Chapter Four

Todd had fallen fast asleep within an hour of being in his hole. Pietro, Lance, Kitty, Rogue, Kurt, and Pyro were standing outside the hole. The sun wasn't up yet.

"You do know that he will be able to last five days with all that food he has in there," Pyro said, shaking his head, "Is this your first time pulling a prank?"

"We'll fix that," Kitty said, grabbing Kurts arm and phasing threw the metal.

They landed next to the bags of food. Todd was still fast asleep. Kurt made a face and quickly plugged his noise. Kitty did the same thing.

"It smells like crap down here," Kurt whispered.

"I think it's like coming from that bucket," Kitty whispered, looking about ready to throw up.

Holding their breath now, Kitty grabbed one bag of food, while Kurt grabbed two. They quickly got out of the hole.

"I don't suggest going down there," Kitty said, taking a deep breath.

"Man, if starving don't get him the smell sure will," Kurt said.

"How many bags did you leave him?" Pyro asked.

"Three," Kitty said, handing the bags to Lance, "He really didn't pack much."

"Good," Pyro said, "Now, it's a real prank. Better get this hole surrounded by rocks or something. Wouldn't want your house to catch on fire now."

Pietro quickly sped around the hole, staying five feet away from it. He stopped running to see that he had mad a nice big trench. He sped off again and began filling the trench with rock. Some of the rock, though, looked like the new statues that were lined up outside the mall.

"Done," Pietro said, stopping next to Lance, "Now set it on fire."

Pyro gave a big grin just as the sun began to show. Pyro lit the grass around the hole on fire and they watched it burn. Todd jumped up and nearly hit his head on the metal. He sat there as quietly as he could. He could hear the fire around his hole. He touched the metal and wished he hadn't. It was as hot as ever. In some spots the metal had gone a bit red.

"I'm going to die," Todd whined.

Back at the top, the others were laughing a bit. Pyro wasn't laughing at all. He looked over at them and they quickly fell silent.

"This is funny," Pyro said, "But it will be funnier when it's over. You need to keep this fire going for five days. I wouldn't let it go too high. Don't want the police coming and ruining it. Well, I'll be back in five days to see if you can keep it going."

They watched as Pyro left. They looked at the fire and then at each other.

"How are we supposed to keep this going for five days?" Kitty asked.

"That's the easy part," Pietro said, speeding off and coming back with lots of wood, "We just need to throw some wood in the spots that are going out."

Kitty, Rogue, and Kurt looked at each other and nodded their heads. They all agreed on a plan. Each of them would come back at a certain time and check on the fire. Pietro got the earliest shift, he had to watch the fire from when it got dark to the time when the sun came out. Then Lance had to watch it until school was over, and then one of the three x-men would come a watch it until it got dark and Pietro would take over again.

The first day was the easiest to do, since the fire was nice and burning the grass around the hole. Luckily the fire couldn't get over the trench or the rocks. They only had to put wood on it when it got dark.

"I'm going to die," Todd said the the hundreth time.

Todd had just noticed that he only had two bags of food. He tried to remember if he had even brought the other bags with him. He had to skip breakfast and lunch so he had enough to eat for dinner. He didn't eat that much, he only ate about half a sandwich and put the other half back in the bag for tomorrows breakfast. His finger was red from when he touched the metal, but he didn't seem to care.

"What time is it?" Todd asked himself.

He had forgotten to bring a watch and a calender. He only had his two bags of food, clothes and that bucket.

Pietro threw one more piece of wood into the fire and watched as it began to burn. Pietro sped inside and brought out a chair, some marchmellows, chocolate, and some gram crackers. He put two marchmellows on a small, metal rod he had found and began making smores.' Well,' Pietro thought, 'This isn't as bad as I thought it would be.'

Todd had dug another hole next to the one by the bucket. He pulled the bucket out of it's small hole and dumped what was in the bucket into the new hole. He quickly pushed the dirt back over the hole and put the bucket back in its hole.' Now, it doesn't smell as bad,' Todd thought. Todd pulled out a blanket from one of the bags and laid it down on the floor. He laid down in it and looked up at the metal. It was stil red in some places and looked ready to melt.

"I'm going to die," Todd sighed, "And no one will miss me."

Todd stared up at the metal for a bit longer before he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

A/N: Sorry for taking so long with this chapter and sorry it's so short. This computer I'm on is too slow for me. I'll type like two words and it will just barely write down the first word. It's really slow. Well, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I don't know when I'll update again. Please review.