Hearing My plea

13

"Where isss the boy?" a hooded figure asked beneath his robe.

He paced back and forth in front of a basin full of water. Smoke billowed over the edge of the basin, where an image sat inside the water. The image of the Coriatis camp appeared, kids running around frantically.

Two demons standing off to the side bowed and hissed.  They rose, and one said in his gravely voice, "He isss late. He should be here sssoon."

"But where isss he?!" the master shouted. "That boy hasss no ressspect! When he became one of usss, he knew who he wasss kneeling to!"

"I'm right here, Galus," said a bored voice in the shadows. A fourth hooded figure walked into the room with a stride, right up to the basin, watching the chaos. He chuckled, then turned to Galus. "And you must not forget that you are not the one in charge here. That title goes to Acheron."

"We will inform massster," said the two lesser figures in the back, who dissapeared in a black mist, leaving the room.

"Where were you?" Galus growled. "Acheron hasss been waiting to hear resssults, and there you are, taking your sssweet time. Hell, the ones who went and wrecked havoc on that disgusting camp were back before you!"

"Calm down," the boy said in his bored tone. "The girl held me up. Delayed me."

"The girl," Galus said slowly. "Ssshe isss beginning to have affectionsss for you, yess?"

The hooded boy walked over to a decaying wooden chair and sat down, spreading his legs out in front of him and crossing them at the ankles, a smile in his voice when he said, "Yes. Everything is working... according to plan."

~*~

Willis and I stood amoung another fifty or so kids, staring horrified at the burning cabin. Two girls sat in front of it, soot covering their skin as they sat on the ground crying and hugging each other, staring at the door expectedly.

A line of kids had formed, passing down buckets of water to throw on the house to put out the flames billowing out the windown and door, now swallowing the roof as well, but it wasn't doing any good.

"The fire department is on its way!" Nora shouted at the front of the crowd to everyone, tears staining her face.

I shoved and elbowed my way up to her, and hugged her. She collapsed in my arms and cryed. "What happened?" I asked, still staring at the flames. Even from a few hundred feet away, the heat was burning my skin, making me uncomftrable.

"The alarm never went off," she sobbed into my shirt. "We don't even know how it started. We got Skylar and Addie out, but Cassie is still..." She couln't finnish, her sobs cutting her off.

Cassie was still inside. "Is anyone in there looking for her?" I asked, looking around for people who would be willing to step forward and go save Cassie, but everyone was staring at the Cabin, horror on their faces. My mind flew to Aspen, who always acted like he needed to be the hero, but he was no where in sight.

Nora shook her head.

"Why the hell aren't the Wiccan using their powers to put out the fire?"

Nora pushed off my shoulder and whipped under her eyes, trying to compose herself. "They said there's no water in the air to gather. The flames are taking it all it." She let out another sob.

Again, I looked around to see what the other kids were doing. A girl was possibly burning alive in the cabin, and all everyone could do was stare in shock or horror.

Without even thinking, I started running. No one was brave enough to jump through the flames, but I realized when I was halfway to the cabin that I was, and it only willed me to run faster. I heard Nora and Willis both cry out as I left their reach and entered the cabin, along with the other exclaims from the croud.