Hi everyone! Just taking this moment to remind you again to leave a review! Pretty please... You are making me beg^^
Also:
I'm looking for a beta reader for this story, especially someone who can help me with plot issues and avoiding boringness and such. If you're good at that and if you're interested, pm me! No need to ever have beta-ed before. I'd be really happy!
So, here's a long next chapter for you!
Things didn't look different, except that I'd been through the whole story again, telling Dimitri. He was angry. Whoever did this to us, they really did not want to cross Dimitri's path right now. Also, he was glad to finally know what had been bothering Christian. Not that it made things any better to know.
What we could all agree on was that there must be a hostile spirit user. What we were of different minds about was what concerned Tim. Christian was still convinced he was the culprit; Lissa was still convinced of the opposite; Dimitri and I were convinced of nothing at all.
We had reconvened in Lissa's room the next morning, and were trying to get Lissa to at least be careful.
"I won't suspect him," she said inexorably. "He's a spirit user. So am I. And so is Nina. Has anyone suspected Nina? We know her a lot less than Tim. I refuse to treat him any differently just because of vague suspicions. I won't."
So we resolved to continue things much like they had been going before. Dimitri and I would keep our eyes open, not only to watch Tim, but to watch for any other suspicious individuals. We didn't suspect Nina because we had barely seen anything of her. She was working as a kind of secretary somewhere, and didn't have much in the way of a social life.
When we met Tim after the incident, he did nothing to further Christian's accusations. If anything, he was shocked at what his new element could do. "They can make you feel pain that isn't there?" He literally shivered at the thought. "That's creepy. I hope that's not the talent I turn out to have."
Christian was on edge every time he set eyes on Tim or knew he was with Lissa, but there was nothing he could do. We were all pretty helpless right now. Add to that that Sydney was still AWOL, we didn't have much to keep our spirits up these days.
Then came my repeat crowd management exam, which totally put me over the edge.
"I failed," I said miserably, dropping into bed next to Dimitri. He was reading; a stylized cowboy hat was all there was on the book's cover.
"Then you should have studied some more," he told me sternly, not moving his eyes from the book.
"Hey, you're supposed to make me feel better! That's official boyfriend duty!"
"Yeah, yeah… later." What? Later? Oh, no, you don't, comrade. No matter how exciting that novel might be, you don't 'later' me.
The game plan was developed quickly. The required clothing wasn't found as fast, seeing as Dimitri and I didn't usually need help in getting in the mood. But in the end, I found something Lissa had given me to my sixteenth birthday as a fun gift. It was a tight fit, but the result was as required.
He didn't look up when I reentered the bedroom after a discreet stop at the bathroom to change. But when I sat at the side of the bed, he did. And the look on his face alone was worth the effort. Let alone what came next.
"Are you feeling better?" Dimitri asked when we were lying in bed, slightly breathless. "Did I fulfill my boyfriend duty?"
"The initial effort needs improving, but once started, you did quite well, I'd say. I'd even go so far as to say you exceeded all expectations."
"Sounds like a good grade."
"Don't mention grades," I groaned.
Dimitri chuckled and leaned over to kiss me again.
My phone started ringing. We ignored it and continued kissing. For quite a while, I think. Not really sure – time stops when Dimitri kisses me.
The sudden loud banging on our door was less easy to ignore than my phone. We tried for a while. Our kiss broke when we both looked towards the door in annoyance.
"Who would need us so urgently in the middle of the night?" I thought out loud.
"I have no idea," Dimitri said. "It can't be urgent."
"But it's really annoying."
Voices had joined the banging. Lissa's and Christian's, I think.
"We should tell them to stop," Dimitri mused. "It is really annoying."
"And isn't it quite impolite, too?" I added.
"Well, I guess we'll have to tell them that. Doesn't look like they're going to stop."
Dimitri sighed, got out of bed and looked for something to cover himself up with. I stayed and looked at his marvelous naked body. No amount of annoying door-knocking could disturb me in enjoying this miraculous sight. I didn't tell him that his pants were lying right under his nose either, but he found them way too quickly, anyways. Once he was disappointingly decent, he tossed me a long T-shirt.
"Come on, Rose. You never know what they'll do. They might come in."
I reluctantly pulled the shirt over and we went to answer the door together. The banging and calling had stopped. Now the voiced were much quieter. We opened the door to find ourselves face to face with Lissa and Christian. They looked surprised to see us. I wonder why people knock on other people's doors in the middle of the night and then are surprised when they actually open the door?
