Rouge

Rouge - Chapter Thirty

Eli called out to Hunter as she took off running and was by her side in seconds. They ran along the pathway and turned down Gibson Street. The road was blocked, a crowd forming around a burning restaurant she couldn’t see the name of, for flames surrounded it, snaking out of the windows and bending toward the onlookers, as though teasing them. Firemen and police officials blocked the crowd a clear distance away. From inside the building, someone was screaming.

Hunter pushed through the crowd and tried to pretend there were no butterflies in her stomach. She thought of Miss Smart, poor Miss Smart, who was granted only a few more days to live, and this time she felt no fear. This time, she knew it was up to her.

“Hunter!” Eli called, grasping her hand and then slipping away. People grunted at her as she weaved towards the barricade, and when she reached it, she came face to face with the door of the restaurant. Only an orange and white striped barrier stood in her way.

“Is there anyone still in the building?” she asked an elderly man dressed in a chef uniform, leaning against the barrier beside her, rubbing his hands together anxiously.

He didn’t glance at her. “The uh … th-the w-waitress … and a few of th-the customers-”

Adrenaline filled her. She knew what she had to do.

But then Eli called her name. As if in slow motion, Hunter turned and saw him squeezing his way toward her, scared and panicked, desperate to reach her. In a split second, she knew that it was time to make a decision. If she ran inside the building to rescue whoever was left alive, she wouldn’t be able to lie to Eli any longer. People would see her. The Agents might see her.

But if she didn’t use the power she was given, then what was it good for? Who else would save them?

It was given to you for a purpose, Hunter’s mother had said in the letter. It will lead you to greatness.

With a glance at the firemen scrambling to unroll the hose, Hunter ducked under the barricade. She had only a moment to catch onto Eli’s green gaze. A connection so real struck her, she almost froze in shock. He knew, even before she flipped her black hood over her hair in an attempt to hide her identity. He knew.

I’m sorry, she mouthed and ran straight for the door.

“Hey!” One of the policemen had seen her, and some of the onlookers began to shout, but Hunter didn’t care. She knew what none of these people had any clue about: that to Hunter, the restaurant was simply a house of cards on the verge of collapsing.

The moment Hunter passed through the front door, it was as if she’d stepped into another dimension. The fire roared around her, snaking between her limbs and gripping her tight. The heat was immense, but somehow comforting to her, as if the fire was her friend.

But unlike the rescue at her school, something strange happened amidst the flames. A brief flash of a distant memory brought her back to the past, a time she couldn’t remember, where she lay on a steel table encased in flames. She had no idea where it came from, but it was as real as what she saw before her eyes.

She shook herself back to the present. Focus Hunter, lives are at stake here.

The restaurant would have seemed larger, had the roof not crumbled in and chairs and tables burning to a crisp not blocked her path. She craned her neck, searching for any sign of life. It occurred to her that perhaps she was too late. Perhaps the fire was too deadly for anyone to have survived it.

Hunter shielded her eyes from the smoke and breathed in deeply. It amazed her that although there was no oxygen in the air, she could still breathe as though she were outside.