CHAPTER 3

______________________________

“What exactly do you mean by pack?” Alkali questioned staring Percy in the eyes with her piercing seafoam green eyes. 

“Well,” Percy ruffled the hair on the back of his head nervously, “Now that everyone here knows you are Elementians you won’t be safe outside the Capital walls. So we planned on bringing you back to our home.” Percy smiled, looking at Camille for help.

“Exactly what Percy said.” Camille stepped in, “The last time Elementians lived outside of the Capital one of us died and I refuse to let that happen again.” She had put on a brave face while saying this but I could tell that she was hiding a lot of sadness behind her golden eyes. 

“Plus,” Percy smiled, putting a hand on Camille’s shoulder, “You won’t have to go to school anymore.” 

I grinned, “Uh, now we have to go.” I looked at Alkali and Lola. The look on their faces was unsure, “Guys, we can do this, I mean at least we get to stay together.” 

“I mean, it doesn’t seem like we have a choice, I’d rather not be hunted down my whole life.” Alkali smiled, she still looked uncomfortable but wasn’t saying anything about it. 

“Well, I guess now we show you where we live.” I said smiling. 

“Yeah, I’ll pick up your paperwork from the office while Percy takes you to pack.” Camille smiled, walking towards the doors leading to the office. At least ten security guards followed her quickly.

“Welp, ready to meet Mooshi?” I smiled at Percy who’s face had lit up at the name of my kitten. 

“OH MY GOD YES!” He shouted, making a couple people jump, “Sorry,” He looked embarrassed for about two seconds before going back to smiling and jumping up and down in front of me. “I need to meet my child!” 

“She’s my kid but sure.” I elbowed him as the guards started leading us to the side door to leave the cafeteria. I could see the sparkle that I loved in Percy’s eyes. His eyes practically glowed when he was happy or excited, they made the blue and gray really pretty. As one of the guards opened the doors my eyes squinted shut at the sudden bright light from the sun. I quickly got used to the difference in light and looked around. The guard vans were slowly packing up all the stage equipment as well as a few keeping perimeter watch. I saw a car driving towards us. It looked like a Ford Expedition, I only knew this as Alkali’s mother had one. 

One of the guards opened the door of the car and motioned for us to step inside. Me and Percy sat in the very back while Alkali and Lola took the middle row seats. 

“So, what’s with the soccer mom van?” I asked Percy, smiling at him. 

“It’s not a van, and we needed something big enough to haul your ego.” Percy smiled as I punched him in the arm, lightly of course. 

“Very funny.” The car started moving towards the entrance of the school and stopped at the exit.

“Which way?” The driver asked politely, waiting for one of us to give him directions. 

“Just keep going down this road, then turn left on Maple Avenue, it’s number 367.” Alkali smiled at the driver who was watching her in the rearview mirror. 

“Thank you ma’am.” The driver said as he began down the road. I looked out the window watching the houses I’d walk past so many times pass by. I wondered if this would be the last time I would go past them. That made me kinda sad so I stopped thinking about it as we turned onto Maple Avenue. 

“It’s the big white one with the blueish gray roo-!” Lola stopped mid-sentence as she was pointing at what was our home, it looked as if it had been burned to ashes almost nothing was left of it. Alkali gasped and started crying along with Lola.

“Stop the car.” I said calmly but internally I was freaking out, my cat was still in that house when we left. I tried to stay optimistic. Mooshi was a smart girl, she probably went outside when something happened, she has a cat flap after all. I pushed open the car door and ran towards the house screaming Mooshi’s name. I called and called with no answer, I began to sob as I fell to the ground. 

I felt someone put their hands on my shoulders and start trying to cheer me up but I couldn’t hear them. All I could hear was my thoughts racing telling me how stupid I had been. Things like it was my fault somehow. One of the bushes beside me rustled but I paid no attention to it until I felt a small body rub against my knee, I opened my eyes to see Mooshi, fur a little singed, but all right other than that. I grabbed that little kitten and held her close as I cried into her soft singed fur. She let out a little meow and I laughed softly, glad that she was okay. 