"Why are you undressed?" Lissa asked. Stupid question.
"Don't answer that too literally," Christian interjected quickly. "But why are you… were you in bed?"
"Of course we were in bed," I answered in a dignified voice. "It's what people do most nights."
Lissa looked like I had told her I was going to marry Jesse Zeklos. "Rose, it's the middle of the day. You were supposed to be on duty hours ago. I called you, Hans called you – we thought we'd go check on you before Hans does. In case you… well, um…"
"Have crazy monkey sex and forget the time over it," Christian helped out with a disgusted face.
"You need to get decent really fast, Rose, or you'll be in big trouble with Hans."
"I'm not on duty. I want to sleep," I rejected her. "Can you please leave us alone?"
The entirely unsolicited request to be left alone at night to sleep seemed to totally trip them up. My, they could do with some sleep of their own, the way simple things were just so beyond them right now.
"It's three a.m., Rose," Lissa said uncomprehendingly. "I have a confidential meeting and you were supposed to be the guardian with me, because only one of my guardian should be in on the secrets, and that's you, remember?"
"What the hell is wrong with you, guys?" Christian asked suspiciously. He was eying us as if we'd done something wrong.
Dimitri and I just sighed exasperatedly. I really wanted to go back to bed. I wish they'd leave. Instead, they gave each other a look of total incomprehension.
"Look at their auras," Christian suddenly said. "Look if there's spirit about them."
"Why would there be… oh," Lissa said.
"Please, Christian," I said tiredly. "It's too late for you conspiracy theories. We'll go to sleep now. Good night."
I was about to shut the door in their insolent faces, when Lissa gasped loudly.
"What's with the drama?" I asked. I was getting really annoyed here.
"They have dots of spirit," Lissa said, taking Christian's arm. "They're active. They're under compulsion!"
"To make them think it's night and go to bed?" Christian frowned at us.
Dimitri raised one eyebrow, the way only he could. "We're still here," he remarked.
"Yeah, you know, it's rude to talk about a person when they're present," I added. Honestly, their faces were something to see right now.
"Rose!" Lissa was looking ridiculously desperate. Dude, the girl really wanted to keep me awake. "You're under compulsion! You need to shake it!"
"We need to leave," Christian said, his voice suddenly hard and unfriendly.
"No, we can't leave them-"
"Lissa, we need to leave," Christian repeated. He had gripped her arm. If he had gripped my arm like this, he would have my heel in his guts to show him how much I wouldn't appreciate this. "We can't do anything about them, they'll just sleep. It's you we need to worry about. We need to get you out of here!"
They were getting stressful with their panicked, hushed voices and their stupid stares at us.
"Rose!" Lissa was building herself up in front of me, looking deeply into my eyes. "It's the middle of the day. Shake the compulsion." Her voice sounded very strong, but I really didn't know what she wanted me to do.
"Look, Liss," I said. "I'd really like to sleep now."
Her face fell. "I can't counter-compel her," she said, her voice normal and frightened again.
Christian was pulling her away. Now he was looking me into the eyes really deeply. Great.
"Rose," he said. "You can shake this. You have before. Close off your mind. Don't let anything influence you. We have to leave. Call us when you're back to normal."
Lissa protested some more, but thankfully, Christian finally managed to drag her away. They were both casting us a look that was probably supposed to be very meaningful.
"Now, let's get back to bed," Dimitri suggested when finally we were on our own again.
"Yes," I agreed. "Let's get back to bed."
I've slept on a human schedule before. Sleeping when it was dark out wasn't that odd a thing. Well, I usually didn't do it in Court.
The bed was so cozy. I snuggled up to Dimitri, and he put his arms around me.
"They were really worked up about something," he said.
"Yeah," I hummed. Close your mind, Rose. You've done it before.
It was dark outside.
"We should sleep," I said. We really should sleep. I knew that it was really important Dimitri and I sleep now.
Don't let anything influence you. I've been influenced before, even with Dimitri. A lust charm… not that we need that anymore.
Sleeping is perfectly normal, though. We always do that. Every night.
Every night.
It's dark out.
Wait…
"Good night, Rose," Dimitri said.
"No, wait," I said. It took me a moment to notice what was wrong. "We forgot the blinds. We always put down the blinds at night."
"But it's already dark," Dimitri mumbled, his head buried into his pillow.
"Yes, it's dark," I agreed. Something about that bothered me a lot. "Is it supposed to be?"
