For a moment, Anna was convinced that she must still be dreaming. The orange light from the blaze outside was causing the shadows in her room to jump and dance in a surreal way. In an attempt to wake herself from this nightmare, she pressed her hand against the spring in her bed, hoping the pain would shock her awake. Unfortunately, it didn't work so she pressed her hand against it again, harder this time. She gasped as the sharp jolt of pain in her hand made her realize she was most definitely not dreaming.

She noticed she could smell smoke, and though it didn’t seem like the fire had reached her room yet, it was noticeably warmer than it had been when she had fallen asleep. She sat up and looked around in a frantic manner, trying to see if either of the other girls she shared the room with had woken up. Though there were four iron-framed beds in the room, only two other girls besides Anna currently lived in the room. In one bed, she could see a slowly rising and falling mass of covers that told her that Dani was still asleep and in the other bed, a pair of feet that was missing one sock told her that Teresa was still in the room as well.

Anna jumped up from bed and immediately ran towards the door to the hall, tripping over her pile of clothes on the floor. For a brief moment, she scolded herself for not being more organized but that line of thought was quickly extinguished as she reached for the door handle. There was a small bit of relief though: apparently Ms. Whitney had added her jacket to the pile at some point during the day. Anna threw it on before continuing to the door.

“Crap!” she yelled loudly as her hand touched the handle.

It was burning hot and now that she looked, she could see orange light emanating from the crack under the door. Clearly the fire had spread to more of the orphanage than she had originally realized. She stood for a moment, frozen by her fear, but she didn’t allow it to keep her for long. She quickly began looking around the room and her eyes soon found the window. That was her only chance of escape. But it was also three stories up and she did not fancy escaping a fire just to fall to her death. Her eyes scanned the room again. She saw the two dressers, mostly devoid of any personality, the hanging mirror which was reflecting the light from outside in an odd, distorted kind of way, and the two other occupants of her room, still sleeping peacefully while the world around them burned. Finally, her eyes fell to her bed and the empty bed adjacent to hers.

The bedsheets.

Quickly, she began to formulate a plan of escape. It was not a perfect plan, but it was the only chance she had if she did not want to become more burnt than Ms. Whitney’s usual dinner attempts. For a brief moment, she considered waking the other girls up to help, but quickly figured they would only get in her way. She did not have time to waste. She rushed to her bed, ripping the sheets off of it before doing the same to the empty bed. She began tying the sheets together, adding her thin fleece blanket after she had finished with the sheets. In a matter of minutes, she had constructed a makeshift rope. She balled the sheet-rope up and tossed it onto the unoccupied bed. The rope wasn’t pretty but it would be enough to hold her weight. Hopefully.

Anna ran to the window and went to thrust it open, but she was rebuffed by the rusted old latch that held the window shut. Cursing under her breath, she reached up and flipped the latch over to unlock the window. She pulled up on it and this time, she was successful. She was immediately hit by a whirlwind of smoke and warmth. Under normal conditions, the warm air would be a relief to the typically freezing temperatures of the orphanage, but in that moment, it was a stark reminder of the danger that surrounded her. On the ground below, she could see a few people running away from the building and in the distance she was sure she could hear screams. Ignoring the bedlam below, she marched over to the empty bed closest to the window and began pulling on it.

On Anna’s first pull, it didn’t budge. These old beds were heavier than she had anticipated. Planting her feet into the ground, she yanked harder, and though it scratched the floor and screeched as it moved, the bed slid a few inches. She yanked again, and again. And again. It took a few minutes, but eventually she had gotten the bed within a foot or so of the open window. The fire outside was roaring, the screams were now clearly audible, and Anna had been making a fair amount of noise herself. She was amazed, then, to see that neither of her roommates had been awoken by all of the chaos and noise that was unfolding around them. But Anna didn’t give them much more thought. She sat to work tying the rope she had made to the frame of the bed. Upon completion, she stood back and gave it a hard tug. To her great relief, it seemed to hold well enough. Now it only needed to hold well enough to allow her to get to the ground.

She tossed the rope out of the window and watched as it bounced against the outer walls of the orphanage. It didn’t quite reach the ground, but it was close enough that she could climb down and drop the rest of the way with minimal damage. Without another thought, she flung one leg over the window so that she was saddling the sill. She began to slowly lower herself out of the window until only her head was still above the edge.

"Hey you guys might wanna wake up," she called to the two sleeping bodies.

Neither of them stirred. For a fraction of a second, she considered just going ahead and saving herself. She looked at the two other girls that shared the room with her. Neither of them had ever exactly been nice to Anna, and she definitely wouldn’t call them friends, or even friendly acquaintances really. But no one deserved the fate that awaited them if they stayed asleep in their beds. With another curse under her breath, she started to pull her body back up. Her heart seemed to skip a beat as she felt the bed slide a bit under her weight, making a loud BRRRT noise as it did so. Luckily, both the frame and the rope were holding and she wasted no more time getting back through the window.

After scrambling back through with all the grace of a frog trying to ice skate, Anna rushed to the bedside of Dani, who was closer to the window. Anna was only a few feet away, when something grabbed her ankle, causing her to trip and fall forwards towards the frame of Dani’s bed. CRACK! Anna felt a searing pain burst like a bubble, outwards from the center of her face. As she completed her fall to the ground, she also began to feel a wet, sticky sort of warmth coming from both nostrils. Anna groaned and reached up towards her nose instinctively. She pulled away a palm covered in blood and knew she had managed to bust her nose wide open on the bed frame. Through a hazy fog of vision, she could see what had tripped her: the makeshift rope, which had wrapped around her ankle in her haste to reach Dani.

