Running From Darkness

Rescue

James and Emily ran through the burning house, jumping over rubble and dodging hanging wooden beams. Occasionally, James would see a falling piece of debris or a problematic wooden plank and would blow it apart, trying to contain as many of the projectiles as he could do that he and Emily weren't harmed. They hurried into a large room that one would have looked beautiful but now was a heaving mass of unsafe looking building material. Another cry erupted and this time it seemed a lot closer. Emily gestured wildly to a small bundle of sky blue and brown and they stumbled towards it. Choking on the smoke, Emily knelt down and shook the small heap. A soot-blackened face looked back up at them, two white eyes covered by a shining veil of tears looked up at them. Lines were streaked down her face from tears and her bright hair was dampened and damp with sweat.
"Hello?" She whimpered, barely hear able.
"Don't worry," Emily shouted, "we'll get you out of here!" She reached out for the girl's forehead and touched it. The girls eyes glaze over and she slumped back into Emily's arms.
"What did you do!" James asked worriedly."
"Don't worry, all she can see is the house as it was before it was burning," Emily yelled back. She turned back to where they had come in, guiding the younger member of the trio. Just as James was about to step out and check if they were OK to leave, the floor give a sickening groan and gave way. The renting and screeching of steel assaulted there ears and the cracking and splintering of wood added to the cacophony in their eyes. Disorientated, James stepped out in to the void but before he could fall he felt a grip of steel around his wrist and he was hoisted back up onto the ground. He blinked and saw Emily in front of him, quickly moving from where she had caught James to a large hole in the wall near to where the bedraggled girl with cloudy white eyes was standing aimlessly, swaying slightly in the stiff breeze coming from the jagged hole.
"You wait here, I'm going to get Sam to teleport up here and get us." She handed the girl to James and took a deep breath. She bent her knees and rested her fingertips on the floor. What the hell is she doing? James thought to himself and just as he was about to go up and ask her she leaped through the gap in the wall into the abyss below.
"EMILY!" James shouted after her, dropping the child and running to the gap. He grabbed onto the side of the hole and hung on for dear life as he gazed over the edge into the chasm below. His stomach lurched and he forced down the bile that rose in his throat.
"EMILY!" He screamed again, his voice echoing off of the tree trunks all around. Suddenly, there was a rustle in the leaves and the lithe form of Emily burst through the leaves. She had her arms outstretched and was spinning through the air like an arrow released from a bow. As James watched, his heart in his mouth, she flipped over and kicked off of a large trunk. As she spun through the air she looked like a bird of prey, barrelling towards the ground after catching site of a tasty morsel. After leaping through a copse of thorns and artfully spinning like a diver through some complicated branches, she reached the smashed pavement safe and unharmed. James let out a long breath he didn't realise he had been holding and waved down to her. She mock saluted him and then took of running down the street to find their friends. James sat back on his heels, rocking back and forth to stop himself from hyperventilating. The young girl had begun to cry and James made his way over to her. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth to try and settle her. He moved the cloth away from her face to look at her and wiped the soot away. Without the layer of ash James saw that she looked a lot like her sister. The same eyes, face shape, nose. Even her small, pointed ears had the same look about them. Suddenly, James heard the characteristic 'pop' sound that meant Sam had arrived. He turned around and was greeted to the smiling face of his friend.
"Let's get out of this hellhole!" Sam coughed enthusiastically, grabbing James' arm and closing his eyes. Once again James felt the horrendous sensation that came with teleportation and then they were back on the street. This time, James managed to keep his roiling guts in check and didn't vomit all over the Elven pavement.
"Alex!" Lexi shouted and ran towards her baby sister. James held the girl out to her and she swept the younger sister into her arms. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to James, tears in her eyes and happiness and relief on her face.
"Thank you," she breathed.
"Don't thank me," James said, "thank flip wizard McGee over here!" He laughed, gesturing to Emily who bloomed bright crimson and laughed sheepishly.
"Yeah, well, just something I picked up with my trainer," she said.
"Come on, let's get out of here before the whole thing comes down on top of us," Nathan said worriedly, looking up at the teetering mass of wood and rock above them.
"Good idea," Joseph agreed, looking equally as nervous. They all ran back the way they had came, stumbling on tires legs beck to the city gate.