Children of Heronia: The Reunion

Guest

Prologue

The Not So Distant Future

The demonic creature, floating motionlessly in the air, looked down upon the ten intruders that had come to end its reign of horror. His evil red eyes observed each and every one of them in an attempt to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Faros did not appear to be pleased with how they had come here to the darkest pits of the earth to stop him for good, but he was somewhat pleased with this result.

“Who is your leader? Let him step forward!” he hissed.

“Let him step forward? Ugh, that’s so sexist!” moaned Vikki.

Diar and Sonny cast shifty eyes on her.

“I’m the leader,” grinned Mark, taking the step forward.

Ami slapped a hand on her forehead and shook her head. I thought we agreed that I was going to be the leader …

“So you command the Children of Heronia, quite the feat,” growled Faros, leering down at Mark like he was about to become his next helpless victim. “It was foretold that you would come here and exact vengeance upon what you lost fifteen years ago.”

“We’ve had enough of you Heronian gods screwing us around!” yelled Mandi, her fist quickly curling into a ball. “I have a husband and son down there! You won’t take us away from our home … YOU WON’T!”

“But your destiny is to defeat me and rebuild Heronia to its former glory by doing exactly that. Once Heronia is finally complete, there will be no need to return to Earth. You all know that the lives you led are complete lies, surely?”

“Yeah, well, it felt real to me!” shouted Ami.

“Do you really think shouting the odds at him are really going to do us any favours?” wondered Jess.

“It’s either slaying the god or serve him,” sighed Amanda. “We’ve got no choice, Jess. We can’t let them run our lives! We belong here! On Earth! This is our HOME.”

As Faros angrily raised his hand to send an energy attack towards them all, Tia dashed forwards and raised her own hands to form a huge force field that would protect them all. She looked furiously at the Heronian god trying to make them serve him and shook her head in defiance, allowing herself to feel drained when the energy attack eventually hit the force field.

“Your powers are useless!” he laughed evilly, overcoming barely moments later.

Tia fell to one knee, unable to keep going, and thought the end was well and truly spelt out for her. Faros leered over her next, obviously going to turn her into his first Heronian slave. It wouldn’t matter, anyway. She’d be able to finally rest and let her body do whatever it did against its will …

However, something counterattacked the energy blast that was meant to hit her. She looked up to see Ami with her right hand out, her fingers stretched, with sparks of lightning spurting out of each and every one of them. She did not expect such a thing to happen so soon, but had never put speed past Ami either.

“What the hell are you doing, Ami!?” yelled Sonny.

“Stepping in!” she answered, whilst now having to raise her left hand since Faros was upping his game by making his energy blast even stronger. “Can’t you see he’s too strong!? He’ll kill us all if he had the chance!”

“God damn it! Don’t even TRY to be a hero here!” yelled Mark, as he came to her side and looked up at the Heronian god once more. “So you really think you can take him?”

“With a little bit of help, I might actually get somewhere!” raged Ami.

“Defy me and you’re destined to rebuild Heronia, only to be forced to leave Earth! Join me and we can destroy this puny planet to still rebuild Heronia!”

“Dude, enough with the nonsensical villain speeches,” Tia rolled her eyes, now able to rise to her feet. “Thanks for that, Ami. I guess I underestimated him …”

“AMI, WATCH OUT!” yelled Diar on the top of his lungs.

The energy blasts had stopped and enabled Ami to take a breather from holding him off, but now it seemed his full power was only coming into effect just now. Diarmuid held his breath in, only to release it and create a super breath, which momentarily held off Faros. Everyone came together at last, uniting against him for the first time. It was now Ami’s turn to fall to her knees, her vision becoming blurry and slowly losing focus of what was going on around her.

“Damn it!” muttered Vikki.

“Can’t stop now, Vik! We can’t let him get us all down at once!” roared Mark, asserting his authority over the group.

“But he’s going to take Ami as his first slave! We’ll lose her!” yelled Diarmuid.

“Just keep going, everyone! We’re almost there, we’re –” began Jess.

Guest

Chapter One

And So It Begins

Mandi awoke with a frightening jolt and placed a hand on her forehead, where she felt the sweat dripping down her forehead. What was it that she was so afraid of again? Immediately, she groaned because she remembered how freaking hot it was! What did she need to do to catch a break in this town, anyway?