"We really have to sleep now, Rose."
Don't let anything influence you. Close off your mind.
Christian had said this, hadn't he? Why? Why would I need to close off my mind? Did it have something to do with it being dark? Because… we were at Court… were I was on a vampiric schedule… I wasn't supposed to sleep when it was dark… but I really needed to sleep now…
"Dimitri," I said, loudly. He didn't answer. "Dimitri!" I shook his shoulder. He groaned reluctantly.
Dark… don't let anything influence you… you're done it before… it's not real, the pain is not real… the darkness was real, though… close off your mind… I can do that now, I can close off my mind, I did it with the pain attack.
Close off your mind…
It was dark. It was the vampiric day. I was not supposed to sleep.
"Dimitri!" I almost screamed, panic rising up within me. I tried to control it as memories of me coming out of a charm's compulsion a long time ago surfaced, Dimitri and me letting go of each other, realizing that we had wasted valuable time while Lissa was in danger, being tortured for her magic. I would not be controlled again. The lust charm had been in a necklace. When I had taken it off, the lust had stopped. What did I need to take off this time? How could I do this?
Dark, it's dark, you're not supposed to sleep. Remember, you're not supposed to sleep. Close off your mind…
It was like the last plug had been put into place in my mind. I closed off my mind. Drew back into the confines of my own being. And panic started to overwhelm me for good now.
I was in bed. In the middle of the vampiric day, when Lissa and Christian had just taken off, god knows where to, because us being under compulsion had scared them. Of course! Their guardians under compulsion. Them easy targets. Well, as easy a target as a psyched-up spirit user and angry fire user could be.
"Don't fall asleep, Dimitri," I commanded. I scrambled over his half-conscious body to get out of bed. I needed to clear my head. Both our heads. Though mine felt clouded by the rising panic much more than by compulsion now.
"Don't you start, too, Rose," Dimitri mumbled sleepily.
"It's day for us, Dimitri," I told him harshly while dressing myself haphazardly.
"It's not. Rose."
I roughly took his shoulders and gave him a hard shake. Locking my eyes into his, I said: "It's like the lust charm necklace. Do you remember the necklace, Dimitri?"
"Of course I do," he said. Then he added, with a dopey smile: "How could I not?"
"I know," I said impatiently. "But it was a lust charm! This is compulsion, too! You have to fight it! We're not supposed to sleep!"
How would I get him out of this daze, if there was no necklace to take off? Where was the charm planted? Or had we been compelled? If so, he should be able to shake it. If it was a charm… was it like the grains of silver we had found in the water users' arms? Lissa had mentioned dots of spirit in us… Where were they? How could we get them out?
I wished Lissa had told us where in our bodies she had seen the spirit. How could it have gotten into us? It would have required an open wound. I would remember that, wouldn't I? Or could the memory of that be compelled out of me? The last time I had had an open wound was when… when I had cut myself. With a throwing knife. Tim had healed me…
Oh my god. Tim.
"Dimitri!" I shrieked. "Did you cut yourself recently? Did you have any open wound?"
"No, I'm fine, Rose. Let's get some sleep now, okay?"
"I need you to focus, Dimitri! Did you hurt yourself in the past week or two? Did Tim heal you? Dimitri, you have to remember!"
"Oh, now that you mention it, Tim was nice enough to heal me when I chipped some wood last week. I really don't know why I even did that. It's not like we need any chipped wood. He healed me really well, though."
"Where was that? Where did he heal you?" I almost jumped in his lap.
"Behind the Moroi training field," Dimitri said, bewildered. "Why?"
"No, where was the wound? Where were you injured?"
"The leg, but it's really all gone. No need to worry."
I felt the skin where he'd gestured, on his thigh, close to the knee. When I pressed my thumb down, I could feel a little hard knob under the skin.
No need to worry my ass.
I got up from the bed, hoping Dimitri wouldn't fall asleep while I was gone and never wake up again. Barefoot, but dressed, I went to the kitchen. This was Dimitri's domain, usually. I only helped out with the easy tasks. All the same, I knew where he kept the kitchen knives. I was aware of everything in our apartment that could be used as a weapon, from screwdrivers to toothpicks.
His eyes were closed when I came back.
"Dimitri?"
"Hmmm…"
It was probably for the better that he was half out of it for what was coming. I sat down on the edge of the bed on his side. He hadn't bothered to cover himself with the duvet. The leg with the silver enclosed was still exposed. I let my hand glide over it so he wouldn't start at my touch. Because he would certainly start at what came next.
