Fire and Djinn

Just Like Fire

I let Lisa grab what she wanted to first, which consisted of a king size Hersey bar and Dr.pepper. I decided a water and a payday bar was the way to go. I mean it was so hot outside you could feel sweat in some questionable places. If I picked anything with chocolate, it would melt before we got to the bus. I didn’t question Lisa’s choice of snack because, well, sometimes you have problems that only chocolate can soothe.

When I turned around to head towards the cash register, I noticed a man that appeared to have a beanie on. He looked to be of average height, and at first, I barely even noticed him there. But when he pointed a gun at the cashier, my first thought was that it was probably not a beanie he was wearing. I looked at my friend Lisa, but she was looking at the back of a package of gummy worms, totally oblivious to the danger we were in. I could already feel my heart rate increase as fear started to cloud my mind. I had to focus and be calm. Panicking would only make things worse. I stepped in Lisa’s eye line and when she looked at me, I put my finger over my mouth to hush her, then pointed behind me. She looked behind me and her eyes widened at the scene before her.

Putting my hand on her shoulders I pushed her to the floor and guided her to the endcap so he wouldn’t see us. I then saw the bathroom was right behind us, so we crawled into the bathroom. I looked at Lisa and realized she was crying. Just then when I saw her panicked tear-stricken face, I had one thought. I’ve died before and come back to life. I have already lived longer than I should have. It should be me who goes out there.

I whispered to Lisa to stay there, but then she grabbed my arm so forcibly that she dug her nails into my flesh as she tried to keep me from leaving. I had to forcibly remove her hand from my arm to get her to let go. I quickly crawled out of there so she couldn’t drag me back. I then quietly as I could, I creeped up behind the robber. I could feel my palms clam up and my pulse began to race. I began to pray to whatever God there was that my stupid plan would work.

I quietly tiptoed closer to the gun welding i***t and just as I began to think I would be able to get close enough, the stupid cashier looked in my direction. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The shooter turned around and aimed the gun at my chest and began to yell.

“Hey! Don’t try and be a hero little girl! Get down on the floor! Now!”

If you have never been faced with a gun before, you don’t realize the amount of panic, fear and adrenaline that begins to overwhelm you. I held my hands in the air and took a step towards him.

“Don’t take another step girl! Down on the ground! Don’t make me shoot you!”

It took everything in me not to do as I was told. My legs trembled beneath me, almost begging for me to let them buckle. I looked behind me to make sure I couldn’t see Lisa and I sighed with relief when she was nowhere to be seen. What I did next surprised both me and the armed robber. I charged at him.

He shot me in the chest 3 times, one right after the other, and I fell to the ground. The cashier screamed and started to wail as she began to panic. As I lay on the ground, I could feel my body slowly pushing the bullets from my body. Did it hurt? You bet your ass it did, it hurt a lot worse than getting shot. Probably because the bullets entered quickly, but they had to be expelled slowly. Great I guess this means I can’t die, at least not like this. Bad news is it hurts like a b***h.

While I was left to my thoughts, slowly healing, the robber turned back around to the cashier and yelled at her to hurry up with the money. It took 15 seconds, but it felt like a freaking eternity for the bullets to exit my chest. As soon as I was able, I flipped over, and I crawled to grab the gunman’s leg. As soon as my hand made contact, the man’s leg caught on fire. Well, that is new, I thought to myself. The fire traveled up his leg and less than a second later, he began screaming and trying to put the fire out with his gloved hands. I stood up and my first instinct was to push the cashier back, so she didn’t accidentally catch on fire. The robber then ran outside, I assume at this point he was just panicking because of the pain of being burned alive. I realized I had made a horrible mistake when the man made a bee line for the gas pumps. I then realized I had made a horrible mistake. I mean, it’s not like I planned to set the dude on fire. Still, fire and gas do not make a good combination.

“Lisa! Out the back door! NOW!” I yelled to Lisa. The cashier was at least smart enough to follow the same instructions.

Lisa ran out of the bathroom and scrambled to do as told and I ran out the front. Yeah, yeah, another dumb move on my part, but hey, I’m running on instinct at this point. As soon as I was out of the store, the gas pumps blew up. I was thrown back by the sheer force of the explosion, I landed on my back. For a moment, I thought I tasted blood in my mouth.