She wasn’t particularly that she’d fallen asleep at the computer yet again, but alas. It couldn’t really be helped. These strange dreams or flashes – or whatever you could’ve called them – were starting to take over her sleeping patterns. She would only be able to sleep two to three hours in the night now, which was beginning to annoy her.

I just wanna stick my head in the refrigerator right now, she thought.

No sooner did the phone start ringing. Well, well, well! It was Grand Central Station once again! Mandi didn’t dash to the phone. She had an inkling of a feeling just who it was, anyway. Regardless, she picked it up to prepare herself for the latest drama.

“Hello?” she said. “Oh, hey … yeah, I’m good, I … oh. Yeah? Um …”

It was just another day in the life of Mandi if you counted out the weird dreams and flashes.

~

“You’ve aced the exam, you’ve aced it,” Mark muttered to himself, as he strolled out of the exam hall. He was wearing a huge grin on his face, which seemed to intimidate or infuriate some people. You look like an idiot doing that, but ah well … half of them didn’t revise.

Ignoring the looks of hatred he was receiving, he slung his bag over his shoulder and headed out to the wonderful world of freedom. Anyone could’ve easily passed history, regarded that they knew the facts and how exactly to put up a good debate.

None of his friends had exams today, so he couldn’t rely on them to give him a lift home. It was a shame since he was in a pretty good mood to withstand Natalie playing Justin Bieber in the car … oh no, wait. Back up a bit. He hated that beaver-faced brat.

The bus it was then!

But wouldn’t this have necessarily brought down his mood? Mark wasn’t the biggest fan of public transport, which was why he couldn’t wait to pass that crash course over the summer and finally drive his beautiful car. Besides, it meant that he’d be able to drive to Skegness in August! Even so, his mother would bring him down if he didn’t have his license by then. Still, Mark wanted to pass his test more than pretty much anything.

Making his way to the bus stop, there was no predicting what would happen next.

~

Something is happening to me here, thought Ami.

A rush of panic struck through her body like an arrow to the heart. She sat down at the desk and eyed the empty Doritos packet closely with her eyes. She growled, squinting her eyes and focusing very hard on it. Without any warning, the door swung open to reveal the gasman.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya,” he chuckled lightly.

Ami would’ve scolded him for doing that, but what she thought and did were two separate things. “Don’t worry about it! There’re … no more problems with the gas now, right?” It wasn’t like she used it much, but she at least needed to know for the sake of the rest of her flatmates, who were currently out doing God knows what.

“Everything should be fine now,” the gasman nodded his head. He noticed the empty Doritos pack and shook his head. “The wardens will be coming round in a few weeks to reconsider your application for next year. You should get tidied up.”

Insignificant bastard, she thought. “Don’t worry, I will! See ya! Bye!” She watched him go and lowered her voice. “… Rude git.”

She averted her attention back to the packet, keeping all her attention on it.

“Come on, you stupid packet! Move telekinetically, damn it! I could’ve SWORN I saw you move before and it wasn’t the wind!”

~

Now he may have been known to be quite the drama queen at times, but Mark genuinely meant it this time. He stood in the middle of the road, wide-eyed, and staring at the burning bus in front of him. One hand was holding on to the bag over his shoulder, whilst the other was hopelessly clinging on to his Blackberry. He snapped back into reality, although the shock was still affecting him emotionally.

“Why aren’t you answering your phone? Just when I need you the most!” gulped Mark, sounding breathless.

The hand holding his bag shook violently and dropped it accidentally. Suddenly, it clicked. There was someone else he could ring. Ignoring that his bag was on the floor, he dialled the next number.

“Oh my God! Ami! Thank God! I need your help! It’s an emergency!”

Guest

Chapter Two

What’s Happening?

“You never ring me,” said Ami calmly. “Mark, please try to relax. I’ll explain what’s happening as soon as I get there. Of course … I know what’s going on. You don’t need to tell me.”

She glanced down at the ground, which was quite a drop. She was stood at the top of Shop Direct Group, the one opposite her flat. Choosing to don a black t-shirt, jeans, trainers and a blue jacket, Ami did not appear to be scared of the distance between the roof and the ground whatsoever – despite her fear of heights. There was a strange expression on her face that showed a newfound confidence.

“There’s nothing to worry about, I’ll get to Middlesbrough tonight,” she continued to say, sounding worried and impatient at the same time while maintaining a cool tone of voice. “It won’t be a problem, Mark. I promise that I’ll give you some answers as soon as I get there.”

