Into the Flames

Chapter 22

As soon as he said that, an uneasy air settled down on Jenna, suffocating her. Chills ran up and down her back as she gripped the edge of a table to balance herself. “Tell me more,” she said, her voice surprisingly stable.

            “I’ve already said too much,” said Wizard Norton suddenly with a shake of his head. His staff stood next to him, standing straight on its own. “Please, continue your evening in my humble adobe. I have some other important matters to attend to know.” With a wave of his staff, the doors swung open, and a mysterious breeze that came from nowhere forced Jenna and the rest out. She immediately turned around and began knocking on the door.

            “Jenna, he’s not going to answer it,” said Dylan.

            “I want answers,” she said through gritted teeth.

            “Jenna,” said Dylan, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her around so she faced him. “I don’t like what he said either, but you can’t linger on it too long. The more you think of it the worse it’s going to be.”

            “Dylan, he said I was going to die soon,” hissed Jenna. “Do you expect me to just hear that and move on?”

            “We’re all going to die,” he said, voice suddenly hard.

            Jenna suddenly went limp, as if all of the energy got sucked out of her. “Maybe it was just to scare us,” suggested Jenna, her voice empty. Even from the short period of time she talked to him, she knew that Wizard Norton wasn’t lying about anything.

            “He wouldn’t do that. I mean, if you’re over a hundred years old like him, I’m sure I would have already gotten sick of saying that kind of thing to Guardians. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

            “Can we leave?” asked Adam, mood sour. He shook his head. “I don’t believe a word he says.”

            Gianna nodded. “Remember what he said, though, Jenna. Even if you don’t believe it. It’s not everyday that Wizard Norton says those kind of things.”

            Jenna nodded slowly as she followed Dylan down the crowded flight of stairs. He grabbed her cloak from the closet and handed it to her, opening the door. She walked out into the cold night air, barely registering it. She was too deep in thought as she kept running her mind over what she just heard. “Hey,” said Dylan, deep voice breaking her train of thought. “You’ll be fine.”

            “I’m not worried about myself. I’m worried about Duke and Jack and the rest of them. They’re more exposed to anything else than I am, and I keep getting a feeling that they’re the ones in danger, not me.”

            “The Timors don’t know them, and I doubt monsters will go looking for them. I mean, they aren’t any different from other Gens through a monster’s eyes. They’re perfectly safe, trust me.”

            Three whole days passed since Wizard Norton’s ball. Three whole days since Jenna got an adequate amount of sleep. Tortured dreams followed her in her slumber, hazy figures chasing her in the darkness in her mind. She stared into the mirror in her bathroom, where a girl with a pale face and dark bags under her eyes looked back at her. All of her other features improved since she lived in the Society; she gained weight from the food and muscle from the training, and a bit of color came into her cheeks. She sighed, running her old brush through her wet hair. She took a shower in the early hours of dawn, trying to take her mind off of the bad dreams she woke up from with dilated pupils and short breaths. Jenna bit her lip, still uneasy. Thoughts of her friends’ safety constantly invaded her mind. Finally making up her mind at two in the morning, she quickly dried her hair and grabbed her jacket. She threw the window and its screen open, slightly shivering as the frost bit her cheeks and the snow wet her shoes when they reached the bottom with a thud. The subway was nearly empty, except for a couple of late night stragglers and the homeless. She quietly sat on a bench, waiting for the subway to arrive. It quickly arrived and Jenna soon realized that she was the only one in the car. A guilty feeling pervaded her; after promising Dylan that she wouldn’t go anywhere by herself, she snuck off in the middle of the night to go visit her friends, just because she had a bad feeling.

            “I have to check,” she said, assuring herself.

            Jenna impatiently waited for her stop, and she briskly walked out of the subway as soon as it arrived, not even looking around her surroundings. The streets weren’t as busy as the day, but there was a decent amount of people still active, as they attended Christmas parties and went to clubs, despite the December air. The snow crunched under her feet when she quickly turned. She looked up at the moon and the few stars that managed to shine through the city lights and pollution. A foreboding feeling grew with each step she took closer to the building. She slowly grasped her arm for comfort, seeking the cold hilt of the knife. Her quick gait paused as she realized that she forgot to bring it. She just increased the speed of her walk, her breath coming out in short and rapid breaths. She finally reached the broken window. She frowned; something was wrong. A tugging feeling in her gut increased as she slowly went into the building. As her eyes adjusted into the darkness, she saw a huge mess. One of the chairs was broken into pieces on the floor, the couch was ripped, and one of the legs from the table was completely blown out.

            “Chris?” said Jenna, growing uneasy. “Luke? Duke? Where is everyone? Jack?” She quickly turned around, about to leave. Suddenly, a huge figure jumped down from nowhere. A tall boy loomed over her, features shadowed. Her eyes quickly analyzed him; she could see a hilt of a knife protruding from its sheath. She quickly went into action, jabbing and punching anywhere she had to. Her opponent was one with experience; he blocked a lot of her hits, and didn’t pull out the knife attached to his hilt. He’s not trying to kill me, she thought.

            “Who are you?” she asked, trying to not get distracted. His only response was two punches toward where her jaw would have been. Eventually, Jenna finally managed to hit him right under the ribs. The person fell with a grunt.

She quickly turned around, her eyes looking at everything in sharp focus. After her first round, adrenaline coursed through her veins. Four more people appeared out of the shadows of the ruined room. “Who are you people?” she yelled in frustration as she ducked from a punch. Her hopes faltered as soon as she realized that she herself was going against four experienced people. As if they saw this, one person suddenly lunged and hit a pressure point right on her neck, causing Jenna to go light headed and slowly sink to the ground, unconscious.