Fantasy

29 - Sarah

A puff of onion breath assaults my nostrils as my attacker snarls, pinning me to the ground and pressing a knife to my throat. He stares at me with a look of pure hatred. "Sarah Worldd, I know you. Stupid girl, blindly following your older sisters lead, never making any of your own decisions," he growls with a heavy Russian accent. I glare back at him, then spit in his face and wiggle my right arm free. Jerking my palm back I shoot a pillar of flame at him. He falls back off of me screaming from the burns. Still, I'm too late; blood trickles down my neck. Times like these make me glad I'm a generator. The cut heals in the next couple seconds and by that time Marie scuttles back towards me on her hands, having escaped her captor, well, sort of. I help her up just as the man faces us. He puts his hands up as if in surrender and starts walking slowly forward. Marie and I look at each other; what's he up to? As he gets closer I notice tiny blue dots covering his hands, no bigger than pinheads. They are growing out, getting longer. By the time I realize what they are, it's too late.

"Marie, run!" I say to her, backing into the forest.

"...but, Abby," she says just as a wave of razor sharp needles of ice shoots towards us. I stop, turn and throw my hands above my head and light them on fire. Dragging them to the ground I create a billowing curtain of wind and fire which I thrust forward. On contact with the fire, the ice instantly melts, but the agent isn't letting up. I expand the cloud to completely encompass Marie and I as thousands of ice needles fly our way. Even being a generator, I start to get tired in a few minutes and the man seems to have no intention of stopping. I'm forced to back further into the trees. Marie sees me struggling and puts her hands up to help. The man actually starts to look fatigued, not to mention frustrated. As a last resort, he triples the size of the needles and sends liquid water at our fire cloud. Marie and I are both pushed back a good ten yards, but together we manage not to let a single ice needle or drop of water past out fire shield. With his barrage of water and ice defeated, the agent collapses from exhaustion. I look at Marie and grin, but she just looks worried.

"Now, where's Abby?" she asks. I shrug, out of breath, and follow her forward, but all we find are the agents we just stopped and two others who aren't quite as badly injured. Before they see us I drag Marie away and deeper into the woods.

When we are a ways away Marie stops and buries her head in her hands.

"I'm a horrible sister," she sobs, "How could I let Abby out of my sight? She hasn't even had any training yet!"

"Hey," I say gently. "Don't cry; you're not a horrible sister. There was nothing you could've done. Besides, she's not stupid. She got the locket open without our help and Jessica is probably with her. Look, we know they're heading to Dad's shop, so I say we just meet them there." Honestly, Marie is not good under pressure.

"Do you really think Abby can...you know...make it there?" she asks, taking a shaky breath and wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"...she'll have to." What am I supposed to say?

"Abby!" Marie shouts through a fresh wave of tears, "Where are you?" When she regains her composure she turns to me, "Let's compromise. I know the forest is huge, but let's search for her. If we don't find her by morning we'll continue on to Dad's shop. Okay?"

"Fine, as long as we don't get lost."