The Zodiacs

Couple Shorts: To Be Vulnerable

Aharon raced through the street, his eyes set on the thick monster of smoke rising in the distance. He cursed, shoving people out of his way with a force that sent one boy tumbling into a pile of mule dung that had been collected to the side. Maybe if he'd been one of the nicer signs, he would have considered apologizing.

But the Aries was too preoccupied with the black thickness lifting into the sky, able to be seen across all of Luxor. Had Lotus seen it? Had anybody within the palace seen it?

"No...," he breathed, slowing to a breathless stop at the scene in front of him. In the middle of the street, the small cubed building his father had built so many years ago stood engulfed in dark red inferno that raised the temperature in every surrounding street.

He considered that perhaps it could still be saved, maybe he could rush into the fire and locate the root of its burning. Or continue to douse at the flames with any water he could find until they went out. But there was no more saving the only thing left of his father as the fire sign slowly walked forward, watching its walls begin to crumble before his very eyes.

There was an observable glaze on the fire sign's eyes as he stepped toward the crackling hell, walking past all the men attempting to overpower the flame with buckets of water. No... he couldn't let the single thing his father had worked his entire life for fall apart after the deceased man worked so hard to create it and Aharon worked so hard to conserve it in memory of his passed parent.

He raced toward it, his eyes focused past the burning door on the golden jewelry hung along the walls as decoration. Those were the pieces that had already been molded and carved before he even stepped foot into the shop --each carefully perfected by his father. He wouldn't let them burn; he would save, at least, those.

"Aharon!" Akil suddenly appeared in front of him, catching the fire sign before he delved directly into the burning flame. He pushed him back, using all of his strength to hold the determined Aries away from the inferno that would burn him before he could step more than a couple feet into the inside.

Aharon desperately attempted to push him away with a forceful shout. "No! GET AWAY!" He yelled, hopelessly attempting to push past the Aquarius who stood between him and the melting gold.

"It's too hot! I already called for Layla and Odion, just wait until they get here," he struggled to hold the fire sign off. To his relief, another two men joined Akil in keeping Aharon away from the ignited hell warming all of Luxor. "Stop it, Aharon!"

"You don't understand," Aharon breathed, reaching toward the gold as the men struggled to pull him a safe distance from the crackling flames. "My father.... Let me go, Akil. LET ME GO!" He screamed, thrashing violently and slamming one of his elbows into someone's chest to throw them back. "I NEED TO SAVE IT!"

But Akil kept his firm hold on the boy, holding him by his shoulders as the Aquarius stepped in front of him. "You can't do anything," he yelled into his face, knowing that Aharon probably wouldn't hear him anyway. "You need to wait for the others!"

Aharon sighed, grief tearing his features apart as the monstrous flame reflected itself in his eyes. In the distance, he could already hear his twin brother racing over with worried shouts, abandoning his work at the glowing sight that swallowed Aharon's place of work. Aaron was just relieved that the fire sign hadn't been caught on the inside of the deadly beast, but the Aries didn't share the same relief.

"Who burned it?" He breathed, his body beginning to tremble with a level of fury he'd only felt once before. He'd only left to pick his sister up from her school but he'd made sure to turn off anything that could have caused this disaster --it was nearly unconscious after working amidst the hazards for so long.