Mable: Onto chapter thirty-six! I don't have much to say so I don't own 9, and Enjoy!

Souls Run Deep

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Roaring Flames

There was some water in the kitchen sink that Six and Eight were able to use to get some of the paint off. Thankfully, Six's fabric must have been resilient to stains, because the paint seemed to just wash clean off. Eight had a harder time, mostly with the red. To his detest and irony, the faded red took a pinkish tint and refused to move from his fabric. "Here." Six encouraged, stopping Eight from scrubbing his fabric clean off.

Six prodded and scratched at a dried out bar of soap on the edge of the sink before returning. He rubbed the flakes into Eight's fabric gently. Stitchpunk fabric was usually very easy to clean, Two once mentioned that he thought their fabric was treated with something, and eventually the pinkness began to go down. Six was being very soft for someone with sharp hands. It actually felt nice to have the other doing such a soft action, eased Eight up quite a bit.

"Maybe..." Six started, "We could find some canvas too." Eight had heard of canvas before, but in a different way. "I thought that was just a kind of fabric Stitchpunks were made of." The Artist nodded, "It is. I'm made of canvas. But humans also used it to draw on and maybe it would be easier to use that paper. The paper might leak." He obviously knew what he was saying even though Six always held a constant hesitance in his tone.

Eight was too interested in trailing his hand over Six's arm instead. Almost like he hadn't touched canvas before, it took Six by surprise and caused him to softly inhale. Even though they had repeatedly touched mouths, and it was considered very intimate, little actions like this still managed to send Six spiraling. Soft touches that almost signaled something more. Eight abruptly pulled away and Six guessed that he noticed the tension.

Six was still unsure what Eight and him were. They didn't feel quite like friends and were certainly not enemies so Six was genuinely confused. He wasn't naïve, though, he knew what else the two of them had a chance to be, but trusted that Eight would not want something like that. Being mates; Six couldn't say he hadn't thought about it in the past. He looked over toward the larger male only to notice him staring towards the doorway with a scrutinizing look.

"What's wrong?" Six asked cautiously and Eight soon realized that he wasn't disturbed about the touching at all. Instead, something else bothered him, "Is that smoke?" He pointed out and the Artist looked over to see the smoke lingering at the ceiling in the hall. "Smoke?" He asked softly as the Guard stood and began to head towards the hall. The Artist followed and they soon wandered into the same room with the easel.

Eight noticed the glow before the entered and looked in, only to recoil, "Damn!" He swore and Six rushed up to look in. The corner of the easel room was eaten by flames, like fire had eaten through the floor, and Eight went into his Guarding state of mind. He grabbed onto Six's arm and nearly dragged him as he headed towards the foyer. "Where'd the fire come from?!" Six gasped, "Why's it spreading so fast?!"

"After the War, the houses got damaged. It could overtake the rest of the house in minutes." He managed to run into the few others gathered in the foyer, who also seemed to know of the fire. This being Nine, Child, and Five. "It's definitely coming from below us." Child insisted, "Earlier I noticed a basement. Something down there must have alit." There were many questions still, but nobody was willing to ask.

"Six, get outside." Eight encouraged and the striped one was hesitant to leave him. The Guard gave him a light shove, "Go. I have to get the Boss." Six finally began to run a bit towards the entrance reluctantly. Five blurted out to Nine and Child the question of, "Where's Three and Four?!" He was nearly panicking and Nine tried to remember. "I think they came down here after…"

He filled with horror, "Seven's still in the attic!" He began running towards the stairs and Child attempted to stop him. Eight started to follow before Child's sudden comment caused him to stop, "The fire didn't start on its own. The twins could very well be down in the basement." Eight winced and Five gasped before running in the direction that Child pointed out to him as being the basement. Eight decided to follow Five, since the basement was obviously more dangerous than upstairs, calling back to Child, "Get One and Two out of the house!"

Child nodded and headed upstairs. He looked towards the stairs to the attic in an attempt to catch a glimpse of Nine, but couldn't see him. Instead, he headed into the nursery, where One and Two had not noticed anything. "Get out of the house!" The pale male called to them before heading right back out of the room. One and Two were confused, naturally, but obeyed as they understood how serious the other sounded.

They grabbed a few things and headed downstairs quickly, soon seeing what Child had been yelling about. The fire had moved quickly and began to spread through the hall. "Good Lord!" Two burst out as One quickly ushered him down the steps and towards the front door. They managed to make it outside before Two suddenly tried to go back in, "The others, they're still inside, we can't leave them!"

One was adamant, "If Child told us then the others must know! He can find the others, you cannot!" The Inventor still looked like he wanted to go in and One huffed, "I will stay by the door as long as I can; Get yourself and the child to safety!" Two nodded briefly and continued outside, a concerned hand resting above the small soul underneath the fabric. He noticed Six outside by the stack of findings that the Stitchpunks had previously moved outside.

