Ice Flower Path of ice

Chapter 15

“Brock, do you actually have any idea where we are?”

“Nope.” He says popping the p.

“But I’m taking random turns at this point because we might find a way back to school this way.” Awesome.

“Ummm do you know where we came from?”

“Yis.”

“Well can we head back so we know where we’re going?”

“Umm okee, it’s this way.” He spins full circle on his heels and drags me back the way we came. I can barely keep up with his walking pace at this point, in fact if I wasn’t holding him I suspect that he’d have walked off and ditched me by now.

I look up after a while looking up at the stars, the sky’s clear meaning they’re in view. The sky’s rarely this clear, it’s nice seeing it this way. A cloud suddenly covers them, but it’s not coming from the sky, rather streaming from somewhere lower down, meaning it’s smoke, so someone’s house is on fire.

“Brock we need to check that out.”

“What is it Dusty?” See that smoke up there, it’s coming from a house, there might be people inside.”

“Ok?” He gives me a questioning look, I know he is trying to say that we can just call the fire department but something about this smoke feels off, like it’s unnatural. Now it’s my turn to drag Brock round a corner, this time being met by the flames, they’re coming from a window of the building on the second floor, glass litters the floor under the window and the door to the building has been kicked in. None of this makes me as scared as the flames do, they’re not regular flames with an orange glow, rather they’re black and get darker in the sentence, they’re so dark that they stand out against the darkness of the alley.

“Ok Brock call the fire department now, I’ll go and see if anyone is inside.” This, no doubt, is going to end up being a mistake but if someone is in there we need to help them, the fire brigade might not get here in time to help.

“Yes hello, there’s a fire…” Brock’s voice trails off as I move up the stairs, which only makes the situation look worse, the fire hasn’t spread, at all, it was bursting from that window, it would have surely have at least spread to the landing, but no, it hasn’t so much as burned down the oak wooden door. I walk up to the door to the room, if anyone is in this building and they’re in there they need help. Brock taps on my shoulder and nods, thank fuck he’s called them, but right now we need to get whoever might be in there out. I bash on the door with a closed fist and scream as loud as possible.

“IS ANYONE IN THERE? HELLO?” No answer, instead my screaming is met with some chanting, it’s inaudible but I know it’s there.

“Get rid of them.” This I hear, the voice is no doubt feminine and sounds more mature than that of a teenagers, if I had to guess I’d say mid twenties or even early thirties. But still what they said sticks with me. ‘Get rid of them’, I don’t know what to make of it, are they talking about us? Then, the door opens…

A man steps out, he’s wearing black robes with crimson on the collar along with around the rim of the hood which is covering his face for the most part, save for the menacing grin seemingly carved into his face, the robe covers his hands so I can’t see them and falls to just above his ankles, his shoes are also black. I manage to catch a glimpse into the room, five more people stand inside the room surrounding something, I can’t see it at first but as the door closes I make out the shape of a head covered in black fire. I grab Brock’s wrist and start to back away, this only makes the grin on the man’s face grow wider and more menacing. I shove turn and shove Brock almost hard enough that he falls but he gets the idea and starts running, he bolts down the stairs first followed by me, just as I start turning to head down the stairs I see the man start running after us.