The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter forty-six:

Clarity whirled around to face the blockage. It was a flaming heap of smoldering debris, and just getting close to it, she could feel extreme heat radiating from it in waves, so there was no way she was climbing over it.

There was another scream, this time sounding significantly closer. Clarity had to risk teleporting, even though she didn't know what was on the other side of the blockage. She would be risking her life, but she had to at least try. It wasn't like she could just choose to save her own skin while someone was burning alive.

She squeezed her eyes shut and hoped for the best as she teleported. Even the zooming flecks of matter buzzing around her seemed super-charged with heat, though that could have just been her imagination.

To her immense relief, she made it to the opposite side of the debris without incident, and she immediately began the search for the source of the screams. She had to be running out of time by now...

A burst of fire from a nearby doorway sent her racing heart up into her throat and she jumped back, her hands raised to protect her face.

She lowered her singed arms carefully, narrowing her eyes against the blaze.

A young woman rounded the corner of the hallway so suddenly that her appearance was almost ghostlike—unreal. Her hands were pulled protectively over her head and face. She let out another scream when something from the floor above began to groan and creak ominously. In her fear, she didn't see that Clarity was in front of her, so rather than slow down, she barreled right into her.

Clarity was only able to keep her footing by taken two stumbling steps back.

The woman couldn't have been older than Clarity, her face flushed of all color and yet simultaneously bright red due to the heat of the fire and blackened by soot. Her burns were nasty and looked painful, and those were only the ones that Clarity could see. Her clothes were in tatters, with holes and rips and burn marks. One of her pants legs was burned completely off.

She seemed incredibly relieved to see Clarity, but she couldn't say anything through her sobbing.

Clarity didn't hesitate to teleport as soon as she had a steady grasp on the woman's wrist, and a second later, they were both in the street, coughing out smoke.

The woman fell to the pavement, shaking with either coughing or sobs as she crumpled into herself.

Clarity teleported away as soon as she knew that a paramedic had seen them. To avoid being caught in the act of such a dangerous and reckless act, she appeared directly in the bathroom. She would clean up before anyone had the chance to see her.

She examined herself in the mirror and discovered that she looked even worse than she'd thought. Huge flakes of ash were stuck in her hair, her clothes were blackened and torn, and her skin was bright red after the stifling heat of the burning building.

She locked the door before anyone could come in and see her, and then immediately set about cleaning herself up. She took off her clothes, making sure to thoroughly hide them beneath some of the trash in the trash can, and then she got in the shower. She used cold water, which felt like pure heaven on her burning skin.

When she was satisfied that she no longer looked like she'd just slept amidst a coalbed, she stepped out to dry herself off.

She searched the wardrobe for clothes identical to those she'd just been wearing and was relieved to actually find some.

She dressed in the new clothes, and she was just finishing pulling on her new sweats when someone knocked on the door.

She unlocked and opened the door to find Rachel standing there, a look on her face that told Clarity that her efforts to hide her little excursion had been completely in vain.