over me when I remembered what happened.

Vin, Ray, anybody? Someone tell me what happened.

Suddenly I heard Vin's voice in my head.

Hold on a sec, I'm coming. Don't move, it'll hurt a lot.

I did as I was told and waited impatiently for my best friend to help me. When he came in, he sat on the edge of the bed and helped me sit up.

"Did we win?" I managed to say sleepily. He chuckled and patted my leg.

"Yeah, Ray's ok, except for some bruises on her neck. Your hands are completely covered in third degree burns, but other than that, I'd say you did fantastic. After the demon went down, she was dragged off to a heavily guarded cell-." I cut him off with a shocked gasp.

"She's alive?! After that. I almost died from it. How could she have survived?"

"Do you remember the force field she had up? I guess it was much stronger than we thought."

It turns out that I had blacked out for a week and a half due to the intense energy loss. The butt kicker really deserved it's name, and not because it takes enemies out easily.

Ray had checked on me every day when my dad couldn't, which was three days. She helped change the thick bandages on my hands, which were wrapped from half way down my forearm, all the way to my fingertips.

"So, what now? What are we gonna do with her?" I couldn't help but ask. Were we just going to keep her hostage? That's not a very good idea, but we can't let her go. Would we have to kill her?

He must have read my mind because his expressions turned sad.

"Yeah, I don't know. Clent wanted to discuss it earlier, but I thought you would want to be part of the final decision. He was mad, of course, but he understood. Here, let me change out your bandages."

I held out my hand and slowly, and painfully, opened my hand. Gently placing my hand on his knee, Vin started unwrapping the gauze. As I started seeing my skin, I took a deep breath.

"You ready? You don't have to look if you don't want to." He said softly.

I nodded and watched as the final layer was peeled away. My whole wrists and hands were covered in burns and scabs. I winced at the nasty sight.

As I watched, Vin used his powers to shoot little spurts of water onto the wounds. It surprisingly didn't hurt, which was nice for a change. When he finished cleaning the wounds, he wrapped them in new bandages. When he was done, he patted my hand and smiled.

"Give it another day, you'll be out of this dungeon and back in action real soon.
Ray will stop in and change them again if a few hours. Also, I think she is planning on bringing a congratulatory lunch, which is probably a mix of french toast, pancakes, some form of yogurt and maybe ice cream. She's really going all out with this."

He helped me back to a comfortable laying down position and smiled at me one last time before disappearing back into the hall.

I rolled back on my side and closed my eyes, I didn't have any real dreams, just the scary scene playing through my head. I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if I failed to save Ray and knock out Katrina.