He approached, "Are you alright?" Six nodded softly, but looked a bit disturbed still, and voiced his fear, "It was so quick… Is Eight okay?" Two didn't know what to say, "I… I didn't see him. However, if he was in there then he was probably looking for the others. One is waiting over there for the others." He gestured to the doorway and gasped at the flames spreading to the outside, "Weather worn…"

"What?" Six asked and Two explained, "After long periods of time without maintenance, the weather, time, and such causes buildings to be weaker. That is why the fire is spreading so quickly." This only worried Six more, but the Inventor spoke up, "They'll be fine." He didn't tell Six, but he wanted to rush in and find the others. To drag them out of the burning fire. However, One was right; he had to put his limits into perspective if he was going to keep the baby in mind.

He could only pray that the others were alright, just like Six was.

The final two steps were cement, as was the floor, and so there was no way to climb up once they were backed under the stairs by the flames. The second the match had hit the strange liquid it had engulfed in flames. Even part of Three's hand managed to get burned from being too close. Four had pulled her back behind the two cement stairs as they stared in horror. Three's fingers took no damage since the fire wasn't hot enough to melt the metal, but they did sting, but not as much as the growing heat.

They watched as the fire climbed the wooden wall and could only stare as it began to eat everything. Soon it would catch onto the stairs and they would either be burned alive or crushed under the rubble and ashes. This was a fear that was close to when being near the Fabrication Machine. The only difference was that the Machine, if it couldn't get them, may have eventually left. The fire wouldn't. It felt nothing and ate all.

The strange liquid only fed its ferocious appetite and made it stronger. The twins cuddled into each other, panicking, scared, and waiting for whatever would come. Minutes ticked by, the fire was burning through the top of the wall, and only then did they hear footsteps coming down the stairs. They both looked up just in time to see a burlap blur hop down the steps. He stopped on the cement steps and called, "Three?! Four?!"

His optic scanned the fire until he heard the knocking and tapping upon the cement below. He looked between the steps and smiled in relief to see the twin in good condition. Then it abruptly dropped as he took in the still present danger. The twins could hear as something heavy came down the steps and Eight also appeared in the gap as Five went through his bag. "Hold on, girls! I'll get you up!"

The Healer managed to pull enough thread out that he lowered it like a rope that both him and Eight held onto. Three wrapped the thread around her wrist to substitute for her fingers and used the uninjured hand to hold her sister who had a stronger grip on the thread. Five and Eight used both of their strength to pull the smaller females up onto the steps. Three immediately leapt onto Five when she was on safe ground and he held her close, though still looked to her sister as well when he asked, "Are you two okay?"

They nodded and Eight looked out at the fire, "What happened here?!" He asked, not expecting an answer, and both of the twins winced at the question. Five didn't pay attention and instead pulled them along. "We need to get out of here before the fire spreads more!" He lead and the others followed. As they entered the hall they could see that the fire was continuing to spread further.

Things were beginning to fall apart, the roof had actually caved in near the front door, and the group soon realized they couldn't escape that way. Instead, Five looked around until he noticed a room nearby that wasn't yet touched by the fire. "That way!" He led them into the room and they crossed to the window. Eight and Five managed to wedge the window open before helping the twins up onto the windowsill as well.

They dropped behind the house on a patch of dried out ground. From behind the house, the Emptiness stretched out with few standing buildings and a series of destroyed machine frames. They nearly had to climb over one as they circled the outside of the flaming building. It seemed like a much longer walk than it really was and soon they managed to make it to the others.

One had retreated out of the entranceway while Two was trying to comfort a panicking Six. "The fire got him!" He gasped and choked into the older Stitchpunk's vest. "I shouldn't have left him! What is he's dead?! He could be dead!" Of course, just about then, the other group of Stitchpunks appeared. Two was relieved to see them and Six followed his gaze to look back. He gasped in alarm and dashed as fast as he could toward the Guard.

Eight didn't exactly expect the figure to smack run at him, but did feel the need to comfort the obviously concerned Stitchpunk. Even if he could clearly see that One was staring at them suspiciously. "It's alright." Eight said quietly, "I told you I'd come out fine." Six just held onto him before pointing out, "The others didn't get out." The Guard was confused and he, along with Five and the twins, looked to Two.

He only returned with a solemn look.

Nine made it into the attic when the flames were just beginning to spread so he had expected that they could escape quickly. He didn't expect the length of the attic to be so long or that he wouldn't immediately find Seven. He dashed through the filled attic searching for her everywhere. By now the attic was incredibly hot and becoming thick with black smoke that disrupted Nine's already labored breathing.

