Me: I TOLD you I had the next chappie all posted up. So, hahahaha! xD

Remember, if you think I'm copying you (but I need to see evidence) shoot me where I stand, burn me and shove my smoking ashes down your neighborhood hobo.


Chapter 2: Fire!

When it was almost time for me to head back to Albatross and Fitch, I drank a squishy and sighed.

"Man. Life is rough for Jude, huh? I mean the girl who he still hasn't gotten over is dating another dude? Cruelty."

Everyone nodded in sympathy. Then something hit me in the back of the head, and I groaned.

"Ouch. What the fudge was that?" I turned around, but no one was looking at me or laughing. So I looked on the floor, and a paper airplane was at my feet, staring up at me as if to say, "Are you gonna pick me up or what?"

I grabbed it, and it seemed unusually heavy. Jen glanced at it.

"What's inside?" she asked. I rolled my eyes.

"I don't have x-ray vision, Jen. I have to open it, you know."

"Well, hurry up."

I stuck my tongue out at her and opened the paper airplane, and a small, velvety black box dropped out on the table, and everyone made frantic grabs for it.

"I wanna see it!" Cait screeched over Jonesy, who was flipping her off his back.

"I deserve to look at it first!" Wyatt panted, snapping for it while Nikki pulled him by his hair.

"No, I do!"

"Me!"

"No way, airhead!"

"Mine!"

"HEY!" I shouted and snatched the box, glaring at them. "It landed on the back of my head, so I get to peek first."

"Aww..." everyone sighed and sat back down, and I opened the note. It read:

Dear Althea,

Meet me behind the mall at midnight. Bring the gift and come alone.

-Anonymous

My eyes blew up like saucers, and I cocked my head. "How odd..."

"What, what, what?!" everyone screamed and lunged for the note, and I yelled in alarm, falling back and crashing to the floor with my best friends on top of me. "Guys!"

They ignored me completely, reading over the note quickly. It took them several minutes, which meant they read it over, and finally jumped off of me, gasping.

"Aww! Ally has a stalker!" Jonesy mocked and I slugged his arm, growling.

"It's not a stalker, dillop." Then I turned to Caitlin. "And, no, I'm not going to meet them."

She looked at me strangely. "Why not? You might find 'The One'."

I sighed. "Cait, I'm really not in the mood to get jumped and raped in an alley, thanks for the offer though."

Everyone except Cait agreed with that silently, though she still didn't see my point.

"How do you know it's not some hot guy in the mall? Maybe a crush?"

"Caitlin, I have a feeling it's not going to be that simple. I just know it." Then I looked at my watch and grabbed my board. "Later, cats, I'm late for tea."

And I skated off, chuckling in my mind. Who would be stupid enough to go to an alley at midnight, for the love of all things weird? Not me.

Not even if I got a date for it.


My day at my job was relatively normal, well, kinda normal, until someone started screaming.

Kelli, Nathan and I all looked up from what we were doing, then at each other.

"What the heck was that?" Kelli asked, setting down a black sweatshirt.

"I guess we should check it out, huh?" I said and we went to the front door, and I pulled on the doors. They wouldn't budge. "Uh, guys, we might have a slight problem here..."

"What's wrong?" Nathan asked and tugged on the doors too, but it did no good. We tried the keys, but they did about as much as a bunch of sticks.

"This is...odd," we all agreed.

"How can the doors lock by themselves when," I said, "they can only lock on the inside?"

"If we knew, Multi, we would've been out of here already," Kelli sighed and flipped her strawberry-blonde hair over her shoulders.

"Well, let's try the back door," Nate suggested and we nodded, moving quickly to the back room. The steel door there was in the same condition as the front doors, so I sighed, exasperated.

"This is so--" I never got to finish my sentence, because right then, the lights cut out. We were all left standing in pitch-black darkness, wondering what the heck was going on.

"Guys...?" Kelli said quietly. "Who turned out the lights?"

"The main switch is in here...but no one touched it," Nate said, his voice lathered with confusion. We walked to the main room, but something dark and heavy was blocking the glass doors and windows, preventing any light from coming in.

"Ok. Let's take a look at our situation," I said, "and figure it out. One, the lights have gone out, the doors and windows are blocked, and we can't get out. Either we're being sabotaged, or we're not alone in this store."