I positioned the knife over the knob I had felt. I had chosen the smallest one, but one with a keen edge. I didn't want to butcher around on him using a blunt knife. This was going to be surgical.
When the pain registered with him, the knife was already out and flung far away. I pressed down on the edges of the small cut I had made. A tiny bloody orb surfaced. I had to suppress the urge to vomit.
"Rose, what the hell?" Dimitri raged. He was wide awake all of a sudden. "Did you just cut me?" he asked incredulously upon seeing the small red line on his leg. The cut was no longer than half an inch.
"Yes," I replied. I took the spirit orb between my thumb and my forefinger. What did you do with charmed objects? Weren't they some kind of toxic waste? I settled with putting it on the dresser.
"Why would you do that?" Dimitri was still baffled, but at least the sleepiness seemed to have left him.
"We were under a compulsion spell. Apparently one that made us believe it was time to sleep."
"But we…" Dimitri looked around himself, taking in his surroundings. The open blinds. The display of the alarm clock on the bedside table.
"Lissa and Christian were here earlier, do you remember? We need to get to them."
That broke through to him. He was on his feet in a heartbeat, battle-ready in an instant. Then he realized he was partly undressed.
"Call them," he told me curtly. While he scrambled for a shirt, I scrambled for my phone.
"Lissa, come on, pick up," I muttered against the dialing tone. "Damn it. She's not answering."
"Try Christian. Meanwhile, where would they have gone?"
"Out of Court, definitely. Christian would have suspected Tim immediately."
"Tim," Dimitri spat. "What does he want?"
"Judging from the fact of whose guardians he tried to get out of the equation?" Christian's phone took me to voice mail. "I can't reach Christian either!"
"Why would he want Lissa and Christian?"
"Lissa. He wants Lissa." I could beat myself right now. "He has a thing for her. He's liked her all along."
"That doesn't make sense! Why would he get rid of us if he just wants to get close to Lissa? If not to abduct her, and that would be taking it a little too far for a lovesick boy."
"Blast it, Dimitri, he's a spirit user! And apparently one who's been using much more spirit than he let on. He's probably mental! Logic doesn't come to bear!"
"We need to inform the guardians."
"No," I immediately stopped him. "They might be charmed. Who knows what they'd do? He might compel them into attacking us."
"Speaking of which," Dimitri said, studying me. "How did you break the compulsion?"
"I'm trained to return to my own mind. I've learned it from the bond."
"So, there's still silver inside you."
"There is." My surgical kitchen knife was lying on a pile of clothes in a corner. Not exactly antiseptic, but dhampirs didn't catch gangrene easily. "Which is why I need you to do a little operation on me, now."
He made the cut quick and efficient, extracting a tiny sphere of silver from my shoulder where I had cut myself with the throwing knife. We didn't waste time on band-aids. We were out of the apartment and running for a car in a minute.
I called Hans and had him check whether Tim could be found anywhere on Court while we were speeding towards the guardian parking garage. It quickly turned out he couldn't.
"We can't even be sure we can trust Hans," Dimitri said. "He could be under a spell, too."
"True," I said. "So we're on our own. How do we find them?"
"I can track Christian using his phones," Dimitri said.
"You can do that?"
"Sure. Programmed it. Have to have a means to find him when he runs of, don't I?"
"That would be a valuable training," I grunted. "How to find my missing charge."
I drove while Dimitri took out his own phone and punched on it. I raced up the driveway, stopping with screeching wheels in front of the entrance guards only to take off again, leaving black marks on the road.
"I have a signal," Dimitri said. "Keep going on the road."
"How far are they?"
"Not far. They must have stopped pretty soon after they left."
We raced through the darkness. I never wished for the bond as much as I did now. Lissa was in danger, and I had no idea where she was. I mentally slapped myself for letting myself be backtracked by the same trick that got me once before. How could I not have realized something was going on? I should have been faster in getting my act together when Lissa told me I was under the influence of spirit. This cannot happen again, I vowed silently. I should get Lissa to train me in fighting against compulsion and spells.
Traffic was thin; we didn't share the road with many other cars. The sun would soon be coming up over the horizon. It was that time of the night that humans only rarely got to experience.
There was a lone pedestrian on the side of the road. Long blonde hair caught the silver moonlight.
I swerved the car violently and skidded to a halt on the shoulder of the road.
