World on Fire

“I don’t know,” he answered. “I just…when I was walking toward the demon, something told me it wouldn’t hurt me.” “A guess?” “A feeling,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t explain it.”

Haatim pulled off to the side of the road about half a mile outside the city. He kept the car idling, divided by the raging emotions inside his heart and mind.

“Words?” Haatim echoed after Frieda closed the connection. “Should I be concerned?” “Only if you enjoy living,” Abigail answered. “I only get that tone from her when she’s really pissed off. What did you do? How did you get them to give me more time?”

“We have to leave,” Abigail said. “They are about to burn the city to the ground.” Haatim stared at her, wondering if maybe he’d heard wrong. He had hit his head during the car crash, so maybe he had a concussion. He shook his head.

Abigail drove in silence back toward Raven’s Peak, trying to work through the turmoil of emotions inside her. It was sprinkling, and the only sound in the car were raindrops on the windshield and the occasional scraping of the wiper blades.

Despite what she’d said to Haatim, Abigail was barely able to sleep that night. She lay awake, thinking about her lapses in judgment over the last couple of days with Haatim, Delaphene, and the demon that was holding Arthur.

By the time they reached the campgrounds it was pitch black outside. Haatim was thoroughly exhausted from driving all day and ready to collapse. It was getting cold, too, and he wished he’d brought a jacket with him. Truth be told, he wished he’d brought dozens of things with him.

“What happened back there?” Haatim asked once Abigail was finally awake. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and rubbed the hair out of her face. “What happened in the park with that little girl? When you got back to the car you looked terrible.”

Bret wandered through the trees, bored and aimless. It was a cold and cloudy day; the sky looked like it was going to rain soon. He swatted at the branches and yawned, wishing his mom would just give up on this stupid vacation and take him back home.