She eyed the people below, feeing surprised they hadn’t noticed her visible appearance on the roof.

“How am I going to get there? Don’t worry about that. I’ve got my resources.”

~

Freddy stared out of the window from the tram that he was on. The sights of Manchester held nothing new to look at, but he was bored. And tired. Maybe annoyed, too. Stupid customers on the phone today. Honestly! Did they have nothing better to do other than make his life a living misery?

He was about to fall asleep at any minute. He’d almost done this yesterday. His job robbed him of any remaining energy that he had left in his system. As the tram came to yet another stop, Freddy began to wonder what kind of person was going to come sit next to him this time.

I just wanna go home and watch my precious Glee, he thought sadly.

As the doors opened, he watched the people get off and more get on. It was just a daily routine for him. However, there was one person who smelt so repulsive that Freddy was annoyed when he was heading in his direction. He masked the disgust on his face as to not directly offend him. However, what happened next wasn’t what he expected.

A bright, blinding light shone right at his face through the window. He cried out in anguish, but appeared to be the only affected since everyone was staring at him. Freddy let go of his feelings of annoyance and felt concerned. Thereafter, the light disappeared and everything was back to normal – especially since the tram was moving again.

Well, that was weird, Freddy thought to himself. He was ever so delirious to what was happening to him.

~

Amanda closed her laptop and groaned, most certainly not looking forward to babysitting THE brat later. It was the worst part of her day. It was bad enough that she was getting blamed for some stuff that was out of her control, but now she had to go and look after her? Ugh, her day was not turning out to be a fantastic one.

Sometimes she wished that no one could see her. She wished that everyone’s eyes were naked to her presence, so that she could be herself when walking down the street. Her life wasn’t very eventful right now, what with only babysitting going on.

But going back to the brat that she was getting ready to go and look after, Amanda didn’t like her because she was spoiled rotten. The girl played sports, but always complained when she had to go to practice. Basically, if she didn’t get her own way, she would throw a fit. She was EXTREMELY disrespectful to her parents and if she was scored against in a game, then she would scream. Then she would set the options to extremely hard or change the rules, really. Amanda knew the girl wanted to be a Nazi. She knew the brat was really serious – she even wanted to start a Nazi club!

I want something really weird to happen, thought Amanda sadly.

It was too freaking hot today and it annoyed her. She didn’t even grab a jacket because it wasn’t the right weather for it. Not even bothering to say goodbye to anyone since she was so pissed, Amanda slammed the door behind her and started down the sidewalk. The brat lived a little way down the street. Whilst it wasn’t so bad to get there, she hated that the brat herself could pull out a right tantrum.

But after a minute of walking, Amanda had to stop herself. She was dehydrating a little, swearing under her breath and annoyed she’d forgotten to drink some water before. She wiped the sweat off her forehead. What did it matter if she wouldn’t be there for another minute or two? She was early leaving to go, anyway, and the parents weren’t leaving for a little while yet, too.

However, Amanda remembered how annoyed she was the other day with the brat. One of her most recent bratty tantrums was the fact that they were playing Rock Band. Amanda had picked a song she didn’t like, so the brat threw her drumstick at her – and in the head, too. She was hoping that she’d behave herself today. She most certainly did not want to hear that old music was bad …

Barely moments later, she felt someone shove right past her and it knocked her on to the floor. As if she wasn’t angry enough, she rose to her feet and didn’t even notice the size of the guy when she confronted him.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!?” she yelled.

“Who said that!?” shouted the fat guy. He looked around, but did not seem to notice Amanda in front of him. He shook his head disappointedly and headed back in the direction he was going in.

Amanda shook her head in disbelief. He can’t see me?

When she looked down at her body, she noticed that it was gone. She almost shrieked in delight and shock. The gasp that she gave out was so tiny. She jumped up and down, noticing where she was adding pressure to the sidewalk.

“This is some cool shit!” she whispered under her breath excitedly.

~

Mark was still sat down on the same bench he had been since he’d gotten on the phone to Ami. He’d made an excuse to his mum that he was going to a friend’s house to revise for the exams. The shock had died down a little inside, but it had not quite faded away just yet. He glanced around the peaceful park that he was in, unable to understand what had happened before.

