The Beginning of the End

Chapter 2

Annora

"Annora-"

"Run Jillian. Go get help. Now!" Annora cried when Jillian remained frozen. Jack had only been playing, but his mistake could prove deadly. Gulping, she flew down the hill and flung herself into the lake. The water was cold, but affected her in no other ways. Jack on the other hand...

Oh God, Jack. Please be okay, Annora pleaded silently. She'd reached his limp body. Trembling, she tentatively pulled him against her torso, shocked at the unnatural gray pallor of his skin. Thankfully, he had never gained a plethora of inches on her, so pulling his body wasn't nearly as hard as it could have been. The rocks and dirt finally bumped against Annora's back and she nearly cried in relief. Panting slightly, she slipped her arms around Jack's lifeless body and managed to roll him onto the shore.

Shaking, Annora scrambled out of the water and crouched over him, wary of how uneven his breathing was. Gently she placed a palm above his heart, where his mark should be. She imagined she was feeling the slightly rough ridges of the mark under his soaking wet shirt, but she was unsure. Her pulse raced as she placed her ear to his chest in an attempt to hear a steady heartbeat. Ba-bum, ba-ba-bum, ba-bum, it seemed to mock Annora. In her panic, she thought she could feel her own heartbeat synching to Jack's.

Jillian still wasn't back. Although Annora wasn't a religious watch-bearer, her internal clock told her it'd been at least ten minutes. With her head still laid on Jack, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest, along with his freezing and soaked t-shirt. She glanced up to see the jagged outline of his face. His mouth twitched and Annora hastily lifted her head. Once more, she checked the horizon for Jillian. She was met with a blank palette.

Ba-ba-ba-ba-bum... Ba... Ba... Bum-ba... Annora's eyes widened as Jack's pulse sped and sputtered. Her anxiety only increased upon realizing just how long it had been since Jillian had left her. Had something happened? Annora doubted that Jillian would allow anything trivial to distract her, but what could be taking her so long? Annora didn't know how long Jack could survive without his fire, especially since he soaked in the water like a sponge. Jack's breaths only became more and more uneven as they laid there, and Annora tried desperately to think of a solution. She needed to get the water out of him, and try to warm him as best as she could. With a shudder, she shut her eyes and tried to remember the first step. Push the chest to rid the body of the water. Right.

Nerves swirled through her arms, causing a tremble to develop. When she could procrastinate no more, Annora exhaled harshly and frantically pumped her hands against Jack's chest. A few years back, all the students of her grade were taught CPR in school-- not that she remembered much of it. She continued to push against his body for quite some time, but all it seemed to be doing was shoving him around. In a delirious sort of trance she threw herself across his body in a feeble attempt to conserve what little body heat he maintained. Near tears, Annora laid her head down in defeat. Nothing was working. His heart was walking at the pace of a tortoise and he felt so cold it was if he had been in a freezer room for hours.

Ready to curl up next to him for his last breaths, Annora let her lids slip shut. Then--

POP!

Annora was flung off of Jack by a loud and bright spark. She rolled a few feet away from him only to see his whole body pulsating with energy. Both astonished and wary, she watched him until the movements faded. Only then did she notice the pain. A burning, searing agony seemed to envelope her chest and she glanced down with trepidation. Her mouth fell open and spots formed in her vision as her eyes took in the smoking hole in her shirt, and the ragged burn mark just below the crook of her neck. Dazedly, Annora noticed that it resembled Jack's Fierno mark. Chuckling deliriously to herself, she took one last glance towards Jack, and promptly passed out.

Jack

In his mind, Jack could envision Annora down to the ovalish shape of her irises. In a coma, he could do much the same. The emptiness reminded him of the time he and his parents had moved to a different fire pit. Their original-- Jack's birthplace-- was old, small, and slowly cooling down. The fire pit he currently lived in was everything that a pit should be. A reasonably sized moat of flames embedded into the ground surrounded the underground living space. When he was little, Jack had nearly overheated after lingering in the flames for too long. He'd sworn a foolhardy promise to never do it again, but that was one promise he certainly couldn't keep. Now he had done just the opposite. Made an incredibly stupid mistake and gotten extinguished. Though the pain was gone, so was everything else. All Jack had was his mind, and that wasn't saying much. He longed to hear people, to tell them he was fine. Then again, that was another problem; he wasn't fine. He could do nothing but think. Distantly, he imagined himself hearing the fearful voice of Annora. But why? She had nothing to fear. After all, she knew that--

Oh, no. She didn't know. Why would she? Annora, his best friend, had absolutely no idea that Fiernos almost always survived being extinguished. Jack rarely spoke of it, for the anxious feeling it gave him simply wasn't worth it. So Annora didn't know.