“Ughhh, what the heck are you doing Anna?”

Dani had apparently been awoken by the sound of Anna’s face bouncing off of her bedside, and she had popped up over the end of the bed with a look of confusion. Anna looked up to see Dani’s round face, which was slightly red and wet with drool on one side. Her naturally curly blonde hair was sticking up at all kinds of crazy angles and there was a thick layer of sleep-boogers blemishing her normally pretty brown eyes. She rubbed palms against her eyes in an apparent attempt to rid herself of sleepiness. Dani moved her hands away from her face and looked at Anna a little more clearly. She immediately shrieked so loudly that Anna thought her ears might start bleeding as well.

“Jesus, what happened to your face?” Dani said with shock, the look of sleepiness now completely gone from her eyes.

“What are you two doing?” came an angry whisper from underneath the pile of covers that was Teresa, “I’m trying to sleep and Ms. Whitney is gonna be pissed if you wake her up.”

“Fi-fi…” Anna managed to stumble out but her brain seemed to be malfunctioning a bit.

The world was swimming before her in an uncomfortable way and she felt her body begin to waver back and forth a bit. She was snapped back to reality by another loud shriek from Dani.

“FIRE!!!” Dani yelled out like some sort inflammable banshee.

“Shut up you two!” Teresa said, her voice quite a bit stronger now, “You’re not funny Dani and we are going to get into a lot of trouble.

“Terry, get your lazy butt out of bed, the building’s on fire, the building’s on fire!” Dani said fervently.

She seemed to be getting more manic by the second.

Teresa shot up with a look of fury on her face, staring daggers towards Dani, but her look of anger quickly melted away, replaced by a look of terror. Then her eyes found Anna, who was using the edge of Dani’s blanket to try and stem the flow of blood from her nose. Dani noticed this too.

“Ew, freak, get off my blanket,” Dani shrieked before yanking the edge of the cover away from Anna.

“You moron, it’s about to be burnt to a crisp, and so were you before I so graciously saved you,” Anna remarked snidely.

She stood warily to her feet and gave a bow, as if thanking them for their applause. This turned out to be a bad idea, however, as she was hit by a wave of vertigo and came crashing down on top of Dani who began to scream again. Anna was really beginning to wish she had just climbed out of the window. Or at least tried to wake Teresa first.

Anna climbed off of Dani’s bed, who was looking with a mortified gaze at the spots of blood Anna had left on her blanket. Anna opened her mouth, just about to say something witty and smart, not to mention extremely cunning, whenever Teresa spoke again.

“You made a rope,” she stated, picking the sheets up off the floor and tugging at the knot in her hands, “a pretty good one too.”

At some point, while Anna was busy falling all over herself and Dani was occupied with trying to shatter glass with her vocal chords, Teresa had gotten up and made her way over to the jerry-rigged rope Anna had made. Teresa was always a bit more level headed than Dani, but Anna was still impressed by the calm demeanor she held in the face of the chaos that raged just outside of their window,

“Uhm, thanks,” Anna said, not used to being complimented by Teresa.

“Well, come on then,” Teresa replied, looking mildly annoyed at the mess of blood and tangled hair that was Dani and Anna.

She grabbed tightly onto the rope, swung her leg over in the same way Anna had done, and dropped out of the window without another word.

Anna felt her jaw drop just a bit. She was always annoyed by how Teresa loved to act like she was cooler than Anna, but in this moment, even Anna thought she was cooler. She slowly turned to look at Dani and noticed she was staring slack-jawed out the window as well. Seeing how stupid she looked immediately caused Anna to shut her own mouth. She walked over to the window, and tugged on the rope just as Teresa had, both in an effort to ensure it was still safe to use and to try to look as cool as Teresa just had.

“Wait, don’t leave me,” Dani said frantically before throwing her own covers off and jumping out of bed.

She scrambled across the worn wooden floors towards Anna before joining her at the window. Dani looked out towards the flames and then, to Anna’s surprise, she backed away from the window again quickly. Anna saw Dani swallow hard before looking Anna in the eyes. They had roomed together for years but this was the first time Anna had ever seen this particular look in Dani’s eyes. She was, unmistakably, terrified.

“I just saw a man in the flames,” Dani whispered before stepping back from the window a few more paces.

Even with the heat blowing in from the flames outside, Anna could feel the blood leaving her face.

“Wh-what do you mean?” She stammered, but she had a feeling that she knew all too well what Dani had meant, “You mean like someone running away from the fire right?”

Dani shook her head slowly before saying, “No… I… I mean, like, he was in the flames, like a part of them… I know what I saw.”

She looked at Anna with an expression that clearly showed she knew she sounded crazy, but Anna knew she wasn’t crazy at all. Anna did not doubt for a second that Dani had seen the man wreathed in flame, but at the moment she couldn’t let Dani know that. She needed to get both of them out of the building as quickly as possible, or soon it wouldn’t matter what horrors awaited them in the fire outside because they would be part of the fire inside.

“Come on, we have to go,” Anna said forcefully, trying to sound as confident as possible.

