Fire Spirits

Chapter 2

The next morning, they did the same thing, get up and around, get on the bus, and go to the E-Z Mart. "Uuuugh" grumbled Charlie. She didn't get much sleep last night. She hoped this wouldn't happen all week because she didn't have any sleeping medicine. Her parents only sent Ibuprofen just in case it was needed. Both her parents were nurses, so she knew how much to take and give. They got breakfast at the E-Z Mart and walked out again. The woman with the fire red hair was still there. Mabel gave Charlie a worried look and Charlie just smiled at her.

After they knew there were no cars coming, they sprinted across the street. The woman was fairly easy to wake. When she woke she jumped up and looked at them crazily. "yOu WaNt To SeE tHe FiRe DiMeNsIoN?!" she practically screamed. Both girls were startled by this. They weren't expecting her to be so easy to wake up.

"Uh - umm, m-mam," Mabel stuttered, "We just wanted to know if you were okay. You look-"

The crazy woman interrupted her and screamed "YoU dO, dOn'T yOu?"

"Mam, that is not why we're here, we just wanted to-" Charlie got cut off by the woman.

"I'lL sHoW yOu!" she screamed. Then everything went black. When their vision came back, Charlie and Mabel looked around. There was fire everywhere. They weren't touching the ground, but they were standing on a platform. The ground all around and the various caves and craters were almost completely covered in fire. They spotted a few small yellow lights floating around. They looked like Fire Spirits. Then they were back with the woman. "DiD yOu LiKe It?" the woman screamed at them.

The girls quickly got up without a word and ran back across the street. Mabel was nearly hit by a car, since, in their haste, they didn't look for oncoming traffic. The woman was just maniacally laughing as they got back into the E-Z Mart. "What the heck was that?!" Mabel said.

"I have no clue. Maybe it was actually the Fire Dimension." Charlie responded.

"But I thought it was inaccessible!" Mabel said. Then she noticed that no one was in the store except the girls and the clerk. The clerk was just staring at them wide-eyed. He probably thought the girls were crazy. "Charlie, everyone's gone." Mabel said shakily. Charlie looked around and then out the large windows. In fact, the bus was gone.

"Crap." Charlie muttered.

Starting to freak out, Mabel screamed "How could she just leave two kids alone at an E-Z Mart!?"

"Calm down," Charlie said, "maybe she accidently forgot us, let's wait an hour before doing anything."

"Yeah" Mabel said trying to calm down.

"Is...everything ok?" asked the clerk, worriedly.

"Yes!" both girls replied hastily, scaring the poor clerk. After an hour passed the girls decided to just walk. "Do you know the way back to the hotel?" Mabel asked Charlie.

"Yeah, I studied both sides of the road on the way to this place, but I might get things a bit mixed up." Charlie said.

"That's good" Mabel said, breathing a sigh of relief. Charlie had a photographic memory and Mabel had an auditory memory. This made them amazing at pinpointing certain people and sometimes places. Neither of them had a good sense of direction, and often got right and left mixed up, so traveling was a bit difficult on their own. They said goodbye to the still scared clerk and headed out. They walked for about half a mile and finally saw the small hill that led to the hotel.

"Finally, I feel like my legs are gonna fall off." Mabel said.

"We only walked about half a mile, Mabel" Charlie said.

"That doesn't matter, let's hurry so we can go to bed." Mabel said.

"Yeah" Charlie said. They finally got to the small hill that led to the hotel and Mabel saw the dark overhang. She didn't say anything hoping Charlie wouldn't notice. Mabel knew that if she did, they would have to investigate it. They finally got to their room after about 30 minutes of the teacher yelling at them for not being there earlier. Everyone knew it was her fault for never looking for them, so it really only made her look bad.

"She can eat a bag of Richards!" Charlie said angrily. She was fuming that Ms. Walston blamed them for not getting on the bus. She was in charge of them anyway. Ms. Walston had black stuff smudged on her face again that day. The girls were convinced she was a drug addict and were going to tell the principal after the trip. That night before the girls went to bed, Charlie decided something. "Tomorrow, if we go to the E-Z Mart again, lets go to that weird overhang." she said.

Mabel face palmed and muttered, "I knew it." Then they went to sleep.