The bus had been right in front of him …

He was about to get on …

But then it caught on fire …

He glanced at his hands. His eyes weren’t lying. As soon as his right hand came into contact with that bus, it had turned red and then burned on fire. That fire burned the bus. The driver and passengers evacuated the bus. Mark was left to watch it burn, whilst the emergency services arrived. And as soon as the police wanted to question him, he’d run for it. He found seclusion in the park for the past few hours or so.

The sound of a car backfiring filled his ears. Mark jumped at the sound of it and saw a light blue Nissan Micra swerve around the corner, eventually coming to a halt before him. The roof opened up, revealing the driver as Ami. She grinned cheekily and the door swung open on its own. This freaked Mark out even more.

“Is this your car?” he dared to ask.

“Yeah, my dad picked it up for me today!” she said cheerfully.

“Really?”

“’Course not! I stole it, didn’t I? Wanted something flashy to arrive in.”

“You said that you could explain everything?” asked Mark, as he grabbed his bag and flung it on the backseat. He then went to sit down. Before he could close the door, it did so again automatically. He looked towards Ami. “Is this an automatic car?”

“No, that’s a little ability of mine,” smiled Ami, as she started driving away from the park. “Telekinesis … I’ve always dreamed about having it and making my life easier, but I never thought it would happen. You’ve got an ability of your own, Mark. Am I right?”

“How do you know?”

“Fire and heat manipulation, right? Geez, news gets round fast nowadays. I’m still trying to figure everything out, Mark. All I know so far is that we’re most certainly not like everyone else. I’ve been having dreams … and as freaky as this is going to sound, I’ve been told in them to assemble everyone together.”

“Everyone? So you knew what was going to happen?”

“In a way, but I’m not too sure why this is happening to us,” said Ami, a vacant expression now etched across her face. “I found out that I could move things with my mind not long ago. Then I had a dream. A voice was telling me that there were more people like me and that you specifically were the first one I had to grab before you attracted too much attention to yourself.”

“What are you talking about?” Mark laughed softly. “I am the centre of attention!”

~

Another boring day, another lousy customer on the phone.

Tia put the phone down and shook her head. She hated the boring questions and emails she’d receive each day. She wanted something exciting to happen because she was slowly getting fed up of this life. There was a whole world out there with more than six billion people. Practically most of them were stuck in offices, but there were some that decided to take the plunge and make something of their life.

However, the only thing Tia could think about right now was a vacation. She so desperately craved one, just to escape this harsh reality of work. After dealing with that lame customer on the phone, she turned to her computer screen and checked the emails. The same stupid emails everyday – couldn’t people get their answer just the once and never bug her again?

After reading an email that asked for the company’s phone number, Tia felt inclined to bang her head against the wall – which was exactly what she did. She did that, but then felt a horrible headache coming on. She growled under her breath, swearing continuously. If she had the courage or authority to do so, she’d tell the customers to stick their enquiries down the drain. Her anger was rising from the constant stress that she was under.

When she slammed her fist on to the desk, the most terrifying thing happened. The ground started shaking. Even her coffee mug fell to its side and the coffee spilled out on to the floor. Tia heard the sounds of screaming across her workplace. She rose to her feet, paralysed in fear to even make a move to protect herself.

The ground became more violent before, causing things to fall off their desks and parts of the ceiling to come crashing down. Tia dived under the desk, remembering what to do during an earthquake. Texas only had their last earthquake towards the end of April. Surely, this was too early for another one!

However, as she calmed herself down and focused on surviving, the earthquake began to cease. The ground settled and silence reigned supreme. Although Tia remained calm when she came out from underneath the desk, her hand was shaking uncontrollably. She wiped the dust out of her hair. She heard numerous voices in the distance.

“What the hell just happened?”

“You’re not gonna believe this, guys!”

“I’ll believe anything since we just survived THAT!”

“The earthquake only happened here!”

“No way! That’s impossible!”

As debates were struck up between her co-workers, Tia forced herself to come to a very heartbreaking revelation. She stared at her hands, which had since calmed down in the past few minutes.

I caused the earthquake, she thought horrifyingly. What am I?

Guest

Chapter Three

Psychos Anonymous

Jess sat at her laptop typing away on the forums. She had nothing better to do, even though she was keeping a close eye on her siblings. She was growing tired of the normal life and couldn’t wait to plan her escape to England. There, she’d be able to see all her friends over there as well as Tia, Diar and Svein.

