Victorious

Carter

Carter was sure something was wrong.
I heard screams in the hallway. Yells, falls and clanking of armor.
And Cleo had been gone way to long.
"They're not going to let us go." I whispered to Alex.
"Sure they are." Alex whispered back. The demon ladies with wings, (Valkyries, I presumed,) eyed us suspiciously.
"No, they're not. Do you hear what's going on in the hall?"
Alex listened for a second and heard the clanking and grunting. His eyebrows knitted together and he squinted so he kind of had that hey, was that a wailing child or a dying dragon? Questioning look on his face.
"Maybe it's a ritual or something." He commented.
"No way-" I said as I watched the leader of the three Valkyries lock the door. Alex and I exchanged looks.
"You're right." Alex said. "Something is wrong. I don't know where Cleo is, but I don't think she's okay. We need to fight our way out of here." Alex turned his attention to the Valkyries for a split second, and looked back, his blond hair whipping in all directions.
"And how do we do that? The door's locked, genius." I commented, aware of the silent conversation the Valkyries were having.
"You distract." Alex stated simply, jerking his head towards the three.
"How?"
"Do what you do best."
"And that is?"
Alex rolled his eyes. "You can do it. And I'll get the lock done. I only need 20 seconds, but all their attention needs to be on you."
"Got it."
"Try not to get killed."
"I'll try."
Alex and I nodded to each other one last time, and Alex leaned towards the door, like a participant in a relay race waiting for the slowest runner to hand him the weird tune thing they use in track.
That's my Que.
What's something I'm good at..
Got it.
I took a deep breath and lit my hand on fire.
Don't burn, I thought. Don't burn.
I melted the chair, stepping towards the three.
The red head freaked out as I burned her shoes. The brown haired and the blonde stepped away.
"Oh my gods of Asgard!" The pretty red head yelled. "He's on fire!"
I stopped for a second. "Thank you," I commented stupidly. The red head screamed.
"Shut up Celeste!" The brown haired yelled.
"He's on literal fire, Harriet. We weren't trained for this!" Celeste yelled. I made a firewall between Alex and The Valkyries with me in the middle. Sadly, my burning was not a complete success.
An axe hit me square in the chest.
Gods, ouch. Wow. Okay.
I clutched it for a second, focusing on my other hand.
"Harriet, you hit me!" One of them said. Maybe the blonde. Who cared?
I started throwing fire at their armor when I heard a faint and distant click. I breathed a sigh of relief and did the best I could with the rest of my energy with one hand.
I lit all the chairs on fire. I lit the carpet on fire. I even lit the chandelier on fire.
"Thank you for your service ladies." I said, stepping behind the firewall. In their distant silhouettes, through the flame, I yelled.
"You," I said, gesturing to the distant redhead.
"Call me."
On the way out, I heard:
"But I don't even have your number!"
"Don't actually call him, Celeste."
I smiled devilishly as I left the room. Alex let out a sigh.
"Took you long enough! And when I say a diversion, I mean like a sneezing fit or something. Don't burn down the place!"
"But burning is my specialty." I stated, watching the last bit of fire go out in my hand.
Naturally, as always, my hand started feeling like a thousand pins where stabbed on my hand at the same time, taken out, and repeated.
And this wasn't even the worst.
"Come on, Carter. Let's go find Cleo."
"How do we know where to find her?" I asked.
Alex stopped, about to say something. But he saw my hand, covered in blood. His eyes trailed down to the spot where the axe hit me the worst. Then, he went down a diagonal hall.
"Oh my gods." He said. "Carter! Are you-"
"I'll be fine, hover parent." I said, clutching my chest. "As long as we can find Cleo's bag of Ambrosia."
"Dude, I know you. I know you're not okay-"
"Keep going. What did I say, stop? No. I can last. I've dealt with worse."
That was actually true. Being sewn into a sack of weasels and tossed down an aggressive river does not call for the most relaxing time.
"Okay," Alex said. "But tell me when you start hurting again. We can stop."
"I'll be fine." I grumbled through bared teeth.
As long as I don't have to lead, I thought.
Cleo was right. Something was wrong with me.
After I used my powers, more so now than before, I had started to feel pain. Lots of it.
It progressed like this- first: pins and needles pain. Second: throbbing coming from everywhere. Third: feeling completely vulnerable and on fire, which causes me to black out.
I can make it, I thought. I can make it until we get out of the temple. And I am going to make it.
