Experiment: Black Fire

Chapter 5

Experiment: Black Fire

Chapter 5: Discovered

"I have to say... Damiel!" Rachel squealed. Rachel and Cecelia were still having their debate about Jake and Damiel. Ashlee was watching with interest. Was this was teenagers did in their free time?

"Okay," admitted Cecelia. "I admit that Damiel is hotter, but I still have to stick up for my boyfriend!"

"What about you?" Rachel asked Ashlee suddenly. Ashlee jerked up from her momentary daydream.

"Uhh, Damiel?"

"Told you!" Rachel was almost jumping up and down now.

All three of them were on the floor, sleeping bags laid out. Ashlee had purposely laid hers beside the window for two reasons: she liked the peace and quiet about moonlight, and in case of intruders. It was highly unlikely but the idea was still out there. It was 1:46 a.m.

"Whatever," scoffed Cecelia, "I'm going to sleep." She wriggled inside her sleeping bag and pretended to sleep. Ashlee did the same and stared at the moonlight until she finally dozed off in a dreamless sleep.

Ashlee was learning to become more relaxed. There would be no more pills or shots. No more screaming of agony. She was free from her lifelong nightmare. She experienced more emotions like happiness every day. Days went by and merged into weeks. She was making more and more friends. She learned that she didn't have to try as hard to make friends. She didn't feel like she was putting on a mask for others anymore.

She would disappear for a couple hours every few times a week. No one knew where she went to. No one knew that the strange piles of ash collecting throughout Salderwood was the cause of her Black Fire.

Her popularity grew slowly at school, and she became best friends with Andrew Seavey. She, Andrew, and some of their friends were planning a trip to the mall that coming Saturday. It wasn't that she desperately wanted to go there; it was that Cecelia and Rachel were planning to head there as well. She still had to perform her duties as her bodyguard, after all. She had convinced Andrew that she wanted to go there. Though she had never been there before, she had studied its layout and was pretty confident of getting around well enough.

She had even placed a tracking device on Cecelia's cell phone. She thought that it would be easy enough to keep track of her. But keeping inconspicuous was difficult.

"So remind me why you wanted to go to the mall again?" Andrew asked her for the millionth time. She opened the door to his car and climbed in the front. She shrugged.

"I've been there only once before, and I want to go there again," she replied. He rolled his eyes.

"I must have taken you for a fraud. I didn't think you'd be into clothes and things like that." He wrinkled his nose. "I suppose you're a girl after all!" She scoffed.

"You thought I was a guy?"

"Well, you never wear girl clothes," explained Andrew. It was true. Ashlee had never worn a miniskirt or a dress before. Well, not in public. Cecelia told her that she fit well in dresses and forced her to try a couple on. They were uncomfortable and too revealing. Since she had been paid, she bought some of her own clothes--ones that matched her gloves.

"Yeah, whatever," she replied. She was checking her phone. It was connected to the device that was on Cecelia's cell phone. 'Damn,' she thought to herself. 'She's already there.' "Can't you go faster?" she urged Andrew.

"In a hurry, aren't you?" muttered Andrew. She didn't reply because it was true but probably not for the reasons he was thinking. He sighed at her silence and complied.