Dani didn’t budge. She seemed frozen in place by the fear that so apparently gripped her and while Anna could sympathize with her fear completely, they didn’t have time to dawdle. She grabbed Dani’s wrist and pulled her toward the window. To Anna’s relief, she put up hardly any resistance. If anything, she seemed to stumble forward a bit from the force of Anna's tug.

“Go on then, you first,” Anna said encouragingly.

She glanced briefly at the door behind them and immediately noticed the large amount of smoke that was now billowing in from beneath the door and through the keyhole. Anna felt a brief, slightly insane urge to laugh hysterically, but it did not last long.

“Anna, I can’t,” Dani said weakly.

“You have to, or we are both going to roast to death in a matter of minutes,” Anna said, a little less encouragingly and a little more urgently than before.

Dani looked out at the flames again, a mixture of uncertainty and terror etched onto her face before swallowing hard again. Her face was shining from the sweat that covered it and the soot blowing in from outside was making her skin look quite a bit dirtier than usual. She finally looked at Anna and nodded. The terror was still there, but she also understood the gravity of their situation; regardless of what awaited them outside, they would never get the chance to survive it if they didn't get out there first.

Dani grabbed the rope just as Teresa had and swung her leg over the window, albeit much less gracefully than Teresa had managed to look. She glanced at the ground one last time and apparently decided she would be better off if she closed her eyes. She shut them tight and swung her other leg over the sill of the window. Unfortunately, she slipped a bit as she was dropping her other leg out, causing her to smack against the old wooden panel siding of the orphanage with a thud. To Anna’s relief, Dani held on tight and managed to make her way down to the ground. Anna watched her drop the last few feet before falling hard on her butt. Dani let out a wail of pain before finally standing up and looking around like some kind of small trapped animal. She looked back up towards Anna.

“You can get down on your own right?” Dani yelled up at her.

Without waiting for an answer, she turned towards where Anna had seen people running over and took off in a sprint. Anna felt a pang of annoyance that she had decided to stay behind and save both Teresa and Dani and neither of them had extended the same courtesy to her, but she also wasn’t exactly surprised. She didn’t have time to dwell on her annoyance for long however as at that moment, she heard a crackling noise from behind her. The bottom of the door had erupted into flames and the fire was quickly spreading outwards from that point. Without any more hesitation, Anna flung herself out of the window and lowered herself down at last. She reached the bottom of her makeshift rope and dropped to the ground herself. To her relief, she managed to stick the landing much better than Dani had. She looked around to try and gauge her surroundings. Dani was already long gone, but in the distance, Anna could see a few figures making their way towards where the road was.

Their escape seemed almost pointless however. The flames seemed to have engulfed the entire surrounding forest, helped along by the fact that the ground was covered in dead, dehydrated autumn leaves. Most of the orphanage was also covered in a bright orange blaze, but there were also parts of it that looked to be yet untouched. Anna knew it wouldn’t be long before the entire thing was razed to the ground though. Even if Darjeary had a competently funded and competent fire department, which it definitely didn't, the fire had already spread too much to have any chance of fighting it.

The vibrant, warm air that surrounded Anna was filled with smoke and ash and burned her lungs with every breath. Being fairly inexperienced with blazing forests and orphanages, Anna made the mistake of inhaling a large amount of smoke, causing her to go into a fit of coughing. She felt tears begin to stream down her face, partly from the coughing, partly from the smoke in her eyes, and if she was being truthful with herself, just a bit from fear. She did not let her overwhelming circumstances freeze her, however, and without wasting much time she began to make her way towards the front of the orphanage. Hopefully the other people she had seen running towards the road had the right idea and she would find some sort of relief from the chaos in that direction.

She had only made it a few paces, however, when something caught her attention that did freeze her in fear. A figure was walking towards her menacingly, flames whipping and swirling around it. The figure seemed to have large, winged appendages and stood much taller than Anna did. The backdrop of fire made it all the more terrifying. She stood, mouth agape, as the figure marched towards her with a purpose. Anna thought of running, but there really weren’t many options for where she could go. As the figure grew ever closer, Anna began to make out its shape a little more clearly. Dark black boots met with the bottom of a tartan grey skirt in which a white button-up shirt, tainted with soot, was tucked into. A black cloak was wrapped haphazardly around the dirty shirt, whipped around by the wind. From the collar of the shirt sprouted a long, thin neck which led up to a gaunt, beaked face.

“Anna Nommins!” Came a shrill squawk, “What on Earth have you done?”

Ms. Whitney had emerged from the flames like some sort of nitpicking, disciplinarian fire demon and she was marching right towards Anna with a fiery fury in her eyes that the surrounding blaze could not hope to match. Anna felt a strange mixture of relief and spite at the sight of her.

“Me?” Anna asked incredulously.

“Yes, you, you little devil of a child. I know you have something to do with this mess, you always have something to do with the messes around here.”

What little relief Anna had felt at the sight of Ms. Whitney was quickly being washed away and replaced by a feeling of great indignation.

“I didn’t do anything,” she said, “all I did was wake up and make sure Dani and Teresa got out too. I notice you didn’t bother to come and wake us.”

“Like I could be bothered to do that,” Ms. Whitney said, as if the idea of making sure the children she took care of were safe was absolutely ludicrous.