Unusually tonight, her siblings were being pretty well-behaved. This pleased her to no end and it allowed her to get on with whatever she wanted to do. She checked the laptop for the time and groaned. Her grandparents were late coming back in again. Great, just great. Getting the siblings to bed was the worst part about babysitting. They would often refuse to listen to their older sister and give her as much earache as possible.

When it seemed like she was about to doze off, there was a loud knock on the door. Rolling her eyes, Jess forced herself to rise to her feet and walk to the front door and moaned under her breath about her grandparents forgetting their keys. However, when she opened the door, she didn’t expect a smartly dressed man wearing a black trench coat to be stood there.

“Excuse me, are you Jessica Timmens?” he asked.

“It depends who’s asking or else I’ll have to ask you to leave,” she replied, taking a firm stand against this stranger. “This is private property, so I may have to ask you to leave.”

However, the man rolled his eyes as if he were bored. “Nice try, kid. I’m Doctor Williamson from the Wisconsin Forensics Department. May I come in and ask you some questions? It’s regarding a recent affair.”

“Sorry, I can’t be of any help,” Jess shrugged. “My grandparents are out and I’m only seventeen years old. They should be here.”

She attempted to close the door in his face, but his hand stretched out to stop her from doing so. Jess used every ounce of her strength to push him back outside. For all she knew, he could be lying about who he was. He could have been a murderer, stalker or even a paedophile!

“I am under the law to detain you and –”

However, his speech was soon cut off by a blow to the head.

Jess felt the pressure against the door ease off and eventually it went altogether. She stepped away and looked outside to notice that not only was he unconscious on the ground, but there were several metal things floating in the air. Relieved that her house was almost practically in the middle of nowhere, Jess looked back inside to see that her siblings seemed undisturbed by what was going on.

Only one thing ran through her mind. Question was … how was she going to explain this one to Gran?

~

“If you’re kidnapping me, at least please tell me where we’re going,” said Mark after a long period of silence between him and Ami in the car. “So I can accuse you of stealing a vehicle, kidnapping me and forcing me into said vehicle …”

“Mark, you came of your own will, remember?” grinned Ami.

“I always come of my own free will, I do!” he smiled. They had been speeding down the motorway for the past two and a half hours. “So you still haven’t told me where we’re going.”

“Trust me, Mark. If I told you where I was headed, then you’d really start to get freaked out,” she admitted.

“So just tell me. I can handle it. Are we picking up another … freak?”

“You could say that, yes.”

He looked out to his left and laughed happily when they passed a sign. He turned to face Ami again, a wide grin spreading across his face. “Skegness? We’re going two months early? Oh, I love her!”

~

It was a horrible feeling to realise that you probably did bad in an exam. As for Diar, well, there was to say that it was the last thing on his mind right now because he wanted to get out of the exam hall. He glanced around the room when the papers were being handed in to the examiners. He longed for the feeling of freedom. Those stupid examiners couldn’t have been anymore slower than they were …

Just relax, he thought to himself. Don’t lose control. Don’t stress out.

The girl sat next to him tapped her pen impatiently against the desk.

The sound went through one ear and out the other, as annoying as it was. Diar tried to block it out so badly because he couldn’t stand the tension anymore. If he could, then he would’ve angrily told her to stop fidgeting and being so goddamn annoying. It was down to these stupid exams that he almost fainted the other day.

However, the girl would not stop doing it. Even after her exam paper had been taken in by an examiner, she refused to stop doing it. It was beginning to distract other people, despite the fact their papers had been handed in as well. His impatience and intolerance for such nuisances were beginning to affect Diar. All he could think about was getting her to shut the hell up!

As soon as he thought about it, a water pipe burst near the exiting doors. The water headed straight into the girl’s face, prompting her to drop her pen and be splashed right out of her seat. The students rose to their feet as soon as more water pipes started bursting. Diar smirked darkly, pleased with what had happened.

He looked down at his hand, noticing that small fountains of water had started to spurt out. He stared at it closely, smirking even more that it was he, who was the cause of the pipe outbursts. With everyone running in different directions amidst the chaos, Diar laughed to himself. This surely couldn’t be happening, right? However, he looked down at his hands again and the water was still there. He became a little lightheaded. The harsh reality of what happened sank in.