"Lissa! That was Lissa!" I screamed. I jumped out of the car without waiting for Dimitri and started jogging back along the road; Dimitri caught up with me easily. We had passed Lissa and overtaken her before I stopped the car.
I could see her pale figure in the distance. She was running. Running away from us.
"Lissa!" I called. "It's us! We're back to normal!"
Lissa stopped when she heard me. She was standing on the roadside, all alone in the dark. I made my legs carry me faster.
"Liss! Are you okay? Where's Christian?"
She was breathing heavily from running. Her eyes were wide, and she instantly grabbed my arms when I reached her.
"He's stopping him… he had more silver… I took it to disable it… or put distance between us if I couldn't… I can't… Christian's stopping him. He told me…"
Between her panting and the sobs that started to break out of her, it was difficult to understand her. I couldn't make much sense of what she was saying either, but what got through to me was that Christian was by himself, taking on a raving spirit user.
"Is it Tim?" I asked her urgently. She could only nod.
"Where are they?" Dimitri asked in a hard voice. Lissa pointed into the darkness. There was a shimmer of light on the horizon that was not the sunrise. It was fire.
"He had us crash the car up there. I had to go and take the silver, or he would still have you guys under control…"
"No, Dimitri," I called. Dimitri had started to go into the direction Lissa had pointed. "I'll go. I can withstand compulsion better than you."
I could see emotions warring in his face; what would seem like an impenetrable guardian mask was an open display for me. Now that his soul was so familiar to me, I could discern the feelings that he repressed and tried not to let to the surface.
"This is it, Dimitri," I said. "It's us or our charges. Now's the time we need to make the right decision. I should go and deal with Tim, and you need to let me go even though it's dangerous. I need you to stay and take care of Lissa."
We were staring into each other's eyes. He nodded tensely.
I took off.
Lissa had managed to get a good distance between her and the fight between Tim and Christian. I ran past our car, leaving it for Dimitri. The risk of Strigoi coming would be too great to take Lissa on the open road, and I was running fast.
I found Christian's old little car on the roadside next to an exit. It had slipped from the road into the underbrush on the shoulder. The car seemed barely scratched, but it would need some help in getting out of there. From here, Lissa and Christian must have walked on foot. The exit road led into the outskirts of a nearby town; the road sign said Foulton.
Following the fire's glow, I went on. Soon, the trees that surrounded the street gave way to the first building; an old mansion that was almost grown over by the forest. I passed it and reached a row of low buildings; storage space or something. A path led behind them. I could see a block of flats further ahead, but the fire was behind these storage buildings. I could see smoke rising from behind them.
This didn't seem like a much populated area; nevertheless, the fire would be noticed. I needed to get Christian out of here quickly, before the local fire brigade and curious onlookers would appear.
Heat assaulted me when I left the storage flats behind me and neared the burning building. It was more of a shed than an actual house; there was no need to worry about anybody sleeping in there being surprised by the fire, at least as long as the fire didn't spread to the adjacent building. Going inside wasn't an option anymore, because one wall was completely up in flames already. The building was far from stable by this point. Whatever use Christian had made of his magic, his fire must have spread fast, or people would already have noticed.
I approached the area carefully, taking cover behind discarded site vehicles and building equipment. The house the shed belonged to must have been on an abandoned construction site. While I inched closer to the blazing heat of the fire, I planned my moves. Knocking Tim unconscious before he even noticed me would probably be the safest option. I didn't want to engage him in a fight. I had seen spirit users battle it out, and I did not want to come between that. I could only hope that Christian had managed to keep Tim at bay so far.
Suddenly, a ball of fire came loose from the flames and flew right at me. There was no time to think; I plunged to the side, landing face-down on a drenched suburban lawn. The fire hissed over me, probably leaving me with a few inches of singed hair.
"Christian!" I hissed into the direction from where the ball had come. "Stop it! It's me!"
"Rose?" came the answer from somewhere within the flames. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to help you, you idiot! Don't roast me!"
"I thought this was some kind of mind trick again," he said. I could see him now darting out of the flames as if they were nothing. He was drenched in sweat and looked positively ravaged in all kinds of senses, but that was probably as much from his proximity to the heat than the fighting and the strain of using magic. He came nearer, but stopped a few feet off, watching me pick myself up from the ground. "I never had auditory hallucinations, though. And…" He reached out his arm tentatively and touched a strand of my hair. "No tactile ones either. Let's just hope you're really you."
