The New World: Old Habits

Chapter 19

The storm continued to get stronger with more wind and lightning but a lack of rain. Turg and Clone Jim were looking for any sign of them. As they saw smoke rising in the distance they knew that was their sign. Turg was hesitant to go towards it but continued following Clone Jim. He wasn't liking any of this, the thunder, the wind, how quickly it got dark and the fire in the distance. Despite everything, Turg still wanted to help, so he pressed onward. 
The wind wasn't as strong in the forest, meaning they could hear Kevin and Jim better if they were in there. Clone Jim called out "KEVIN? JIM?"
Shortly after calling out, Kevin in werewolf form still came running towards them repeating "Holy shit."
He then stopped to catch his breath before telling them "Fire. Rapidly spreading. Jim over there. Just barely made it out." 
Before either Turg or Clone Jim could say anything, Kevin grabbed Turg with his sharp claws and pleaded "You gotta help me, he's going to kill me."
"Maybe you deserve it." Clone Jim responded instead as he grabbed Kevin's arm and pulled it off of Turg. 
"What do you mean!? I didn't do anything to deserve this!" Kevin exclaimed. Turg and Clone Jim both looked at each other thinking the same thing, that being "Is this guy for real?"
"You're really taking his side? I created you! You're supposed to be on my side!" Kevin continued to exclaim to Clone Jim only for Jim to seemingly come out of nowhere and knocked Kevin to the ground. Kevin was grabbing onto Jim's arms to keep him from pinning him to the ground and used his legs to kick him away before making his escape. He vanished into the woods, it was too dark and grey to see him. 
"Jim? Are you responsive?" Clone Jim asked as Jim quickly turned his head to look at them. Upon seeing them, Jim had a look of fear on his face with his ears turned back and backing away slowly. 
"You're still alive? I thought I killed you." Jim said as Clone Jim asked again "What? I never died."
Turg knew what was going on. Jim wasn't seeing them, he was seeing someone else. The red aura around Jim started glowing more intensely as he stood up tall with his claws extended and shouting "HOW DARE YOU STILL LIVE!"
Turg blocked Jim from striking Clone Jim with his staff. Clone Jim turned back into his werewolf form to also defend himself. Jim managed to swat Turg's staff out of his hands but seemed to be hesitant to strike him, though Clone Jim wasn't taking any chances. He latched onto Jim, sinking his claws and teeth into him. While Jim was distracted trying to get Clone Jim off of him, Turg grabbed the staff again and backed away, readying it to fire at Jim. He remembered it working before last time Jim was like that, so he assumed it would work again. A small golden flame appeared at the tip as Turg tried to aim it at Jim but he was moving around too much. 
Jim would then throw Clone Jim to the ground and back away as flames started appearing in his hands. As Turg casted his spell Jim casted his, creating a blinding light that shielded Turg from the fire that was now all around him. The light had temporarily blinded Turg, he could hardly see and what he could see was bright and also blurry. He crouched down and covered his eyes with his hand, trying to heal them if he could. 
"TURG? WHERE ARE YOU?" Turg could hear Clone Jim calling for him but he couldn't see him. Jim could see Turg, he was Jim's next target. Turg looked up to see Jim over him before he tried to bite down at him. Turg blocked him again with his staff with Jim biting down on that instead. Turg was very much frightened by what was going on and Jim seemed to be too. There was no anger in his eyes, only fear. Turg knew that Jim was seeing something that nobody else could. 
Turg tried to push Jim off of him only for Jim to bite through the staff, snapping it into three pieces. Without thinking about it, Turg shoved Jim off of him and jumped back up. He didn't want to fight but he had to. Jim swiped at Turg with his claws, ripping his amulet off and losing it in the flames, though Turg didn't notice it was gone. He was too focused on trying to get Jim to snap out of whatever he was in. 
The heat from the fire was starting to get intense as it was closing in on him. Fire was Turg's worst fear, it was red and hot and he didn't like it. Turg backed himself into a thick tree as he tried to ready one of his calming spells, but he couldn't calm himself down enough to do it ironically enough. Jim was standing menacingly across the small clearing from him as lightning flashed behind him. He then started running towards him and punched the side of his face, causing him to fall into the flames. The fire didn't seem to be hurting Jim though. Turg stared at the hand he used to punch Jim with in disbelief that he did that, but there was no turning back. Was the only way to help Jim now. 
Jim was slowly getting back up with one hand over where Turg had truck him while looking around. He no longer had that red aura around him. He saw Turg and suddenly had a panicked look on his face. Jim went up to Turg and told him "You gotta get out of here."
Turg wanted to but he didn't know how. He felt for his amulet but it wasn't there and he was surrounded by fire. Jim noticed his amulet was missing too and started looking around. While Jim did that, Grim appeared wielding their scythe and started putting out the fire where they swung it. 
"Grim! I swear it's not what it looks like!" Jim exclaimed as Grim immediately responded with "You can explain again later. Just get out of the fire, it's not good for either of you."
"But Turg's amulet-" Jim tried to tell Grim but they cut him off with "I'll find it. Just get out of here." 
Turg did not hesitate, he ran back out where he came from. The fire was hot but it wasn't hurting him, perhaps he was moving too fast for it to hurt him. Once he was out of the woods he could feel it starting to rain and the wind starting to die down. Jim eventually joined him but he kept running only to suddenly stop and collapse in the field. Turg went over to assist him and saw he was back in human form. He seemed to be struggling to stay off the ground as he pleaded "Help me. Please." 
Turg did by lifting him off the ground and holding him. He then said "Oh wow, I forgot you can do that." 
"Just go somewhere safe and out of the rain. I don't care where." Jim instructed as Turg was already on it. He figured he would go back to the hideout, or at least in one of the small caves near the entrance. Turg was shaking a bit from everything that happened but he didn't have any injuries that he could feel. He couldn't think about anything else, he just wanted everyone to be okay.