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Chapter 63; Anywhere but Here

Ella was the first one out of the truck, and as soon as Max had shoved Fang aside she leapt out as well, running as fast as possible to the body sprawled out on the grass.

The solar powered lights illuminated the yard and Max saw the birthday cake her mother had gone into the city to pick up lying there by the stone path as she ran past it...

'Happy Seventeenth Birthday Nick and Aaron'

"MOM!"

Ella was on her knees beside her mother sobbing, trying to roll the woman over but she was crying to hard to do it.

Max collapsed beside her sister and together they rolled her onto her back and the horrible truth hit them like a bolt of lightning...

Max broke, clapping a hand over her mouth to hold the sound of her scream in.

Allan was beside them in half a second, pulling both girls into his arms, "Don't look, don't look..."

But Max had looked ... She had seen, and that image would haunt her until the day she died.

Her mother was gone, she was dead ... and Wizards had done it. They were responsible for it all.

Iggy stumbled over, following the sounds of crying and he fell to his knees beside Ella, pulling the girl into his arms-

Ella shuddered and shoved him away. She sprang to her feet, her brown eyes wild, hair falling into her face. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Iggy flinched and his hands fell to his sides.

"DON'T TOUCH ME AGAIN! All of you! Just get away from me!" Ella backed up the steps of the front porch, "It's your fault! If you hadn't come here none of this would have happened! NONE OF IT! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU KILLED HER!"

"Ella, come down from there, the gas line is ruptured, can't you smell it?" Aaron said and strode forward. "Please come down-"

"Ella, please-" Iggy started to stand but before he could Ella turned wild, hate filled eyes to him and he could feel her gaze as a physical, tearing pain in his chest.

"SHUT UP!" She screeched and curled her hands into fists beside her ears. "I trusted you! I can't believe I trusted you! I can't believe I let you-" She shuddered violently, eyes going quite wide. Her arms tghtening around her stomach, groaning loudly, as if in the throes of some great, soul crushing pain. "You did this to me! You've ruined my life! YOU'VE RUINED ME! You've taken everything away! EVERYTHING! It's ALL YOUR FAULT!"

And she turned, running into the house and slamming the door.

For a moment it felt like all the air was sucked away, toward the house and then light flashed and everyone standing was thrown off their feet by the force of the explosion. Tongues of flame shot out, singeing Max's hair and then the light blinked out and Max saw the house was in flames. Orange pillars shooting out the bottom windows like hands, scraping to get them.

Iggy screamed, and ran at the house hands out, blind eyes wide.

Allan, Aaron, Nudge and the Gasman darted after him and Allan ran right up onto the porch and grabbed Iggy before the boy could jerk open the door. The little window beside the door broke and flames shot out.

Max wanted to cover her ears and disappear but she couldn't move. All she could do was sit there and listen to the roar of the flames and Iggy as he wailed into the inferno. Clawing at Allan and howling as if someone had just torn out his heart with a rusty spoon...

"ELLA!"

But there was no answer.

Max simply sat there staring, tears rolling down her cheeks. It wasn't real ... It couldn't be real, it just couldn't ... She glanced over at Iggy, who was still writhing around sobbing, then down at her mother's body. It couldn't be real ... It just couldn't.

When was David going to wake them up? She was tired of this nightmare...

Iggy fell silent and Max heard him suck in a spasmodic breath before bursting into sobs...

She heard Allan dragging the boy back down the steps, making soft shushing noises. But then Iggy shouted, "NO!" And she heard the sound of his feet as he ran across the yard, snapping open his wings and taking to the skies ... Without a compass, without eyes ... Without...

"IGGY!" Gasman screamed and ran after him followed closely by Angel.

Let this be a dream ... Please, God, let this be a dream.

Max felt fresh tears rolling down her face and she stared up at the sky. Watching the plume of smoke rise up and out of sight. Jeb, Ella and her mother all gone... Everything...

Gone.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Fang kneeling beside her, his eyes fever bright tears on cheeks.

"How am I supposed to save the whole world, Fang ... When I couldn't even save my own..."

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