fire starter | l.s [1]

eleven

Liam's hand felt like it belonged to be wrapped around mine. Even though it was covered in my own blood he still held it like his life depended on it. His hand was big and warm and every once in a while, he'd give mine a soft squeeze.

Much to my luck, his hand slipped away from mine when we reached the next street over. Ruby was walking up the street with her arms folded over her chest. The moment she caught a glimpse of Liam waving at her she raced over to us. Her eyes were rimmed with red and were puffy like she'd been crying. I wanted to ask her what happened, but she beat me to it, pushing past Liam and placing a hand on my shoulder.

My mouth opened and closed, letting out a small cluster of sounds. Nothing could quite come out and it felt like my mouth had closed up. Besides, I wouldn't know what to tell her. Yeah, I killed my sister and my mom wants me dead, what about it? Liam put a hand on Ruby's shoulder and just shook his head. Ruby's lips formed an O shape and she stepped back from me. An awkward silence fell over us until Liam suggested we head back to Betty and get on our way. It was clear that going to Salem was a disaster and the quicker we left, the better.

The walk back to the van was silent. Nobody uttered a single word to each other, the only sound being birds chirping and cars whizzing past. Relief overcame me when Betty came into view, I just wanted to fall into a dreamless sleep for as long as possible. My eyes were sore from crying and my head was spinning in different directions. All I wanted was for that to stop.

 Ruby was in front and we were getting close to the van when a figure hit a barrel of a rifle into Ruby's head, knocking her to the ground. There wasn't much time for me to react as the same figure swung at my ankles causing me to land on the ground with a thud, my head coming in contact with the ground.

Liam called out my name before the all too familiar sound of White Noise cut him off. I did my best to roll over, so I could face Liam but the impact from my head hitting the ground had caused everything around me to continually spin and my limbs unresponsive. Then I tried to push myself up but I barely raised myself off the ground. My eyes searched for Zu or Chubs, but I had landed right beside Ruby's unconscious body and I couldn't see anything above her wild curls.

"Liam Stewart, just the one I've been looking for," it was a woman with a thin British accent, Lady Jane, "And who do we have here? Two new girls in the group, huh."

"Don't. Hurt. Them. Please," his voice was strained, and I tried to turn myself around again but my body wasn't letting me.

God, just for once in my life I would like to do something right, save somebody. I let out a loud grunt as I pushed myself from the ground but a foot in my back caused me to instantly fall back to the ground. The familiar knot of frustration had formed in my stomach and anxiety started to rise to my throat. My breaths became short and sharp but I was not about to have a panic attack when somebody needed me.

"Take me, okay. Just don't take them," Liam was trying to negotiate with Lady Jane and I had to do something fast before Liam passed out.

"You think I'm really going to negotiate now, Liam? You're worth more than my ticket back to London," Lady Jane spat, pushing her gun closer to Liam's face.

With a loud grunt, I pushed myself up from the ground again. Everything became one big blur but I somehow saw her foot coming toward me again. I reached my hand out in front of me and grabbed her foot, yanking it toward me so she lost her balance and fell onto her back, dropping her gun. My vision was beginning to clear up now but the loud pounding in my head didn't stop. With this new found strength, I swung my leg around and kicked my heel into her stomach which caused the woman to gasp for air.