“I have to get outta here!” he muttered fearfully.

Pushing and shoving anyone in his way, Diar didn’t stop running. This was one of those crises he did not respond well to.

~

“In Middlesbrough today, a bus was the target of an arson attack. Police are appealing for witnesses …”

“Reports are indicating that an unexpected earthquake has hit a company in Texas. Only the building was affected by the impact …”

“In Donegal of the Republic of Ireland, a local college became victim to water pipe bursts. The authorities are asking for answers …”

“The weather in Manchester has grown stronger in the past few hours. Satellite images show that areas were subjected to …”

Vikki heard the news from next door’s house, but had figured it out.

It was no coincidence that she had friends in those specific areas. She tapped against the computer desk impatiently, almost as if she were waiting for something to happen at any moment. Her wish may have been granted when she heard tiny, faint footsteps in the distance. Because of the peace and quiet she normally got in her room, Vikki had sharp senses and picked up on these things quickly.

She could tell those footsteps did not belong to her mother. And she was out, anyway. As the hesitant footsteps and muffled voices drew nearer, Vikki prepared herself. She breathed out cold air, as she kept her eyes firmly fixed on the door. Her arms were outstretched by her side, ready to unleash her new deadly, secret weapon if needed be.

Everything, according to her, went swifter than she expected.

The door swung open after a short struggle. Vikki raised her hands, allowing the ice to hit whoever had opened the door. She did not even give time for the door to fully reveal who her would-be assailant could be. When it had done so, she immediately regretted what happened.

“Ami!?” she hissed half angrily and half worriedly.

“Please don’t be doing anything naughty now while I’m up here,” Ami rolled her eyes. The ice had pinned her arms and legs to the wall, which she had been slammed against. She was frozen to it, trying not to let the cold temperature seep into her body like poison. “It’s all right to come out now. No harm’s been done, unless I freeze to death.”

Mark stepped out from around the corner.

As soon as he saw the ice, fire appeared on his hands. Vikki took a step back, cast a shifty eye on Ami, and then looked towards Mark again.

“Well, this is a surprise …” muttered Vikki.

“Is your room frozen?” Mark dared to question.

“Hi, is anyone going to get me down from here?” asked Ami.

“I tried to get a hold of you,” said Mark.

“Sorry, my phone was frozen,” Vikki sighed, putting a hand to her forehead and face palming. “Whole room’s been frozen, actually. Only thing that wasn’t was the computer because I’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”

“We’ve been on the way here and Ami only decides to tell me about half an hour ago!” he exclaimed.

Ami waved her almost-frozen hand weakly. “Yeah, freezing to death here. Is – Is anyone g-going to, l-like, g-g-get me d-down?” She noticed Vikki advancing towards him. “Stay b-back, Vik. He’s – He’s going to burn you t-to a c-crisp if you –”

Fire had already spread around Mark. Ami shook her head, trying to ignore the fact that she was freezing to death. In mere seconds, they would all be burning to death. Yeah, this was what they truly imagined how their first meeting at Psychos Anonymous would turn out to be. Now it may have been unusual to have these dreams and be told to assemble these “special” people, but not like this …

She watched, as the fire started spreading towards them both. Vikki took a few steps back. Ami saw her using the ice to combat the fire in an attempt to stop Mark from losing control. She could sense his loss of control was what triggered his powers to do as they pleased. She focused hard on the fire, choosing to ignore how drained she was already, and held it back from her and Vikki.

“What the …?” gasped Vikki.

“It’s just me!” shouted Ami. “Keep using the ice! We need to cool him down! I’ll hold back the fire!”

“So you’re like both of us, too?”

“I was sent to –” But she noticed Vikki was too busy holding back the fire to even listen. “Ah, who cares? I’d rather risk boring you to death later rather than burning to a crisp right now.” The ice that she was stuck in melted after a few mere moments and she fell to the floor, still fighting to keep the fire back.

“I’ve got this! I can handle it!” shouted Vikki.

Ami did not argue with her. She fell to her side, breathing and feeling relieved that the house had not at least burned down. Mark breathed out cold air and could feel relieved as well. Vikki came to his side, helped him up and aided him to her room. This left Ami to shake her head sarcastically in disappointment.

“You going to … just … leave me … here?” she panted.

“Do I have to drag you everywhere?” grinned Vikki, as she came back out and supported Ami into the bedroom.