"I'm getting scared, Nathan," the strawberry prep murmured to her boyfriend, and I could literally see her clutching his arm. I heard his shirt fabric rustle as he shrugged in the dark.

"Well, what are we--" For the second time that day, someone was interrupted by a loud boom that sent us spiraling to the windows and sliding down them.

"Ow, that really smarts," I muttered, rubbing my aching arm. Then I smelled a burnt scent, and it made my eyes water and my throat tighten, forcing me to cough. "Oh man guys, I think I smell smoke!"

When Kelli and Nate turned around, she let loose the loudest scream I'd ever heard in my life.

"Fire!" Nate shouted and I groped along the far wall for the fire extinguisher, but it was nowhere to be found. A dancing orange/red glow was spreading along the wall closest to the back room, and I gasped.

"Aw, man! The fire extinguisher is gone!" I cried and frantically searched once more, but my efforts were fruitless.

"Who has their cell phone?!" Kelli said nervously. I didn't respond but pulled out mine, automatically dialing '9-1-1'.

A pleasant, yet tired, sounding voice answered. "911 Emergency, what's your emergency?"

"My friends and I are trapped inside a burning store, and all the windows and doors are blocked, it's dark, and the fire extinguisher is gone," I replied somewhat calmly, biting my nails. The blazing inferno was peeking out of the back room, and I realized Nate was gone.

"Where's Nathan?" I mouthed to Kelli, and she whispered back, "Grabbing our bags!"

"Ok, remain calm, and what is the address?"

"Um, 6954 Cheshire Street, you know, Galleria Mall?" I said, and I heard the operator chuckle. (I made up a random address, sorry)

"Of course. Help is on the way," she said, "but don't hang up. I need to make sure they get there."

"Ok."

Nate came running back from the back (wow, double back) with his backpack, my duffel, and Kelli's shoulder bag. I could see with the dim light of the fire that his usually pale face was shiny with perspiration.

I caught my bag easily, thanking Nate.

"Does anyone know where you are?" the operator asked, and my attention snapped back to our conversation.

"Um yeah, my friends and my parents know where we are," I responded anxiously; the fire was reaching out of the room, lapping at clothing racks. Any minute, it would soon be licking at our heels, consuming more debris.

"Ok, try to attract attention in anyway possible, maybe by--" I ignored the rest of the sentence, started pounding heavily on the guarded doors, motioning for my coworkers to do the same. They complied, and even added some frantic pleas of help.

"Firemen and police should be there now, but assist them in helping to find you."

"Ok, can I hang up and call a friend? They're by the entrance," I asked.

"Sure." I hung up and pressed Jude's speed dial, and he answered.

"Yo, Ally? Are you Ok? The police and fire people are here, saying there's a fire in--"

"No, I need help. Tell them to come here, please Jude," I interrupted nervously, for the inferno had demolished half of the store, and I was choking on smoke. We got down on the floor, covering our mouths and noses.

"Can do, Althea," he said and I heard him yelling to someone, most likely the police. In less than a minute, officers and firemen were breaking us out of the collapsing store, pulling us out. Before they got us out, my leg started burning, and I yelped.

"Oh God, my leg's on fire!" I screamed and a buff-looking fireman carried me out, and sprayed my leg with a fire extinguisher, similar to our missing Albatross and Fitch one. It was still burning, and medics were treating my leg faster than you could say, "Owie."

Jude and the others were running up to us, Jonesy and Nikki shoving past officers. They instantly started bombing us with questions.

"Oh my gosh, are you Ok?"

"Did you get hurt?"

"How's the store looking?"

"Is anyone else inside?"

I waited until they had calmed down, and started explaining.

"Ok, we were trapped inside, and--" For the second time, I was rudely interrupted when a loud cracking noise shattered through the mall, catching everyone's attention. We whipped our heads towards the noise, and found out that the store was collapsing under the fire. Firemen and policemen were blocking everyone back, and Kelli, Nate, and I stared at the remains of our store.

Only a moment ago, we had just been inside that very same structure, pleading helplessly against the doors. We could've still been inside, too, and we might've been gone.

It was really disturbing, seeing your life vanish. Like you would be dead if one of you hadn't called the police just in time to rescue you.

It wasn't very pleasant thinking about death.


Me: OMG, so Ally almost died? Ugh, weirdness all around. XD

Anyways, don't worry again, 'cause next chappie will be up in...3 minutes?

Don't R&R until all the chaps are up!