Anna noticed now that she had a bag slung around her neck and Anna could see a few things poking out of it. A small statue that sat on Ms. Whitney's desk, a golden chain that was hanging out of the pocket, and various other trinkets and treasures that Ms. Whitney had clearly found more worthwhile to save than the people living under her roof.

“You’re horrible,” Anna said through narrowed eyes.

“I am practical,” Ms. Whitney retorted, “Now make yourself useful. Go around the ground floor windows that haven’t been burnt to a crisp yet and wake anybody you see still slumbering. We are meeting at the roundabout in the driveway and I need to get there and do a headcount.”

And with that, she turned on her heels and marched away. Anna was seething with rage. That evil old bird, the only thing she is counting are the valuables she managed to save, Anna thought angrily. She did not particularly want to do the task Ms. Whitney had set for her, but she also cringed at the thought of what might happen if she didn’t. There wasn’t much to check of the east wing of the orphanage as most of it was already covered in flames. Anna just had to hope that whoever was in there had gotten out safely. Luckily, there weren’t many occupants on the East side of the orphanage, apart from Anna's room and a few others. With any luck, the few residents that did live there had managed to get up and out safely. Not all of the Ladies were as black-hearted as Ms. Whitney and Anna was sure at least some of them would try to wake as many children as possible to save them from the fire. The West wing, however, was a bit more fully occupied.

She started at the nearest window, the one directly across the yard from her room, and immediately noticed several large masses sprawled out on the beds inside. She tried to open the window but to her dismay, it was locked. She began beating on it furiously until a boy in the bed closest to her, whom she knew was named David, finally woke up to see what all the racket was about. His black hair stuck up in the back of his head from how he had been laying and his pointed, thin face was still red from sleep. For a moment, his dark eyes gazed at Anna with a slightly stupid expression. Then, he noticed the scene behind her and his eyes opened wide with terror. He immediately jumped from his bed and began waking the other boys in his room. Feeling that they could figure the rest out, Anna began making her way down the row of windows and repeating her actions. Thankfully, only two more rooms still had occupants in them and she managed to wake everyone in those as well. It then occurred to her that there may still be people in the rooms on the second floor. For a moment, Anna felt panic begin to rise within her and she began to look around frantically, trying to think of what to do. Her eyes quickly found some baseball-sized stones lying near her.

Now, in her time as a “bad kid” Anna had broken a few windows out of (mostly) abandoned buildings in town. It was a great way to release her frustration, so she had quite a bit of practice at what she was about to do. Luckily, the West wing didn't have a third floor or she might not have had enough rocks for her plan. She scooped up a handful of large stones, took aim, and began to shatter the second story windows one by one. Four windows, five windows, six. The rooms all seemed to be empty and she slowly began to feel a sense of relief. Just as she took aim at the seventh, and second to last window, however, she heard a shriek from the fourth window she had broken. A small girl, probably half Anna’s age and a newer arrival at the orphanage, was standing in front of the window looking absolutely mortified. She was screaming for help and looked to be on the verge of crying. Anna went ahead and shattered the seventh window just in case and then ran back to the window with the small girl.

“Open the window and jump!” Anna yelled.

“I can’t,” the girl said in a squeaky voice, and at that moment she burst into tears and began wailing.

“You’ll be fine,” Anna called reassuringly, “I’ll catch you.”

The girl was still sobbing quite hard, but she nodded and unlatched the window, sliding it up with trembling hands. The girl climbed onto the window sill but was clearly hesitant to make the leap.

“I’ll catch you, I promise,” Anna said, “just close your eyes and jump.”

The girl gasped and sobbed some more, but she did as she was told. Truthfully, Anna was just as terrified as she was, but she couldn’t let the little girl see that. WIth her eyes shut tightly, the girl leaped. Anna had to step forward a bit to be in the right position, but she managed to catch the girl. The weight of her falling was more than Anna had anticipated, however, and Anna fell backwards hard. Her head bounced off of the ground and for the second time that night, her vision wavered a bit. She tried to sit up, but the girl was latched onto her with a furious tightness. Anna pried her hands off, and sat the girl upright before getting up herself. The girl was looking at her with a look of wonder and admiration that made Anna slightly uncomfortable for some reason.

“Now listen to me carefully, you know where the roundabout is?” Anna asked.

The girl shook her head. She stood there in a dirty, ragged old nightgown that had clearly belonged to several girls before her. Her large brown eyes were filled with fear and confusion and tears. The girl had red hair that fell past her shoulders and seemed to match in a strange sort of way with the flames around them. Red freckles covered her face and hands and legs and Anna couldn’t help but pity the small child.

“Look, what’s your name?” Anna asked.

“D-Daisy,” the girl whimpered. Her sobbing had quieted a bit but had not stopped altogether.

“Okay, Daisy. You know the big rock circle in the driveway out front right?” The girl named Daisy nodded a yes this time, “I want you to run there as quickly as possible. The Ladies and the other children should be there and you will be safe. But you need to hurry.”

“But… But what about you?” The girl whimpered.

Anna felt a warmth in her heart for the little girl. She was the first person in this whole ordeal to actually worry about Anna and that touched Anna’s heart in a way she wasn’t used to.

“I’ll be fine,” she said with a reassuring grin, “I need to check the last room and then I’ll be right behind you.”