And I think I was burning up from fire immunity.
Alex turned a hall sharply and caused me to face plant into a wall. Ouch.
"Are you sure you don't want to be left behind? Because that's an option!" Alex yelled from the bend.
"Stop treating me like I'm your little brother or something!" I complained, wobbling over to him.
"Well, you are to me." He said.
Luckily, he stopped in front of the door, and I rested my head on the gold plated walls as I turned the corner.
"She's in here." He said.
"How did you know?"
"I followed screaming and the smell of pain."
Are you sure that's Cleo? It could be me. I was starting to feel step two.
"Hey Carter, do you think you can use your fire powers to melt the door?"
"Doesn't it have a lock?"
"Nope. Doesn't even have a doorknob."
"Well then there's got to be-"
"Just do it, please?"
"So ask the wounded person to do it?"
"Does it look like I have fire powers? Please?"
I sighed and nodded. My hand lit on fire.
I've never felt fire before, but it was hot. Extremely hot. My hand burned like my skin was peeling off and my pins and needles got multiplied by 1000. I thrust my hand at the door, burning it down.
I kept my eyes wide open.
Don't fall, I told myself, feeling my knees start to buckle as I finished the door. I grabbed onto the door frame and Alex charged through. I caught my breath.
Hold on, I wanted to say. I'm dying over here.
I was Alex gesturing for me to join him. I tried to stand up properly. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Alex fought all the Valkyries in the room by the time I was recovered enough to limp.
I limped over.
"You could've helped me, Alex said angrily. "Instead of standing in the door frame."
My hand cracked. Okay, that hurt. I guess we have a new step three.
"My bad," I breathed.
"Come on, at least help me find Cleo."
"Sure." I said as I wobbled. The pain made me wince and suck in a breath.
"Man, are you okay? You look fine, but you just winced-"
"I'm fine," no I'm not. "Let's just find Cleo."
I felt my throbbing foot land on something spacey. A cage, I thought. I looked down.
"Oh my gods." I stated as loud as I could.
"What?" Alex said, jogging over from another part of the room. He looked into the ground, which had caged bars over it you could look through. Something was lighting on fire down at the very bottom and two wrists were chained to the top. I looked farther down into the cage and saw a girl with brown hair.
"Cleo." I said instantly. Alex and I looked at each other.
"How do we get her out?" Alex asked.
"I don't know."
Alex looked at his sword.
"I can't use my sword." He said, putting his hands on the dark black bars and shaking them. "This is made out of a substance I know I can't cut."
Alex looked at me.
"You have to melt it."
I sighed. I felt like I was in one of those movies where the protagonists best friend actually is the antagonist and slowly trying to kill him by hiking up his weaknesses.
"I- I can't."
"Don't be stupid," Alex said, shaking the bars. "This isn't the time to be funny."
"I'm not joking," I said, staring at my hands. My throbbing pain was nearly overwhelming and was effecting my vision, making it seem like I was looking around without my glasses and with a red screen over my face.
"Somethings wrong." I stated.
"You can do it." Alex said. Strange enough, I thrust my hand out as it slowly lit on fire. Then, after a second, my pain continued even stronger. I kept going, burning enough of the bars and getting ready to melt the wrist re-enforcements. Alex held on to her wrists over the darkening fire lighting void underneath her. I melted the wrist braces and Alex pulled her out of the void. I nearly fell in it as I fell backwards, keeping my eyes open as my consciousness started to fail. I sat up and everything went blurry.
"Wait," Alex said. "What happened to her pack?"
"Her what?" I breathed.
"Her backpack? It's gone."
I looked over at a fire goblet.
"They burned it as a sacrifice." I stated. That sentence alone took all my speaking energy.
"So- no medicine, which is crucial- no money, no ride, and certainly no food." Alex said.
"Great." I said. "I'm done." I informed. Alex looked at me, confused. I slapped myself several times to keep myself from blacking out.
I yelled Sherlock quotes at myself in my head. I restated all I remembered of the most recent episode of Welcome To Night Vale. Anything to keep me awake.
"Hey, I think there's a dragon down there." Alex said. He looked at me. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"No more fire powers? Yeah."
"No... I was thinking of getting him."
"That's great." I slapped myself again. You need to stay conscious. Alex won't be able to deal on his own in a deadly temple.
"Hey dragon! Come up here!" Alex yelled, using his charmspeak.