How I ran away

How I won

He’s holding a glass bottle. The end is smashed and it spikes out like knives. Before the fear comes wonder. How did he get here? The kitchen would have been completely burned off. Maybe by the room connecting to it? The window—

Then he moves towards me. 

“I don’t care what Twelve said. I’m going to kill you,” he says.

He lunges forward with the bottle as a knife. I twist aside but it still scrapes me. My arm. It leaves a mark like claws. He pulls back and takes a stab at me. I catch his wrist mid-stab and twist it back. The knife is facing him. I lean forward to press it into his stomach. He pushes back. So hot. The fire is coming closer. Eating up the walls. Burning everything.

“You’re also gonna die!” I screamed. Fire makes me tense.

That makes him more determined. He twists his hand back so the bottle is facing me. Inches from my skin. Inch from my skin—

                Then the glass door explodes.

                The glass exploded from the heat. Glass shatters down. Fresh air rushes in. The baker is distracted. I push him back. He stumbles and falls outside on his back. I step over him and run out. He will die. I make no attempt to save him from a fiery grave.

                I run out. The garden. Air. it all rushes to me. Into my lungs. My burning lungs. I put too much strain on them. The drowning and now this. I still feel the heat of the flames.

                As I back away, I look back. The mansion doesn’t look like it suffered much damage. It will soon be a burned out shell. And I won’t be here to witness that.

                I’ll figure out a way past that impossible fence.

                I turn away from the fire and run across the bridge. I stand for a while. Standing. Staring out into the ocean. How will I get out? And once I’m out, where will I go?

                 I shake my head to clear my thoughts and run to the far side of the garden. Near the fence. If the garden burns, I don’t want to be in it.

                I stand at the end, under the gazebo. In the mansion, the roof crashes down. Tendrils of smoke crawl from the top.

                “You win.”

                I spin around. Twelve. Alive and well. He actually looks as bad as I feel. Blacken face. Singed hair. burns on his now bare arms. The fire took away his shirt and half his pants. It feels awkward standing next to him. Yet I am shocked he is alive. No one could have survived that.

                But he did. The man that saved my life. The man also hiding secrets from me.

                “Come, I’ll show you the way out.”

                For a moment I just watch him. and then I run up to follow.

                “What are you?” I ask.

                “Who are you?” he asks.

                Silence for a few moments.

                “You can go past that if you want,” he points to the burnt house, “or we can take the helicopter,”

                The helicopter.

                “You can drive a helicopter?”

                He nods.

                The helicopter isn’t in the garden. It is on the side of the house. There is a gate between the two. I could've climbed it. I should’ve. I expected nothing on the other side. Not that I know how to operate a helicopter. I make a mental note to take lessons.

                There is a password for the gate. He types it in.

                I follow like a good girl. This is my way out. He said I won. No I’m taking the prize.

                The helicopter is the same I arrived with.

                I go in to the seat beside him.

                We take off. I fall asleep again. He could've killed me any time in my sleep for what I did with the fire. But he doesn’t. I wake up alive.

                We land in an open space.

                Land. Get out.

                I take a step from helicopter to land.

                The bullet hits the helicopter behind me. Inches from my head. It is not meant to kill. It’s meant to scare.

                Ambushed.

                I fell right into the trap.