Daisy was reluctant to leave Anna, but she assured Daisy again that she would be fine and she would be right behind her before giving her a little motivational shove towards where the other children had been running. Daisy took a few hesitant steps before finally scurrying off towards relative safety. With the knowledge that she was safe, Anna picked up another rock off the ground and ran to the last window, shattering it just as she had the others. When it seemed as if that room was empty as well, she finally decided it was safe to get to the meeting spot herself. She had taken only a few steps however when she had a thought that made her heart drop into her stomach. Her necklace was still in Ms. Whitney’s office.

It was a silly thing to worry about, Anna knew, especially given the chaos unfolding around her. But it was the only thing she had from her mother. She didn’t even have a memory of her mother, but she did have her necklace. She had to at least try to get it back. Anna took off running towards the window of Ms. Whitney’s office. The heat around her was unbearable and the flames from the surrounding forest seemed to be trying to reach the moon itself. Anna ran until the end of the brick wall and quickly turned right as she reached the corner. Her foot slid in some small gravel, but she managed to keep her balance and stay running. She turned right again so that she was now on the other side of the “U” shaped orphanage. The second to last window would be where Ms. Whintey’s office was. Anna felt some small relief that the fire did not seem to have spread far on this portion of the orphanage.

Finally, she arrived at Ms. Whitney's office window. It was quite easy to discern from the others as it was the only window that looked like it had been replaced in the last half century. Anna looked around for another rock. She quickly found one, and just as she had before, she launched the rock through the window, shattering a huge hole in it. She felt a certain sort of satisfaction; she'd always wanted to do that but had never imagined it would be under the current circumstances. There were still quite a few jagged pieces stuck to the window frame, so she removed her jacket and wrapped it around her hand for protection before knocking the rest of the pieces of glass out with her fist. She clambered through the window, tumbling over the edge and landing with a thud on the floor of Ms. Whitney’s office.

Anna scrambled to her feet and looked around warily. Even with the building burning down, she still felt like Ms. Whitney might bust through the door and start chastising her for trespassing at any moment. But Ms. Whitney didn’t come in. As a matter of fact, the room was relatively calm compared to the scene she had just exited from. It was mostly dark apart from the light coming through the window and silently still in a way that made Anna uncomfortable. Her eyes looked over the various chests and dressers, the dust covered filing cabinets. They looked scanned the desk, covered in multiple dried up coffee rings. Finally, they fell upon a small lockbox with a numbered dial on the face, tucked beneath the legs of a small table. She ran over to it, skidding to a stop on her knees as she fell towards the lockbox.

Anna pulled the box out from under the table and tilted the dial up towards her. It was about the size of a large lunchbox, grey in color, though it had spots where the paint had chipped and the bare metal was showing through beneath. Anna thought for a moment, but she already had a pretty good idea of what the combination might be. She entered the number eleven, then she turned the dial all the way around to the number ten, before spinning it all the way back again to 42. 11-10-42, Ms. Whitney’s birthday of course. Anna heard a click. With her heart racing, she reached towards the small lever that sat next to the dial on the box. She lifted up on it, and to her great relief, it slid up and the lid of the box sprang open. She looked inside of the box and was overcome with joy. Her necklace sat right there, curled up on some stacks of old paperwork next to a few wads of money, bundled up with rubber bands.

The golden chain of the pendant glittered from the flickering light of the fire outside. It was mesmerizing in a way and Anna found herself thinking she had never really appreciated how beautiful the necklace was. Even though she had never given it a proper cleaning, it still glimmered and sparkled with the same radiance it always had. The teardrop shaped opal pendant that hung on it looked particularly awesome in the light of the fire; rainbows and orange red flickers danced together along it's smooth, rounded surface. Anna reached a trembling hand out and picked it up by the chain, holding it aloft in front of her. The rainbows and oranges faded. So did the glittering gold chain, followed quickly by the light from the fire outside. Everything around Anna went black.

Anna stood and turned around quickly, but the room was gone. Or, at least, the light was gone and she could no longer see the room. Anna felt the hairs all along the back of her neck stand on end. It became cold with a swiftness usually associated with walking from a heated building out through the door into a windy, wintery night. Anna felt fear begin to creep into her in a way that she had never quite experienced before.

“You have something that belongs to me,” said the silhouette of a person now standing before Anna.

It was strange, though there was no light in this place at all, Anna could see its outline quite clearly. It was almost as if the figure was a deeper shade of black than the darkness that had swallowed them. The tricklings of fear Anna had been feeling were quickly turning into outright panic and claustrophobia was beginning to set in amongst the pitch black. She cleared her throat and tried to speak but no words came out. She was clutching her pendant close to her chest and she felt the unshakeable urge to curl up in a ball to hide herself. She opened her mouth again and had a little more success this time.

“I-I have no clue what you’re talking about,” she said in what barely came out as a whisper.

“DO NOT LIE TO ME!” the figure bellowed in a voice that boomed and rang throughout the room.

The way the voice echoed indicated that the black space Anna found herself in was somehow much larger than Ms. Whitney’s cramped office. In a flash, the dark shape was no longer just a silhouette. The figure had burst into a man made of flames right in front of Anna and before she could react he was rushing towards her, hands held outwards. Anna couldn’t help it; she dropped down to her knees, and still holding her pendant, she threw her hands over her head tightly.

“Please don’t hurt me!” she screamed, and she could feel warm tears begin to well in her closed eyes.

