Undercover Badge; Next Generation

Chapter fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I remembered being carried in the arms of someone running.

The jarring motion made my head whip and my hair fly and blurred my already blurred vision and my head hurt. My eyes were stinging and my brain was throbbing and my throat hurt as I kept coughing. My throat was raw and my lungs burned from the smoke because the building was on fire and I could see it in the distance. Well... not IT, no, but I could see the flames, the red and orange unnaturally lit up the beautifully dark night.

I was little enough to have to wrap both arms around the person holding me's shoulders and try wrap my legs around his wide ribcage. I remember yelling, and a bunch of pops cracking. Someone yelled out a name and the person holding me turned to see.

"JAMES."

James was always so tall and I loved it when he carried me. My hair continued to fly in the night's wind and I could see the stars. At least, I could see the ones that weren't hidden by the thick black smoke.

"Get her out!" a voice, feminine, low and very pretty yelled. I wanted to see.

I think I looked. No. I DID look.

She was a blobby shape. It was... slender? Her hair few too. It was... it was long, so long and dark... such a pretty dark.

No. She wasn't a blobby shape. She was talk and thin and beautiful, and dressed simply in dark jeans and a white t-shirt. It was smeared with something red, blood.

She caught up to James, took me and held me up, pressing me to her chest. I caught a face full of hair that smelled like fierceness and strength and it was a comforting smell. Her shoulders were shaking and her voice was thin and she was sobbing and... I didn't know why she was sad, no one should be sad. So I hugged her neck and pressed my face to her collarbone. I was wondering where... where something was. I needed it. I desperately wanted-

Darkness, and then I woke again. My ears hurt and I remember this loud, overwhelming whurr-whurr-whurr that said I was in a helicopter. I could see the stars again, through the big window. The woman was kneeled in front of me and her hair was flying and her face looked dark and she cried. But she was talking to me.

"I'm sorry baby, I'm so, so sorry. Oh my God, I'm so sorry baby-" she kept crying the words and James's eyes were midnight blue.

He was holding her. He was upset. Why were they crying? Why was she saying sorry? I'm always safe when I'm with-

"We need to keep her safe." She pulled me to her chest and hugged me so close. Something was wrong. I had to ask; "Where's-" she cut me off.

"Its okay, Baby. Here, okay?" she set me back down and took something out of her collar. I stared at it, hanging off its silver chain. I'd never seen her take it off, she always wore it around her neck. She pressed the chain over my head. It was my emerald.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? If they find her-" James started.

"They wont." she cut him off. "They wont ever find her. Not while I'm alive. They wont." she sounded desperate, her face dark. She said; "Everything's gonna be all right baby, we've got you." but my voice was shrill when I demanded-

"Where's-"

Darkness. My eyes were slatted closed and I was being carried again.

"Take good care of her, watch her." James said quietly. I saw a red blur, coppery red, and brown eyes and heard a deep, deep rumble that murmured something back-
"We will. All of us. She'll become a ghost, old friend, and so should you." and I turned my head and I saw someone under me, a boy. About my age, no, a few years older. Light brown eyes like toffee, set in a small face. A small, serous face. And then he saw me looking and smiled.