FORSAKEN CHILDREN

CHAPTER 8

     Dashing into the hallway where they had parted ways with the others, Camil turned his head to the left, toward the grand dining room.

Rosalynd, lying on the floor, was being straddled by a man.

In the blink of an eye, Camil found himself face to face with him, ready to plunge one of his blades into him. But it lodged into the portrait behind him instead. It was then that Camil noticed the curtain next to him was on fire. The house was beginning to burn at a disturbing rate. Were those flames coming from Rosalynd?

Camil felt a blow to his back. Without waiting any longer, he teleported once more, this time to the right of his assailant, sending a punch his way. But he felt himself slowing down, restrained by a new force. Sand had infiltrated his arm, swirling around until it reached his shoulder. Camil winced at the sensation of the grains actively moving, scraping his skin.

"Fast! But too slow for me," the man said, a lit cigarette in his mouth.

As his opponent openly mocked him, Camil ejected his other blade in a thrust toward him. But the sand replaced the man's body, which moved up to the ceiling. And it stopped between Rosalynd's spread legs, quickly becoming stuck in the floorboards. Camil observed the reconstructed body of the stranger, effortlessly untying a rope. The rope.

That was all Camil needed to teleport at lightning speed toward him, into the void. Grabbing him as he passed, he suddenly felt his body lurch forward, alone, crashing into the large glass cabinet upon arrival. He heard laughter. He was already turning to face the stranger, but the latter raised his hands as if to signify that Camil couldn't do anything to him. That it was inevitable. The rope dangling between his fingers.

Camil began to cough more and more. A fireball crashed nearby, which he dodged abruptly. Rosalynd was trying to attack the man, who seemed slightly older than them, especially with his closely trimmed beard. But he was already moving away, walking as if nothing had happened, hands in his coat, the coveted object hidden within. Camil couldn't let him escape like this.

The fire launched by Rosalynd had engulfed the main entrance of the dining room.

"Until next time, eh!"

The stranger simply waved a hand in farewell as he disappeared into the flames and smoke engulfing the house. The sound of collapsing partition echoed behind him, and he saw Rosalynd trapped under the debris. His gaze shifted briefly to the entrance, where the assailant was no longer present. He clenched his jaw.

He had to get Rosalynd out of there, even if it meant losing sight of their loot.

Camil wasted no time in lifting Rosalynd, feeling his lungs burning. He made his way toward the exit, not forgetting his weapons, which were far too hot to touch. It was in the main hallway that he saw someone rolling down the stairs to his feet.

Rachel had just pushed the other newcomer, evidently less dangerous than the previous one.

"He wasn't moving fast enough," she justified once they were downstairs, without a hint of remorse. Had she even taken pleasure in it?

"Where's Hector?" Camil asked Rosalynd as a section of the ceiling collapsed in front of them, causing them to retreat.

"He was thrown out by the other one, I haven't seen him since!" she panicked.

"Damn!" he cursed, dreading finding him burned.

"What an idiot!" Rachel exclaimed.

Rachel and he went searching for him in the adjacent room, but Camil was quicker, teleporting.