Anna felt a hand on her shoulder. She expected pain to come, perhaps a burning sensation from the flames that covered the thing, or for it to yank her up like some kind of ragdoll. What she actually felt was not at all what she had expected, however. A hand, seemingly not on fire as it didn’t burn when it touched her, grabbed her shoulder firmly and Anna felt herself being yanked back. It was the absolute strangest sensation she had ever felt. It was as if her feet had floated right off the ground and she was flying backwards, her body being sucked through a massive straw. She was still huddled up, eyes shut tightly, but her body felt weightless and there was a tingling feeling in her stomach. Suddenly, all of her weight seemed to return and she felt her bottom hit the ground hard.

Part of Anna had no interest in opening her eyes. She would just stay here, curled in a ball of fear forever. But a braver, and perhaps stronger, part of Anna knew that she needed to open her eyes and see what was happening. She opened them up and lifted her head tentatively. What she saw surprised her immensely. She was no longer in that place of pure darkness, and she wasn’t in Ms. Whitney’s office either. And she was no longer with the man of fire. As far as Anna could tell, she was in the forest surrounding the orphanage, but far enough away that she could see the burning orphanage and woods some distance away from her. But the company she now found herself in was even more surprising than the location she had somehow gotten to: kneeling on the ground in front of her, panting and sweating as though he had just run a marathon, was the old man from town, Broderick.

Broderick looked up at her, and though he looked to be in pain, he smiled and said, “Fancy seeing you here.”

For a moment, Anna was speechless as she stared at Broderick. She felt like that was happening a lot lately. The wind blew and the sound of rustling leaves spread through the air. In the direction of the orphanage, Anna could hear faint shouts and screams. The blaze in the distance was large enough that it was casting light to where Anna and Broderick were, causing the trees to have a faint shading of orangish-red to them. Directly overhead, the stars shone clearly and brightly, but the sky closer to the orphanage was blotted out by huge clouds of smoke rising through the air. The smell of fire and soot was strong even at this distance.

“Where did you come from?” Anna asked, finally finding her voice.

She had a million questions jumping around in her head, but this was the first one that found its way to her lips.

“Oh, you know, I happened to be in the neighborhood and thought you might be in need of some assistance,” Broderick said through strained breaths.

Broderick’s staff was laying on the ground in front of him. The light from the moon overhead glinted off the blue crystalline orb that adorned its top. Broderick picked it up and used the staff to help himself off the ground. Anna realized a moment too late that she probably could have helped him up, but she was still trying to process exactly where she was and who she was with.

“I don’t understand,” Anna said, “how did you know I was in danger? How did I get so far from the orphanage? And who was that fire-guy who attacked me? How did he make everything go black and what do I have that he wants?”

The questions swirling around in her head were spilling out one after another and her voice was growing more desperate with each one.

“My, you are a curious girl. Let me see… Misaada has been keeping an eye on you since earlier. I had a bad feeling that you might need saving before too long. You got here through teleportation magic, which mind you, was no easy feat. Teleporting small inorganic objects is taxing enough, humans are a completely different beast and far more complex than, say, a teacup. As for who attacked you, I am unsure, but I would hazard a guess that it is the same fellow who took Gwen’s life. And the darkness he pulled you into is what we call a skewed realm. It is a very advanced form of magic that pulls you into a small pocket removed from this reality. I am unsure how he was able to make a realm so easily without the use of a ritual circle and other mages however.” Broderick paused and placed his hand on his chin in a pensive sort of expression.

Anna felt a headache beginning to form. For the answers he had just given her she had a million more questions and wasn’t entirely sure how to even ask them. She opened her mouth to speak, but Broderick cut her off.

“There will be plenty of time for any and all of your questions later, but for now it is imperative that we go. You are in grave danger here and we must get you back to Monsadasia with haste.”

“Monsa-what?” Anna asked, bewildered.

“Monsadasia. The kingdom from which I hail, the Kingdom of Mountains,” Broderick explained.

Broderick let go of his staff and began rummaging around in the inside of his robes. Anna was surprised to see the staff stayed upright even though Broderick was no longer supporting it. She realized she was still holding tightly to her pendant and quickly clasped it around her neck for safe keeping. After a moment, Broderick let out a sound of triumph before brandishing a small white stone in front of him. It reminded Anna of a piece of chalk, albeit not as uniformly shaped as the ones the Ladies used when teaching.

Broderick seemed to recognize the look of confusion on Anna’s face before quickly explaining, “This is a gatestone. It will connect us to one of the Monsadasian travel gates without me having to expend more magic transporting us. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I have enough left in me to transport us more than a few feet.”

Broderick held the small stone out towards Anna as though wanting her to take it. She hesitated for a moment, causing him to shake it at her impatiently. Anna reached out and took the stone from him. Broderick immediately fell to the ground and began brushing dead leaves and twigs out of the way, clearing the ground in front of them. Anna had to back up to make room for the area he was trying to clear. She stood there awkwardly, unsure of whether or not she should help. Before she could decide one way or the other though, Broderick stopped, seemingly satisfied with the amount of space he had cleared out. There was now a patch of cleared earth in front of them, roughly five or six feet in diameter. He reached his open palm out towards Anna.

“Gatestone please,” he said.

