"Mommy." A voice cried out softly. Sam barely heard it, and he would have completely missed it had he not shut the crowd of kids up a few moments ago.
He paused, looking around. Children were crying, but their sobbing was much louder than the voice he had heard. He frowned in confusion, straining to hear the voice.
"Sam, what do we-" Edilio started, but was interrupted by same shushing him.
"Wait, I think I heard somebody crying for their mommy."
This was the moment when Orc decided to join in. "Mommy, mommy, where's my mommy?" He mocked.
"Mommy." The voice said again, a little louder this time. Sam turned in the direction of the source and immediately groaned. The flaming building stood before him, heat radiating off like a giant furnace. There was a kid in that building, most likely trapped in a room and too young to escape on their own. He couldn't just let them die; it was against his code of honor.
He took off his hat and handed it to Astrid. "Girl, hold my hat. I'm going in."
Astrid swatted the hat away, letting it drop on the ground. "Sam, you are not going in there."
"You can't tell me what to do! You're not my mom!" Sam whined.
Astrid sighed, putting her hands on her hips. She could already tell that this was going to be the beginning of an interesting relationship. "Fine. But at least put this around you're mouth. It isn't the fire that kills; it's the smoke." She informed, handing him a slightly damp cloth that seemed to almost appear out of thin air. Sam heaved a dramatic and drawn out sigh before taking the cloth and wrapping it around his mouth.
"Oh my God, I feel so cool and important." He said, modeling his new accessory. "Astrid, you fucking genius." Then he skipped into the building, not fearing anything in the world.
After going into every room looking for a kid, then going into the kitchen to see if there was any food (there was not), Sam walked upstairs. He wondered where the kid could be. There were close to a billion rooms in the place. The kid could be in any one.
"Mommy." The kid shrieked again from down the hallway. There were two doors in that direction; in one, the door was ajar; in the other, the door was closed, locked, double locked, and padlocked. Obviously the kid would not be in the padlocked room. That would be ridiculous!
So he searched to open room, but to no avail. The only thing in that room was a nice cup of coffee, which Sam drank immediately. Why waste a perfectly good cup'a Jo? Soon the child was screaming again, and it's shrieks came from the locked room.
Sam sighed. "Okay, you little shit, I'm coming!"
He walked across the hallway, burned a hole in the door, and walked in. There, a little girl was sitting on the ground, empty juice box in one hand, a flame in the other. Sam gasped in horror. For a brief moment, he pondered the fact that the little girl could simply have the power like him, but he soon discarded that idea. It would be ridiculous for anybody but him to have the power after all. But that left only one choice. The girl was on fire!
Sam ran up to her, not taking a single moment to think that a big, scary, soot covered man who just burned a hole in the door running at you would be scary for a little girl. Next thing he knew, flame was coming at him from the little girl's hands. He jumped to the side, dodging the firey pillar. She shot again, dropping her juice box so she would have twice the chance of accuracy.
Once again, Sam dodged. But this time, he bumped into a desk, which bumped into the wall, which sent vibrations running all along the house. A plank of wood on fire fell down from the ceiling, right onto the little girl. Sam flipped it off her, screaming the whole time.
He heard Astrid calling him from below the window. "Sam, Sam! Is everything all right?!"
Sam ran to the window, broke it, and looked at Astrid. "No, it's not!"
"Well what's wrong?"
"Well, you see...
She's just a girl, and she's on fire Oh, she got both feet on the ground
Hotter than a fantasy, lonely like a highway
She's living in a world, and it's on fire
Feeling the catastrophe, but she knows she can fly away
And she's burning it down
Oh, she got her head in the clouds
And she's not backing down!"
Sam leaned his head out of the window for a breath so he could hit the notes he had practiced so long on
This girl is on fire
This girl is on fire
She's walking on fire
This girl is on fire!"
Astrid's draw dropped. How could Sam break out into song at a time like this? "Sam! What the fuck? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Looks like a girl, but she's a flame
So bright, she can burn your eyes
Better look the other way
You can try but you'll never forget her name
She's on top of the world
Hottest of the hottest girls say!"
Sadly, this was the moment the girl decided to simply die. She screamed one last time and fell flat on her back. Sam glanced back at her and huffed, angry. What a bitch, dying on him at a moment like this! If she had just survived a little longer, he could have reached the second chorus, or at the very least, the bridge of the song!
Angrily, he grabbed her her lifeless body and carried her downstairs, past the walls of flame, and outside. He dropped the body down, then sat down and passed out. He had breathed in too much smoke while attempting to sing and simply could not sustain consciousness any longer.