Thankfully, he finally did catch a glimpse of her in the back, but by now the fire was overtaking the stairs. "Seven!" He called and she looked back quickly. The wooden grate looked like the one in the Sanctuary and Seven was using her spear and attempting to pry it off. "What are you doing?! The fire is coming this way!" Nine reminded and Seven beckoned him with a gesturing of her head, "Getting us out of here! Come help!" Nine rushed over to do so and tried to pull the grate free.

It was so hot that he imagined his insides melting away into nothingness. His head was becoming a bit clouded and spun dizzily as he struggled to free them both. Then, in a single snap, the grate popped out, and a small gust of clean air managed to reach him. Seven quickly headed through the opening to the outside of the house. Outside the grate, the house's roof sloped down a bit before dropping off, and she decided that they needed to head down and find a way to climb down.

Child, meanwhile, was still franticly searching inside the house. He had made it into the attic and mistakenly believed that neither was there. He was back in the attic again and searching for any sign, but by now the fire was eating away at the top floor, meaning that he couldn't get over to where the grate was. It was everywhere; the heat, the smoke, and he could only slightly remember his fabric being burned away by boiling oil.

He headed back down the steps, sure that they must have moved downwards, and began to search all of the rooms. He tried the bedroom that Nine and he had entered earlier while he was tutoring him and found nothing. He then tried the nursery and found nothing. By now he was beginning to realize that the heat and smoke were taking a toll on him. He couldn't keep going, and it was clear that Nine and Seven were not in the top two floors of the house.

Instead, Child decided that he had to get out. He had to escape, now, or he would perish in the fire. He used the last of his strength to run towards the stairs only to realize they were overtaken. Panic and desperation set in, memories of burning buildings, burning metal work, and explosions overtook his mind. In panic, he dashed to the nursery as it was the only room that was not completely engulfed. His eyes looked to the broken window.

When Nine approached the edge of the roof with Seven, he made sure to be especially cautious. Running about the Cathedral's roof had taught him how dangerous this was. Even more so because after the edge of the roof it simply dropped to the hard ground below. There was nothing to catch onto and nothing to break either of their falls. The Warrior began to follow the outside of the building, looking down, searching for a place that they could use to climb down.

He noticed the odd thing that looked almost like a small, manmade indention all around the house. He soon deduced that it was used to move water, especially when he and Seven approached where it went to drain down at. Seven nimbly swung down along the outside onto the descending drain pipe, managing to hold on enough, and steadily moving downwards along it. Nine followed, looking a bit clumsier, but managing to do so.

Nine could still feel the heat radiating from the house as they moved downward and watched the fire grow bolder. That was, until the drainpipe made a creaking noise, and then abruptly broke off from above. Nine expected to fall, but instead a section of the pipe, the section both he and Seven were holding, bent outwards as though it was falling. It stopped abruptly, nearly throwing both off of it, and Seven was able to grab onto the section that was still against the wall as she was closest.

The burlap male had to actually pull himself onto the shaky pipe and slowly make his way across before climbing down onto the stable section. It felt like hours passed before they reached the bottom of the house. Nine accidently fell on his back when trying to jump off of the last few inches and just laid there in exhaustion for a brief time. Seven began to search around for the others and soon saw them the adjoining side of the house, running up to them.

The other Stitchpunks, to say the least, were thrilled to see Seven run up and Nine stumble up. The twins locked onto Seven's form while Five approached Nine, "Are you okay?" Nine nodded, "Yeah, I'm just…" He struggled to pant a bit and Five encouraged him, "It's the smoke. It can't kill us, but it isn't good for us at all. Just breathe." He rested a hand on his best friend's back in comfort, just like a Healer would.

However, Six wasn't as pleased, "We're not all here." He reminded and One did a quick count, "Of course we are. All nine of us are here." There was a moment of silence before Two spoke up, "One, there's ten of us." Seven suddenly had a bad feeling and looked around, "Child's gone." One huffed, "Child, yes, of course." Then he suddenly grew very annoyed, "How could this happen? How could a random fire erupt inside a house?"

Three and Four looked at each other guiltily, though none of the others noticed. Nine spoke up, "It doesn't matter." The Leader was disturbed that the other was willing to overstep his question and glared, "It certainly does matter. If a random fire could begin in this house then what will stop it from overtaking the Sanctuary?" The tired and zippered one was exasperated, "It could've been started by anything-."

Nine was stopped by the sound of something hitting the ground some ways away. Eight had been the only one to actually see it plummet from one of the window before hitting the ground with a disturbing, cracking noise. Nine's words halted as he could only look over hesitantly, "Child?"

Mable: Don't you hate when the chapter title spoils the chapter? Eh, I guess it did sum it up, though, and perhaps provoked some interest. ^-^ Anyway, chapter will be up tomorrow, right on schedule. I hope everyone enjoyed!