“Fang?” I realized it was Percy who was behind me trying to comfort me, “Are you guys ok? Is she ok?” He looked worried and I stood up and turned towards him, Mooshi’s little head poking up out of my arms.

“Yeah, she’s ok.” I smiled, “But what do we do about our house?” I turned towards the house as I watched Alkali use her water to put the remaining flames out which were an odd purple color. 

“I don’t know, but that was no ordinary fire, someone would have reported it.” Percy said seriously, “That means it was another species’ flames that burnt through your house quicker than regular fire could.” Percy looked puzzled trying to figure out what species might have done this. “Only flames higher than the blue tier of heat could have done this, meaning it was either elven or human technology or it was a daemon.” Percy kept rambling about the possible species that it could have been but I walked over to where Alkali and Lola were standing, they were watching the ash from our home blow around on the ground. Lola was sobbing into Alkali’s shirt, Alkali was holding onto Lola crying silently.

Alkali noticed me walk over and sighed with relief, “Mooshi’s okay, that’s good.” I picked up a broken frame on the ground that hadn’t burnt, the picture had been singed on the edges but I was glad it was still intact. It was a picture of the first time me, Alkali and Lola had gone out to hang out with each other. We went to this boardwalk amusement park type thing and we took pictures in the photo booth. We were all 12 or 13 in this picture and it was one of my favorites. Lola was smiling with one of her front teeth missing, because of her rabbit half she held onto her front baby teeth for a lot longer than most. Alkali was smiling and holding up a peace sign with her hands. I looked stupid, but in a good way, as I had my tongue stuck out and flipped off the camera. This picture held a lot of good memories from that day. 

I looked over to where my room used to be and realized all my stuff was sitting on the ground covered in ash. I had forgotten we fireproofed all my stuff because I’m not the best at controlling the flames when I get angry. The same went for the stuff in Lola and Alkali’s bedrooms, we fireproofed everything we saw as important just in case. I’m glad we did because at least our clothes are safe. 

“Let’s gather up whatever is still good and pack it into the minivan that Percy brought.” I smiled, trying to be optimistic. 

“You’re right,” Lola sniffled, “Let’s gather our stuff.”

While we were packing, Percy had apparently called the police and they started questioning neighbors on what they might have seen. Apparently, nobody had seen anything and they didn’t even realize there had been a fire. We ended up, after about 45 minutes, getting all of our stuff together, salvaging a couple of pictures that had been in the living room. 

Seeing the only place I had ever thought of as home burned to ash made me mad. I was so angry but had to hold it in. I knew it wasn’t anyone here’s fault so I’d have to wait to find the bitch who burned my home down. I didn’t want to regret taking my anger out on my friends not like last time. 

Anyways, we got all the stuff put into Percy’s minivan which had some kind of enchantment in the trunk to make it larger than normal. I put Mooshi in my seat and shut the car door behind me. I walked over to where Percy was standing talking to a police officer. 

“The small remaining flames we saw were purple,” Percy told the officer with his face kind of scrunched up in frustration. “This had to be an attack as this wasn’t normal fire. These three just found out they were Elementians an hour ago at the most. Someone from the school had to have done this, or someone who had a middle man in the school.” Percy was rambling off different ideas on who it could have been when I touched his shoulder and he jumped. “Sorry, I’m rambling again aren’t I?”

“Just a bit, but it’s ok Percy. Thanks for tryna figure this out for us.” I said, patting him on the shoulder. “We should get going though, we have everything packed into the back.” 

“Ok,” Percy turned to the officer he had been talking to, “You got it from here?” 

“Yes sir.” The officer smiled, turning and walking towards the others on the scene. 

“Ok let’s get you all to your new home then.” Percy smiled, even though I could still see the underlying frustration on his face. 

“Let’s go!” I smiled as we both walked towards the car ready for a new chapter in our lives.