Legend of the Flaming phantom

Chapter 4: People like me

The men began walking toward us, slowly. I kept frantically looking for an exit. I could use Ghostfire and try to scare them, but they would probably shoot. My heart beat faster as the men got closer. One of the men decided to speak up.

"Alright kid, come with us and no one has to get-"

Something knocked the man out before he could finish. When he fell, there was a boy holding a metal pipe. The boy seemed to be around my age. He had dark red hair and green eyes. One of the men aimed his gun at the boy, while the rest stayed affixed on me.

"Don't move," The man said.

The boy smiled and grabbed the closest man to him, using him as a shield. The man he grabbed squirmed, but he couldn't escape.

"How about you all drop your weapons and we can all walk away without getting hurt," The boy said.

"What can you possibly do, kid?" The man said. "You're outnumbered."

The boy pushed the man he was holding into the other man. He swung the pipe and hit one of the men in the head. He threw the pipe at one of the other men, hitting him on the head.

At this point, all of the men were focused on him. I could have taken off, but I was so shocked by what was happening that the thought didn't even cross my mind.

The boy ran at one of the man he was talking to and punched him in the abdomen. He slammed the man's face into his knee, then turned to the other men. Once he faced them, I heard that same loud bang that I heard before when I got that piece of metal lodged in my shoulder. A piece of metal lodged into the boy's leg and he fell to the ground. The men ran toward the boy and started kicking him. He held his hands over his head in defense.

"Not so tough anymore, are you!" One of the men yelled.

I looked at the boy and I think I saw him smile.

"Now you've done it," He said.

The blood from his wounded leg started floating in the air! All of the men stared at it in disbelief.

"He's a blood category!" One of the men yelled in terror.

The blood separated into six parts, one for each still standing man. The blood shot out toward each man. Before the blood hit the men, it turned from a liquid to a solid. The blood struck each man on the head and they fell to the ground, unconscious. The blood turned back into a liquid and went back inside the boy's body through his wound.

The boy stood up slowly. He looked at me and Addison.

"You gonna help me here?" He said.

I assumed he was referring to his leg. I walked over to him and put an arm around him to help him walk.

"Thanks," He said.

"No, thank you," I said. "If you hadn't shown up, I would have either died, or have had to go with those men."

"Trust me, death would be better."

"Who are you? How did you do that?"

"The name's Jericho. As to what I did, I'll explain later. Right now I need to ask for a favor."

"Anything."

"Before I decided to save you, I was on my way to a special meeting with my friends. Right now, I can't walk on my own. Would you mind helping me get there?"

"No problem. Where is this place?"

"I'll direct you while we're walking. Just go straight down this road."

He pointed down the black road. I started helping him walk down the road. I had no idea what to say to him.

"So, who are you two?" He asked. "I've never seen you around here."

"My name is Cyrus," I replied.

"My name is Addison," Addison said.

"Why were those men after you?"

"I don't know. It's been happening since yesterday."

I didn't want to tell him about the village until I felt I could trust him.

"Turn right, here," He said.

We turned down the road. I started walking forward, but he stopped me.

"You see that building right there?" He said.

He pointed at an old, run down building.

"That's where I'm going."

I helped him to the building, and we entered. The inside of the building was trashed. There were overturned chairs and tables everywhere, along with broken glass.

"Go behind that counter," He said.

He pointed toward a messy counter. I brought him behind the counter. He reached under the counter and pulled some kind of switch.

A section of the floor opened up. I looked at him for confirmation and he nodded. I helped him down the stairs. When we got down, we ended up in another room. This room was different. It wasn't the best looking, but it was much better than what was upstairs. There was some worn out furniture around a small table. There were also some people in the room. None of the people were adults. They all seemed to be around my age.

All of the people looked at us. They saw Jericho's leg and came running.

They all started asking a bunch of questions like: "What happened?" Or, "Who is this with you?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, he saw something behind them and closed his mouth. I looked in the same direction he was, and saw a girl. Her long hair was white and her eyes, light blue.

Everyone turned, and when they saw her, they made a path for her. She walked up to me and Jericho. She turned her head toward Jericho.

"Hey, Ashley," Jericho said with a forced smile.

"Who are these people you've brought here?" The girl asked

"Funny story actually. I was on my way here, when I saw these two surrounded by soldiers in an alley. I decided to save him and ended up getting shot in the leg and needed help getting here."

"That's no excuse for bringing him here. You could have brought him close, then came the rest of the way yourself."

"He was barely able to stand," I cut in.

Ashley turned toward me.

"I'm sorry, was I speaking to you?"

"How about you think about how painful it would be to walk after that before you start criticizing him?"

I could see everyone around me with their mouths hanging open. I assumed no one had ever stood up against this girl.

"I'll have you know, I have been through that pain before," She said. "Who are you to judge how I do things around here?"

"Oh, did I not introduce myself? My name is Cyrus."

"Well, Cyrus, if you knew how things were around here, you would understand why I'm so harsh."

"I doubt it."

Suddenly, Ashley's body started radiating a bluish white mist. Everyone stepped back. She pointed at me and the mist rushed toward me. When it was a few feet from me, it stopped.

"Get out," She said, teeth gritted.

As an instinct of defense, I started radiating Ghostfire. I pushed the mist back with my Ghostfire. I prepared my fire for a fight. I looked around and saw everyone with their eyes wide and mouths hanging open. Even Ashley was surprised.

"You're a soul category," She said.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"Follow me."

She called the mist back and started walking off. I retracted my fire, then followed her. Everyone moved out of the way for us to get through. Ashley went into another room, and I followed her in. Addison entered the room as the door closed.