Anna handed the small chunk of rock to Broderick, who began to draw on the ground with it. To Anna’s amazement, the spot in the dirt where the tip of the stone touched against began to glow a vibrant blue color, and the glowing line followed the path that Broderick was tracing. He drew a few squiggly lines and shapes on the ground first before beginning to draw a large circle around the symbols. Just before he completed the circle, however, a whistling noise caused both him and Anna to look up. A ball of fire came speeding through the trees and before Broderick or Anna could react, it smashed directly into Broderick’s chest, sending him flying through the air and directly into the trunk of a nearby tree. He let out a gasp of pain as he collided with the large tree. S

everal small branches fell from its limbs due to the force of the impact. Anna looked fearfully towards the direction the fireball had come from and immediately felt the color drain from her face. The man of fire was speeding towards them, setting everything around him ablaze as he moved. His feet did not even seem to be touching the ground, it was as if he was gliding on the flames that encased him like some sort of humanoid rocket.

Anna’s fight-or-flight response began to kick in immediately. Seeing as how she had no possible way to fight a person who could shoot fireballs from their hands and create miniature dimensions from thin air, her instincts were leaning far more towards fleeing than fighting. She turned away from the oncoming figure of flames, ready to run faster than she had ever run before. Hopefully adrenaline would be enough to carry her far, far away from her impending doom. But then she saw Broderick, slumped against the base of the tree and groaning in pain. Broderick, who had saved her from immediate danger twice now, clearly putting his own life in harm's way to save her from the monster barreling down on them. She could not leave him. Anna had always been the type to run away from problems if the opportunity presented itself. Some might call it cowardice, but she preferred self preservation. But this time she would not run. She would stay and defend Broderick as best she could, because somehow she knew he would defend her if their roles were reversed.

Anna quickly grabbed the largest branch on the ground that she could pick up and readied it like a batter at home plate. If this was where she went down, she would, quite literally, go down swinging. She stared determinedly at the imposing beast rocketing towards her. He was only a few yards away now. She gripped the branch even tighter, so hard that it hurt her hands. She clenched her teeth and twisted her feet a little to plant them in the ground better. The figure had his arms outreached and she could see the hatred and fury even through the flames that covered his face. Just as he was about to collide with her, though, she heard Broderick shout from behind her and a large, spectacularly glowing dome erupted from the ground between them and the man of fire smashed into it hard, the inertia from his movement causing him to flatten against it in an almost comical way. The shield rippled and sparked and the man was thrown backwards, smashing into a tree just as hard as Broderick had. Anna dropped her stick in surprise and turned around. Broderick had gotten to his feet and was pointing his staff in Anna’s direction. A thin glowing line was streaming from the crystal on the staff to the shield that had likely just saved Anna’s life.

Using his staff to support himself, Broderick hobbled over to Anna and said, “We must go, now!”

He began looking around on the ground and Anna quickly realized he was looking for the chalky piece he had dropped when the fireball struck him. Unfortunately, before he could locate it in the darkness of the forest, a roar of rage came from their attacker. He had gotten to his feet as well and began walking towards Broderick and Anna. With one hand, Broderick brandished his staff towards the man while simultaneously using his free hand to move Anna behind him. The man seemed completely unconcerned with Broderick’s staff as he continued his advance towards them. Through the flames on his face, Anna could see what appeared to be a smile.

“You think you have enough power to stop me, you old fool?” He asked Broderick in a goading voice.

In the light of the moon, Anna could see the sweat glistening on Broderick’s temples. His fear was apparent, but he stood his ground all the same.

“Probably not,” he answered truthfully, “but I’d be willing to bet I could do some damage before you finish me off.”

The man stopped and let out a mirthless laugh, throwing his head back as he did so. The flames that surrounded him seemed to shrink in their intensity a bit, but did not fully dissipate.

“If your dear great and powerful Gwendolyn couldn’t mark me, what makes you think a doddering old weakling like you could reach any other outcome?”

The hand that Broderick had used to move Anna behind him had begun to rummage in one of the back pockets of his cloak. The man of fire seemed too preoccupied with their conversation to notice.

“Well, you see,” Broderick replied confidently, “I have something that Gwen didn’t.”

Tha man looked slightly amused at this.

“You have nothing that Gwen did not possess. Her magic was leagues above yours and the rest of the Council’s and even she drew her last breath before my power. You will fall just as she-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Broderick seemed to find whatever it was he was searching for in his cloak. He said another foreign word and a bolt of lightning shot from his staff. The man threw his hand up, and without touching it, deflected the bolt so that it flew up and around him. It struck a tree and exploded loudly. As the man was distracted by this attack, however, Broderick's other hand flew forward in a flash, his movement far quicker than Anna would have expected the old man to be capable of. For a brief second, Anna saw something leave his hand, or rather, some things. Several small, round, pearlescent white objects flew from his hand, glinting in the air from the moonlight. The small objects struck the man. Immediately upon impact, they exploded with the force of a small bomb. For the second time, the man was blown backwards from the force of the impact. Unfortunately for Broderick, he was so close to the explosion that he, too, was blown backwards from the concussive force. His body crashed into Anna’s and they were both knocked backwards onto the ground.

An intense ringing filled Anna’s ears from the shock of the explosion. As she looked up at the sky from the position she now found herself in, the stars seemed to swim and the branches of the trees above seemed to be vibrating. Double vision clouded her eyesight and two moons seemed to float in the sky above. She tried to shake her head to clear the shellshock but her head suddenly seemed too heavy for her neck to support and instead of shaking it, she just kind of bobbed it slowly from one side to the other. She could feel the full weight of Broderick’s body on top of her. From what Anna could tell in her disoriented state, Broderick had been knocked unconscious. Her vision slowly began to come back together. At least, the two moons in the sky had become one moon again. The ringing in her ears was a little more persistent.

