Catching the Hero

Chapter Nineteen: Determined

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Chapter Nineteen: Determined

All at once, people shot up from their chairs and chaos erupted. Screams and yells filled the air around me as smoke began to trickle from the stairwell, and the effects of furniture crashing into the ground rumbled beneath my feet as people frantically pushed toward the exits. Following the others, I raced up the stairs and to the ground floor of the library.

Men and women raced around, panicked voices screaming as the flames rose above the bookcases. Coughing surrounded me as they inhaled the smoke and bashed their bodies into the exit door to try to escape. But the exits were barred and we were trapped.

I forced the flames to calm, trying to dissipate them by aisle. There were massive amounts of it, and when it was gone, more returned in its place to exhaust me. People screamed and cried as the fire burned at their heels, and a sharp crash resounded behind me as someone tried to break through the windows.

“No!” I screamed, but it was too late.

The glass shattered and oxygen flew into the building, feeding the monstrous flames. They blasted outwards, catching people in the back and slamming them into desks, walls, bookcases, or anything in sight. I crashed into a tall shelf, the impact jamming my shoulder into the broken wood panels, and cried out in pain. The aisle next to me fell and books showered over me, falling and hitting me like rocks before I leaped away from the falling case. Knowing I couldn’t control the flames, I dashed to the water fountain and jumped.  My feet hit the metal and it ripped from the wall, letting water flow out from the open pipes. It followed my direction and blanketed as much of the flames as I could reach, before something slammed into my side.

Splintered wood tore into thigh as I fell, and my scream joined the others in the burning library. Forcing my eyes open, I watched the shadow dart up and through the ceiling, before I clenched my teeth and pushed myself up. Blood stained the side of my jeans and coated my hands, but I pushed away the thoughts and sprinted as smoothly as I could to the stairwell to follow it. Each upward step sent a jolt of pain through my left leg as I ascended, before I came to a complete stop at the third floor.

I shoved the door and nearly fell through. The shadow was there, beside the open window, and suddenly, it wasn’t a shadow anymore. The smirking face of Astro met me, and he was quickly in front of me. He grasped my neck and yanked me until I was centered over the source of the fire.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” he growled. “But now you’ve seen too much. Sorry about this, Layla,” his voice was maniacal.

I gasped and reached to his face. His voice. There was no possibility. But I didn’t have time to think, because he was suddenly a shadow again and I was falling.

In a last attempt, I clawed my hand across the faceless form and heard a cry of agony and anger before the ground was gone. Something plastic was clenched in my hand as I fell through the two stories as if they didn’t exist, until I saw the flames of the first floor coming towards me.

Recalling the years of training my father forced me through, I rotated and took the impact on my side, forcing myself to roll down the slanted bookcase. I felt the uneven books littering the ground as I lay amidst the flames and gazed at the people around me. Only minutes had passed since the first scream; now, people were choking, dying, and I was running out of ideas. I pushed myself up, groaning as the first black spot obscured my vision. I was losing blood and air, and I knew I had a maximum of minutes left before I passed out.

Instead of focusing on the flames, I ran as quickly as I could to the doors and helped push. A man pulled himself from the ground and shoved with me, and soon, five more came. I pulled back and ran to the next, gaining people to help push the doors, but nothing was helping. Some people were already losing consciousness and there was no clean air left in the building. On one last, pleading whim, I stepped back and then slammed my body against the doors, and others followed suit.