How Many Heroes

Prologue

Boston, 1884

Jessica couldn't tell if her baby brother was unconscious or sleeping. She hoped it was the latter, but the smoke in her lungs and the haze in her head did not give her hope. Still, she held her brother tighter and huddled against her mother and father, listening to them say a soft, frantic prayer.

So this is how I die, she thought. They were in a two-story house, and the family who lived below them failed to warn them of the flames that were now crawling up the stairs. Hopefully, it was because they were out of the house. Regardless, the fire grew nearer, too fast and too slow at the same time. Jessica was strangely peaceful; you can only be afraid for so long until your fear turned to hopelessness. She wrapped a scarf over her brother's mouth, knowing that in a few minutes it would not matter. Her family was crammed against the wall of her parent's dark, windowless room, the door open to let out smoke. Between her coughs and the coughs of her parents, she wasn't sure if it was working.

She stared pass the doorframe into the orange fire that blossomed from the stairs. The curls of flames took different forms in her mind: a horse, a cloud, a man. Jessica blinked, then wiped the sweat out of her eyes. The man wasn't a part of the flames, he was rising out of it, a shadow in shivering light. He walked slowly toward her and knelt, revealing dark, singed clothes, dark skin, and hair like black candy floss. His face was shockingly young, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old, and the whites if his eyes seemed to glow with heat as he surveyed her family, then held out his hand.

"Stand up," he said. "Come."

Was he real? she wondered. He father had become stiff, her mother's Hail Marys had suddenly stopped. When she turned around, she saw that their faces were pale and their mouths were open, but they were nodding. Their reaction seemed real enough. Still holding her brother, she rose and took the stranger's hand, as though in a dream. Her parents rose behind her, gripping her shoulders tightly. It must be a dream, Jessica decided: fire consuming the only place she ever lived, a boy leading her through a path in the flames that had never existed. She felt like she was walking through a parted Red Sea. So distracted was she that she didn't realize the boy had stopped suddenly.

He muttered an incomprehensible curse, then shouted, "Turn around! Back to the room!"

Jessica obeyed, but she couldn't help but to look back, over the stranger's head. She gasped- the flames were slowly closing behind him, the sea of flames re-colliding into each other. Hugging her brother closer, she ran back to the room. The boy came right after and slammed the door shut.

"What happened?" her mother cried. She looked at the stranger like he had died. He didn't seem to care; he was scanning the room, looking for a different exit. No hidden window or door revealed itself to him. The scared family watched the boy as he stared for a moment at the thick brick wall in front of him, then kicked a gaping hole in it with a sound like thunder, allowing a gust of fresh air to blow into the house. It was a few second until the pieces of the wall hit the ground below.

Jessica stared at the hole in confusion, then realized what the stranger's plan was.

"It's too high. We can't jump through it," her father whispered, like he didn't want to admit it to himself.

Turning, he boy looked him straight in the eye and said, "Trust me."

With a small smile on his face he approached Jessica and her brother, holding out his hand as he did before. Jessica nodded, and quicker than she could breathe the boy picked her up and jumped out of the makeshift escape.

Jessica couldn't tell if the screams were hers or her fathers. All she knew was that she was falling, and that she must hold her brother even tighter than the boy was holding her. Suddenly, the boy's feet hit the ground. There was a moment like time had frozen, then the boy gently let Jessica, still clinging to her brother, onto the dry grass under the nighttime sky.

"Thank you," she breathed.

He didn't answer; he was climbing up the side of the house and through the hole with inhuman speed, dropping out of seconds later with her mother in his arms. Finally he brought her father down. The family huddled together, looking at the stranger with a mixture of fear and admiration.

"Please," Jessica said, working up her courage. "What is your name?"

The boy gave her a sly smile and bowed. Then, with same inhuman speed he turned and ran into the streets beyond the house.

"Who are you?" Jessica called. No answer came. The boy had vanished, like a flame extinguished by darkness.

So I rated this book 'mature' because there will be some pretty strong language, but it's not super explicit or anything. Nothing you haven't heard before.

Thank you for reading! Please vote and comment. If you have any constructive criticism, please leave it the comments. I want this book to not suck so it would really help if other people could pinpoint where I need to improve. The next chapter will be way longer.