Chapter Nineteen: Up in Flames
A/N: I'm not saying anything about this chapter, other than someone dies! evil laugh
Pixie-Stixs: You can feel her emotions? Great, then I've her multi-dimensional. (I was worried that Tessa would become a bitch and nothing more...)
Rakunya: It is going where you think it's going, if I'm right in my thinking of where you think it's going. (Confusing? You bet. Worth it? Hell yeah!) It would explain a lot about Tessa and how she thinks like she does. And I figured out that the grammar thing was a compliment after I uploaded. slaps forehead Oh well.
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Tessa was jerked to consciousness by the screams of a man, Phelan. The train was pitch black and she couldn't remember where the switch for the overhead light was. Over the soft chugging of the train on the tracks, she heard the sounds of a struggle; grunting and moaning.
Moaning? Tessa thought as she sat upright. She lifted up her right hand and a small flame appeared in her hand, a Fire spell. It crackled with the movements of its owner's hand, but the tiny blaze dutifully lit up the darkness around Tessa. While she could see much from her position on the floor, she looked at the bunks and a saw a figure leaning into the bottom one.
It wasn't Phelan, whom had convinced Adette to swap bunks with him earlier that night, though. The person was too shapely to be Phelan, but it was also too tall to be Adette. Tessa quickly glanced at the sofa, only to find it empty.
Painfully standing up, finally feeling the full effects of the beating she had received the day before, Tessa moved closer to the disturbance. Holding her ribs with her left hand, Tessa pointed her right at the woman. The small flame suddenly shot out of Tessa's hand and onto the woman's back.
She easily caught fire; or, rather, her clothes had. The growing blaze more fully lit up the room and Tessa finally saw the light switch. She sprinted to it, her ribs aching, and flipped the light on. The fully lit room removed all doubt as to what was happening.
Despite the fact that she was burning alive, the woman that Tessa and Rinoa had saved earlier was still trying to claw her way into the bunk. For his part, Phelan was kicking to keep her back and prevent catching himself on fire. Meanwhile, Adette was in her bunk rifling through the bedding.
Tessa sprang into action, grabbing the burning shirt and pulling the woman out of the bunk. The woman fell to the floor and thrashed about on her back, trying to get back up. Narrowing her eyes, Tessa raised her right hand, cold wind and small flecks of snow poured out of it and extinguished most of the flames.
"Are you okay?" Tessa asked as she turned to Phelan. "Did she get you?"
"No," Phelan said with a look of relief on his face. Then it suddenly changed to fear as he yelled out, "Behind you!"
Tessa turned around and saw the woman was standing back up. Her face was charred and melted away, revealing bone and muscle. The room was filled with the smell of cooked meat, but the woman didn't seem to notice any of it. However, what Tessa feared most where the eyes, which had grown to a dark red. She grabbed at Tessa, who fell back and hit her head on the strip of wall between the bunks before collapsing on the floor.
Her vision blurred momentarily and Tessa threw her hands up in defence, but before anything happened, a loud CRACK filled the room.
As her vision cleared, Tessa saw that the woman had also collapsed, about a decimetre away. Someone was breathing heavily, but aside from that, the room was eerily silent.
"She was going to kill you," someone, Adette, gasped. "You set her on fire and she kept attacking." Tessa looked up and saw Adette leaning out of her bunk, a small gun clasped in her calm hands. Her long hair had fallen into her face and, with the exception of her hands; she was trembling like a leaf in a storm.
"Guys," Phelan said quietly, "what did we do?"
"She was going to kill you," Adette repeated in her shaking voice. "I had no choice. She was going to kill you."
"Ow," Tessa muttered as she stood up. She had her left hand still wrapped around her ribs, and was using her right to support herself with the bunk's mattress. "It's okay, all we did was defend ourselves."
"How can you be so relaxed?" Phelan cried hysterically. "We just killed someone! This wasn't supposed to happen!"
