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A table crashed onto its side, a candle rolling off, my gaze latching on to its destination.
“Szar!” I lunged forward to stop it as the flame rolled into the tinsel tree. Flames shot up the fake tree, heat blasting my face, pulling me back. The fire already sprang for the old wooden bar next to it covered in decades of alcohol, drinking it up in a gulp, barking out a deep woof sound as it consumed more.
“FIRE!”
Pandemonium erupted, amplifying the panic to sheer terror, my heart pounding wildly in my ear. My attention snapped around, searching for the folder, the last of my sanity connected to what was in it.Why didn’t I open it the moment he handed it to me?The information was so close. I had to get it, no matter what.
My eye caught the yellow envelope on the floor, feet from me. Pushing up, I rushed for it as a boot stomped over it, and another kicked it farther under the platform the band had been playing on, the fire creeping closer and closer.
No!
“Let me go!” A girl’s voice pulled my attention to see a man in a balaclava pick up the brunette, fighting to keep hold of her as she thrashed in his grip. He hissed words I couldn’t hear, shoving the barrel of his gun harder into her temple, dragging her toward the door. The other abductors bellowed to him in Russian over the noise of the fire, waving him to hurry as they ran out the exit. The fire traveled quickly, burning through the wood beams and webbing over the entrance. In seconds, it would trap us in, sealing us in our tomb.
A muffled cry came from the petite brunette, her eyes watering with fear, the kidnapper digging the gun into her head. His grip over her mouth pinned her tightly to his chest, inching her to the door. Her green eyes met mine, filled with a plea. With hope, begging me to help.
For a split second, I debated, the folder only a few feet away, but I knew I couldn’t. It was embedded in my DNA to protect, to help.
Darting up, I smashed my fist into the side of the abductor’s neck, his body stumbling to the side. Gasping for air, he loosened his grip on her. She used the opportunity to ram the back of her head into his nose with a crack. A hissed cry came from him and he released her, his hand going to his face. I reached out, yanking her away from him as my leg swept out, knocking him to the ground, my knuckles slamming into the spot once again below his chin, striking his vagus nerve. The man’s body went limp under me.
There was a beat before I peered over at her. She stared down at him with shock, then found my gaze.
Pop!
Flames crackled around us, drawing my attention to the room thick with smoke. Fire licked at the bottles full of alcohol, and the fracturing glass began to hiss, pressure building in them like kindling.
“Oh fuck!” I yelled.
POP! POP! POP! POP!
Leaping to her, I took her to the floor, covering her body with mine, her tiny frame completely engulfed by me.
Like bombs, the decanters shattered on the shelf, burning liquid and glass raining down on us, slicing at my skin, drenching us in fuel to be consumed by the hungry fire. The blaze surged in howls, clouds of smoke filling my lungs, stealing the oxygen. We had to get out before we passed out and died here.
The folder!
My head popped up, blood and booze dripping down my face, my gaze snapping around, searching. Horror gripped my chest seeing the yellow packet peeking out of the wooden stage being ingested by flames, turning it to cinders.
This was the only copy, and if it was destroyed, so would the knowledge with it.
“NO!” A guttural noise came from my soul. My body clambered across the tile, the scorching heat sizzling my skin like charring beef.
“What are you doing?” the girl yelled at me. “Come on!” More wails from the bottles along the bar squealed in warning, the fire growing bigger.
“No!” I repeated the only word I could utter, my fingers poking and clawing at the blaze, trying to reach the papers. My entire world was within that packet. Everything that held any meaning. It took me almost a year to get the information, and before I could even open it, it was being taken from me.
Just like they were. It felt as though I was failing them again.
“Stop!” The girl tugged on my arm, trying to pull me away, the flames torching the edges of my clothes and hair, my teeth crashing together in agony.
“No!” I continued to blister my fingers trying to retrieve it, black holes burning through the folder, curling the pages, lifting them up in the air when nothing was left but fibers. The information was gone. Lost forever.
POP! BOOM!
A large carafe detonated, spitting spikes of glass down on us, the flames roaring higher. Soon it would overtake this building, me with it.
A part of me wished for it. No more pain. No more grief and shame. I’d be with them.
“You think Lucas and me want your firm, beautiful ass with us?”Kek’s bored voice came into my head. A slight playful hint to it, a challenge. “Please.”She sputtered a dry laugh, dying quickly.“We want you to get the fuck up, fairy. Fight. Live. Avenge us.”
