The Shimmers in the Night

Five

The Burners were black now, their features almost gone except for the bright mouth-holes—the skin cracked and wrinkled and burnt up.

•

"Oh my God!" burst out Jaye as they sat on the boxes huffing and puffing.

Cara was glad this wasn't a walk-in freezer but only a fridge—lucky for them. She held her hands out in front of her. They were shockingly pink and raw.

"I can't believe this," said Hayley.

"It's crazy," said Jaye, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry," said Cara, staring at her trembling hands. "I'm so, so sorry I got you into this."

"Those look bad," said Hayley.

"You need cold water—right away," said Jaye. "Is there water in here?"

They were being practical, Cara realized, in order to stop thinking of the Burners. She felt grateful.

Hayley got up and started scanning the long shelves, already shivering in the cold.

"There's drinking water," she said, and reached for a bottle.

"If we don't have running water, we need a towel," said Jaye. "To make a cold compress. That's second best."

"The only sink's out there," said Cara, gritting her teeth at the pain. "We can't risk going out yet."

"Are they just waiting?" asked Hayley.

"Look," said Jaye, "here."

There was a blue-and-white dishtowel hanging from a hook; Jaye grabbed it and poured water onto it from the bottle Hayley handed her.

"I hope it's clean," she said, and then gently laid the wet cloth over Cara's hands. "You have to keep it there a while."

The coolness felt good at first, but the towel was also scratchy and the textured loops of thread started to feel like they were stabbing the sensitive skin if she moved her hands even a little. Cara bit her lip and sat looking down at her trembling arms. Her heart was still beating too fast.

"You're gonna be OK," said Jaye gently, kneeling down beside her. "It's only first degree. I'm almost sure. There aren't any blisters yet, at least."

"Cara. What the hell were those things?" said Hayley.

She unscrewed a second bottle of water and glugged from it.

"They're called elementals," said Cara. She was trying to keep from crying, the burns hurt so much; talking slowly and deliberately seemed to help. It kept her focused on something other than her hands. "They're not human."

"Hmm, really," said Hayley, and swallowed a big gulp. "No kidding. Those things were like CGI. They were walking special effects."

"Too bad they don't keep aspirin in here," said Jaye.

Looking up from her hands, Cara saw Hayley's eyebrows were singed, the top hairs black and curling, and some stray hairs on her head, too. It must have been burning hair she smelled.

Hayley put her hand up, seeing Cara's gaze rest there, and touched her eyebrows; the burnt ends came off on her fingers. She stared at them. For a long moment Cara had the distinct sensation that all three of them were in an unreality; they would wake up, like people did in a bad movie, and all of this would turn out to be a dream.

"I don't know what the elementals are, exactly," she went on, shaking it off and wincing as one of her hands shifted and the tender skin scraped painfully on the towel. "But they work for this guy called the Cold One, or just the Cold. There are four kinds. The Pouring Man was a water elemental, which meant he needed water to move around in. There had to be some form of water for him to show up in a place. These guys are fire, obviously. They need fire or at least heat. It's the four elements, the ancient elements—remember that Classics unit we had in History? So there must be others, too. Earth and air, I guess."