He drew me back towards the flames, ducking close to a wall as yet untouched by his magic fire.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"Somewhere around here. He tries to hit me with things as soon as he sees me, so I stay out of sight and try the same with fire. Lissa…" He stopped himself as if not trusting me – or his senses – enough to confide information about Lissa to me.
"We found her. Dimitri's with her." I said.
Christian breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. We should just get out of here, then. That guy is seriously de-"
The burning wood to the side of us exploded.
We both instinctively shielded our heads with our arms. Too late, I realized that that wouldn't help me when fire rained down on me. But although I was pelted with splinters of wood and debris, I couldn't feel any burns. Christian was magically shielding me, I realized: he was keeping the fire from touching me, stripping the flames from the flying particles in midair two feet away from us. Still, I felt like I was in an oven. My exposed skin already felt crispy.
"Deranged!" Christian finished grimly. Fire erupted in his open palm, making me shrink away from him. Then, he shot a fire ball somewhere into the darkness; for a brief moment, the heat was so intense I felt my clothes singe.
The fire ball stopped in midair. The glow illuminated the surroundings; I could see a figure standing behind where the invisible wall had stopped the flames.
"I'm going to sneak behind him," I hissed into Christian's ear. He nodded. I got up and I stole away from the heat of the burning shed.
A few feet away, refreshing coolness enveloped me. I brought enough distance between me and the fire to be protected by darkness. Then, I skirted the burning building into the direction I had seen Tim.
I found cover behind a few trees and another shed that thankfully hadn't caught fire yet. The nearer I came to where I expected Tim, the more carefully I treaded. The exposure to the bright light of the fire had made my eyes almost blind in the darkness. I had to rely almost entirely on my sense of hearing so as not to stumble right into the enemy.
Suddenly, I froze. Alternating blue and red light illuminated the walls of the shed. There was a police car nearby, flashlight on but siren muted. I hadn't heard the car approaching; the crackling of the fire must have covered it. Now, though, I heard a door slamming; footsteps nearing my hiding place.
"Not the best situation to be caught in, young man," I heard a voice say eerily close to me. A police officer. And then, scarily, even closer to me: "I guess so. I'm not planning in being caught, though."
Tim. That was Tim's voice. And he was about one step away from me.
My breath caught when I heard what he said next. His voice wasn't laced with the charm and warmth I had come to associate with Lissa compelling someone. His voice was cold and hard. But I could detect the same note of power and strength in it. "You have a gun. Shoot the person you see over there, by the fire."
I didn't even have the time to wince before I heard a shot ring out.
I couldn't do anything; I was trapped in my hiding place, feet away from Tim. There was no telling what he would do to me when he found me. I didn't give myself half a chance against an angry spirit user. Hand-to-hand battle? I thrived in that. But going against someone who could stone me with things from a distance, all the while stopping me from defending myself or tricking me into thinking I was already dead? I would have tried anyway, but I couldn't think only of myself now. Christian was here, and he was in much more danger than I was, considering Tim knew he was here and had a grudge against him. That shot. Oh my god, don't let them have shot Christian.
"Thank you," I heard Tim say. Politeness in compulsion. What a sick concept. "Please forget you did this. Now, I could do with a lift. You will take me with you."
Please, don't, don't let them have shot Christian. Why else would Tim just leave all of a sudden?
My heart was beating overtime while I was waiting for the car to leave. Two sets of footsteps moved towards the blue and red light. Two car doors opened and slammed shut. The engine came to life; the car drove off.
I leaped up as soon as the light was gone. By now, most of the wooden shed had caught fire; it was difficult to see into the brightness of the flames.
"Christian!" I screamed. I hoped Tim hadn't fooled me into thinking he had left just to jump out from behind the nearest tree, but I couldn't stop myself. "CHRISTIAN!"
I rounded the flames, coughing from the smoke. I could hardly see anything against the brightness of the flames. Sweat was pouring from my face; everything in me screamed to put distance between me and the flames, to run into the velvety coolness of the surrounding darkness. But I had to find Christian first.
"Christian!" I called again.
There: a figure lying on the ground, too close to the burning inferno. I braved the heat, barely able to breathe between the suffocating heat and the smoke. Christian was on his side. I dropped down next to him and immediately set to turn him around and pull him away from the fire. But I froze.
Flames seemed to reach out to him; his head was wreathed in flames, but they didn't burn him. Maybe they didn't hurt him, either, but there was no way to tell. Nothing hurt him now. He was lying motionless, his eyes half open, unblinking, unseeing.
Come on. If that ending doesn't deserve a review...!