Anna tried to heave Broderick off of her, but his slumped body was too heavy for her to move. As it was, he was sprawled on top of her legs trapping her in place. For a brief moment, Anna had a horrible thought… What if the blast had… But then she saw Broderick’s chest rise and fall and she knew he was still alive. Anna let out a sigh of relief and began to look around, trying to contain her panic. She noticed they had managed to land directly in the middle of the chalk circle Broderick had been drawing. A few yards away, Anna heard a moaning noise. The man of fire had landed in some shrubbery not far from them and he seemed to be quickly regaining his composure. He was slowly getting back to his feet, shaking his head and managing to do so much more successfully than Anna had.

The flames that cloaked him seemed to have dimmed even more, but they were still present, burning eerily and unnaturally around him while not actually burning the man himself. After taking a moment to get his bearings, he looked directly at Anna and let out an inhuman scream of rage. The dampened flames around him burst outwards with a renewed vigor, rising high up in the sky. A few birds in the trees above cawed and squawked and took off into the air in fear. At that moment, Anna very much wished she too could sprout wings and fly away from this horrible place. She began grabbing and clawing at the ground around her, digging through leaves and small twigs, not really sure what she planned on doing. She needed to escape or find a big stick or a rock or…

Anna felt something small and hard beneath her skin. It was the piece of chalk that Broderick had been using to draw the circle that the two of them now lay in. The man was approaching them furiously, his feet burning the ground with each step he took. Anna looked at the chalk circle on the ground. The circle was almost complete, save for one small section just to the right of where she lay. Anna was not sure what made her do it. All she knew was that Broderick had seemed intent on drawing the circle and she didn’t exactly have a lot of options left to her. She desperately reached outward towards the broken line, her arm just barely reaching, and placed the chalk to the line. Just as the man was about to breach the circle, Anna drug the chalk on the ground and completed the outline.

What happened next happened so quickly that Anna was barely able to register it. The man let out another howl of rage, the chalk lines began to glow intensely, and almost instantly, Anna felt as if her entire body were being rolled up and she was being sucked through a straw again. Her and Broderick seemed to be ripped from the ground, or maybe it was the ground that had been ripped from them. The feeling was so alien and unlike anything Anna had ever felt before that she wasn’t even really sure how to describe it to herself. The breath seemed to be sucked from her lungs and her eyeballs felt like they were being pressed into her skull. One thing was for sure: it was a very unpleasant feeling. Lights and shapes and strange sounds zoomed past Anna so quickly that she couldn’t make any of them out, but she could still hear the scream of rage from the man in a haunting and distant sort of way.

After a moment, or perhaps hours, it was really very hard to tell, Anna felt her bottom crash against the ground and she let out a gasp of pain. She heard, and then saw, Broderick land facedown on the ground just next to her. His body was sprawled out in an awkward position and he still seemed to be very much unconscious. Ignoring the pain in her rear, Anna crawled along the ground frantically and over to his side. Using every ounce of strength she had, Anna placed her hands under Broderick and attempted to flip him over. It took her three pushes to get him on his back successfully. She could see trickles of blood coming both from his ears and nose. Sweat and dirt discolored his face and made him look even older than usual.

“Broderick,” Anna gasped, “Broderick!”

She shook him vigorously. A small voice in her head told her she should be a little more gentle in case any of his bones were broken, but her desperation to wake him drove all sense and rationale from her mind.

“Broderick, wake up!” she screamed.

His chest rose and fell as he took in labored breaths, but he did not wake. Anna could feel tears beginning to well in her eyes. For the first time, she looked around at the location they now found themselves in. It was a very strange place. The moon and stars in the sky, as well as the canopy of tree branches above had disappeared. There was a light in the sky though and it was unlike anything Anna had ever seen before. The entire sky had a bright orange tint to it that did not resemble any sunlight or moonlight Anna had ever experienced. It seemed to be emanating from a source just out of sight. Anna was sure she could feel a warmth from the light. Her and Broderick seemed to have landed in the center of some sort of grassy clearing. All around them were large stone archways jutting from the ground, covered in strange symbols and seemingly erected in random locations. The edge of the clearing seemed to be surrounded by trees, but they were very different from the breeds of trees that made up the forest around the orphanage.

“Over here, quickly!” A voice rang out from somewhere within the trees.

Suddenly, three, four, six, twelve or more people began to pour out from the small forest. They were clad in elegant looking armor that almost seemed to glow from the crystallight above and they moved with haste towards her and Broderick. Before Anna could feel fear or joy or relief or confusion, they had formed a tight circle around her. Each one of them had either a wand or a staff pointed at her and Broderick. A few, it seemed, even had swords brandished at them. One of the people, Anna thought it was a woman but it was honestly hard to tell beneath their helmets and armor, stepped forward from the barricade they had formed. When she spoke however, Anna’s suspicion was confirmed.

“Female Nontribus,” she said in a formal way, “ by order of the High Council, you are hereby placed under arrest for the murder and theft of magic of Gwendolyn Daltoria and the attempted murder of councilman Broderick Codswaller. If you resist, you will be struck down where you stand… Er, lie, I mean.”

Anna did not dare resist.