Ignite

Chapter One | Part One

Cade wondered what kind of misfits the Tenebris Ignite would bring in this year. Technically, Tenebris Ignite meant Dark Fire, but it was actually more of a dark pit of electricity. Tenebris Ignite just sounded cooler.

Today was June 18th, only two more days until the Summer Solstice.

He was curious to see all the insane idiots the Tenebris Ignite was currently pulling toward the deserted fairgrounds somewhere in Nevada.

It wasn't that he didn't know where it was, of course he did, he knew exactly where it was, he just didn't know what to call it, it wasn't near any town or civilization that he knew of.

Every year, on the Summer Solstice, a few dozen idiotic misfits were pulled toward the Tenebris Ignite. It was said the Tenebris Ignite was like a magnet, but Cade preferred to think of it as a monster, luring it's prey into darkness.

That's what it had done to him.

He'd always felt sorry for the groups of imbeciles the Tenebris Ignite chose, it wasn't their fault they were so damn helpless, not to mention completely moronic.

But of course, he had to be the one who guided them there, led them, took care of them.

Cade traveled around, but he had been living in New York with his sister, Sloane, for the past few months. He was now somewhere in Connecticut, making his way to Nevada.

He looked up at the street sign above. It read Heron Lane.

He was about to turn onto a side street, when he saw a midget-sized periwinkle car flying toward a towering lumber truck.

He skidded to a halt and jumped out of his car, running as fast as he could.

This was a common scenario. Everything was supposed to happen in slow motion, right? Well, not for Cade. One moment, it seemed like he would be able to reach the car in time, maybe obviate the collision, but the next moment, everything he feared would happen, happened.

It must have been someone's twisted idea of a campfire.

There was lumber strewn all over the road, a long limb of timber was wedged into the stupid-confusing-mixture-of-blue-and-purple car, and everything was on fire.

Ignite.

Oh, the twisted ways the Tenebris Ignite worked.

His jaw set tightly, he ran over to the mess of fire and lumber, and without hesitation, he dove right into the flames.

Through the smoke, he could just make out a limp body inside of the small car. Although the hot metal burned his hands, he pulled at the car door until it gave way.

He scooped the small body up in his arms and carried her out of the car, out of the atrocious mess of flames and wood and metal.

He could hear sirens in the distance, but they wouldn't arrive fast enough. There would be nothing left but smithereens by the time they arrived.

He thought about going back in there to try and rescue the truck driver, but decided against it. He was burned deeply on his arms and face and covered in grimy soot, if he went in there again, chances were he wouldn't come back out.

He looked down at the girl in his arms. She looked young, not a kid, but he suspected she was in her late teenage years.

He looked around him to realize that every single person on the road had stopped driving and gotten out of their cars. Some feeble idiots were screaming and running around in circles, but most of the idiots were just staring. Staring at the accident, but also at him.