"Fuck this," Tessa said with a laboured breath. She pressed her left hand harder against her chest and her body glowed a pale green for about a second. As the light faded, so did Tessa's pain. She had just healed herself with a White Magic spell for the first time, but was to preoccupied to register it.
"She was going to kill you," Adette continued in a whisper. She dropped the gun and fell to the floor, letting off another shot that hit the radio, which showered the floor with electrical sparks. "She was going to kill you."
"Calm down!" Tessa yelled as she covered her head with arms in fear of another bullet. When it didn't come, she slapped Adette in the face. "Get a grip!"
At that moment, the door to the cabin burst open. Tessa turned her head and saw Xu in the doorway, her face scrunched up at the smell of burnt flesh. "We heard a gun, what happened?"
However, before anyone could respond, Xu saw the burned body lying on the floor. A pool of black blood surrounded its skull, and the forehead had small wound where the bullet had gone through it.
"What did you do?" Xu demanded of Phelan, who looked pathetically at Tessa.
"I shot her," Tessa said as she stepped forward. Phelan's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything Adette was still muttering to herself and didn't even seem aware of what was happening around her. "She was crazed, tried to kill Phelan."
"Is that true?" Xu asked. She looked at Phelan, trying to act like the corpse didn't revolt her. "Did this woman try to kill you?"
"Y-yes," Phelan stuttered nervously. "T-Tessa set her on f-f-fire, but w-when that d-didn't work she g-grabbed a g-gun and shot her."
"You set her on fire?" Xu screeched as she turned her attention back to Tessa. "Why would you do something so stupid? You could've set the whole train on fire!"
"Sorry," Tessa said defensively. "I wasn't trained as a fighter, I'm a medic. I panicked."
"Who is she?" Xu asked as she scanned the room, noticing the broken radio and the floor where the bone and brain matter had splattered. "Where did she come from?"
"Rinoa didn't tell you?" Tessa said in shock.
"That's 'Miss Rinoa' to you," Xu snapped angrily. "You're in enough trouble as it is, don't make things worse."
"Well, Miss Rinoa," Tessa said spitefully, "saved her from her husband earlier today. He was trying to kill her. We brought her back here to get treated. I thought for sure she would've told you."
"I'll be right back, don't move!" Xu said threateningly. She stormed out of the room in rush, not even bothering to slam the door on her way out.
"Hey," Tessa said as she turned to Adette. "Are you okay?"
Adette turned to look at Tessa, her eyes filled with tears. "She was going to kill you."
"I know," Tessa said with a smile. She cupped Adette's cheek with her hand and wiped away a tear with her thumb. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Adette whispered as the corners of her mouth turned upward in a small smile. "But she was going to kill you."
"I know," Tessa repeated. "It was your first kill, and it's hard. Don't worry, you'll get over it. I did."
"You killed someone?" Phelan asked from the bottom bunk. However, Tessa didn't get the chance to answer because Xu came back into the room, Rinoa and Zell following in her wake. Both of them were clearly tired.
"Did you have anything to do with this?" Xu demanded of Rinoa. "Answer me, damn it!"
"Tessa!" Rinoa said as she covered her mouth with her hand. "What did you do?"
"Sorry," Tessa said, refusing to look at the other woman. "She tried to kill Phelan, just like her husband did her."
"So you did!" Xu said as she jabbed Rinoa in the chest with finger. "If it weren't for the fact that you're not a SeeD, I'd have you expelled. When we reach Timber I'm calling the Headmaster and reporting both of you."
"Calm down, Xu," Zell said as he stepped between the two women. He was wearing flannel nightclothes, but it didn't do anything to diminish his dominating physique. "It sounds like they helped this woman, and then the redhead had to protect herself."
"Where did this woman get attacked?" Xu screamed at Tessa, who jumped out of fear.
"A couple of cars over, outside her cabin," Tessa said.
"Take me there," Xu said. She reached around Zell and grabbed Rinoa, jerking her to her side. "Both of you. Zell, stay here and find out what really happened."
"Got it," Zell said with a wink at Tessa, who found the gesture to be of little comfort. "I'll find out what went down here.