][Malice][ =One Piece=

:: Chapter Eight ::

It was late, later than she’d ever had to wait up for Izra before. Six year old Malice hesitated at the back door of the kitchen. Izra didn’t like her going outside, it raised a lot of unwanted questions for the older woman. Shouts and screams rang through the still night and Malice felt a feeling of unease settle in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong.

Gunshots echoed from the direction of town causing the child to jump as terror gripped her racing heart. Her trembling hand gripped the cool metal doorknob and she wrenched it open without second thought. Thick black smoke coiled into the night sky blocking out the sparkling stars and the gleaming moon with a thick layer of doom. Hungry flames lapped at buildings in town, spreading rapidly through the marketplace, to the town hall and finally reaching the tavern.

People were frantically running about avoiding debris and smoldering timber as the buildings began to collapse. Why was the town on fire? Malice sprinted forward pushing her way through the stampeding crowd desperately searching for Izra’s familiar face. People slammed into the girl left and right knocking her down, stepping on her and shoving her out of the way as they frantically tried to flee.

“Hey! What’s going on?!” Malice screamed as she struggled to avoid being trampled.

“BANDITS!” Someone cried.

Bandits? Malice had never heard of a bandit before. Finally she broke through the crowd of escaping townspeople to find herself outside of the crumbling tavern. Where was Izra? She hadn’t seen her in the crowd.

“IZRA?!” Malice screamed frantically as she noticed a group of men dressed in black carrying torches and brandishing swords, pistols, axes and various other odd weapons as they marched through the streets drunkenly. Occasionally they’d throw a torch at a nearby building that had yet to catch fire and they’d all erupt into raucous laughter. Were they bandits?

The crimson haired girl’s heart skipped a beat as she heard someone cough inside the collapsing tavern. Her heart then plummeted into the pit of her stomach; it was a woman’s cough.

“IZRA!” She sprinted into the flaming building, the long skirt of her simple grey dress trying to trip her up as she dived into the onslaught of warped flames. Sweat immediately began to pour down her skin as the sweltering heat from the relentless fire beat at her mercilessly.

Her eyes strained to see through the heat and falling timber in an attempt to find the helpless victim trapped within. If it was her matron, she desperately hoped the woman was alright. In the corner of the bar she saw a small patch of the room still untouched by the flames and a familiar inebriated woman crouched in the corner curled in a ball sobbing. Thick toxic smoke hung in the air and persistently wound around the child trying to fill her lungs and bring her down.

Malice dropped lower to the ground and tore off a strip of her dress to tie around her face as a makeshift mask as she began the task of crawling across the burning floor in a measly attempt to get to her matron. “IZRA!” She yelled in an attempt to snap the inebriated woman from her sobbing fit.

The young woman opened her caramel golden eyes and sobered up a little as she spotted the crimson haired girl crawling toward her. “Girl?! What are you doing?!” She yelled as realization dawned on her. “GET OUT!”

“NO!” Malice screamed, “COME WITH ME!”

The rooftop overhead began to groan as the fire slowly began to eat away at it. There wasn’t much time; the roof would cave in soon. They had to hurry.

“Stupid girl! Get out now!” Izra yelled.

“NOT WITHOUT YOU!” Malice snapped back. Only a little further, she only had a little further to go until she reached her.