Rising to my feet, I looked around to survey the damage around me. I then noticed that the taste of blood I had in my mouth was suddenly gone. Weird, but I will have to think about that at a more opportune time. As I looked around, I noticed that the blast from the explosion had been enough to flip the bus on to its back with the wheels in the air. Thank God the bus had moved to the edge of the parking lot and was no longer at the gas pumps. Otherwise, it would have been totaled, along with the passengers in it.

I ran faster than I had in my entire life and opened the back door to the school bus. The smell of smoke filled my nose, and I coughed as I put my arm over my face. Hearing the screaming of those panicking and the crying of the wounded, made my heart feel like it was being pulled from my chest. Quickly as I could, I began grabbing the kids and dragging them to the other side of the road, away from the fire. Those that were able to walk themselves also tried to help if they could. We had nearly gotten the entire bus evacuated when I noticed the fire in the bus was spreading too fast. Crap. This is not how I wanted my summer to go.

I grabbed the last unconscious kid's arm and began to lift him up to put my arms under his and pull backwards. The only problem was his leg was pinned under the seat. I couldn’t just leave him. I sat the boy down and maneuvered myself to get better access to the seat that was crushing the boy’s foot. I grabbed and tried to lift, but the seat only budged a small amount. Not enough to free the boy.

The smoke began to get thicken and I began to cough as I continued to struggle with the warped bench. My body began to fail as I felt weak from the lack of oxygen. By this point, my sight was obstructed by all the smoke that permeated the air. With my eyes closed shut, I lifted with all the strength I could muster, and I heard the metal creaking, followed by a loud snap as the bench ripped from the floor.

Tossing the bench to the left, I tried to reach for the still unconscious boy, but I quickly realized I had no more strength to give. Collapsing on the floor next to the boy, I grabbed my burning throat as I gasped for air, but I only inhaled more smoke. I was surprised I had even managed this long. Most would have passed out by now. Although from the heaviness my body is feeling now, I would say I am not far off from sharing the same fate as the boy.

I heard some scuffling as I felt the boy next to me being moved. I honestly didn’t have the brain capacity at that moment to question what was going on, all I was focused on doing was trying to keep from passing out. I don’t know when, but at some point, I couldn’t breathe anymore. My body was about to give up, I could feel my consciousness slipping. Suddenly, I felt a pair of arms underneath me and picking up my limp body. I was being carried, that much I could put together.

I couldn’t focus enough to comprehend exactly what was going on, but I know the second he walked off the bus, I was greeted with breathable air. Gasping for breath I began to cough as I was eager to breathe. My lungs screamed in protest as they burned like a red-hot branding iron had been shoved down my throat. As I attempted to open my eyes, they watered and burned as the hot liquid spilled down my face.

The strong arms that carried me, lowered to lay me down in the grass with the other bus victims. My eyes had started to clear, and as I sat up, I could feel my lungs already healing from the smoke inhalation. I felt a warm hand on my back and a bottle of water was placed in my hands. I practically ripped the lid from the bottle and began to greedily gulp down the cold water.

“Whoa now, not so fast. Just take some sips for now.” A man’s voice said. I nodded and did as instructed. After a few moments my throat felt a little better, my eyes quit watering and I was able to see clearly. I took in the man crouching before me, and I recognized him instantly.

“Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Red-eye Wide body.” The man burst out laughing at my words, causing me to smile. It was the hot guy with the tattoos and olive skin. I willed myself not to stare too much, if I did, I was worried that he would think I was checking him out.

“That’s what you noticed?” he continued to laugh. “And here I thought you were checking me out.” And there it is. Sure, I think the guy is as hot as sin, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“Hey, can you blame me? That car can go from zero to sixty in 3.4 seconds.” I said in a slightly raspy voice from the smoke inhalation. Oh God, I could die of embarrassment.

“I suppose not, but then again, usually girls don’t know cars.” He responded with a smile. Well, he isn’t wrong.

“Just muscle cars. What’s the make?” I asked him.

“2019.”

“Nice. I mean, I prefer older models but 2019 is also a nice car.”

“What’s your favorite?” he asked me as he pulled up the sleeves on his shirt farther up his arms. For a brief second, I had the urge to trace his tattoos with my fingers. I shivered at the thought and quickly as I could, I dismissed the thought.

“1969 Dodge Charger. I watched a lot of Dukes of Hazzard growing up.” I said to him as I tried to focus.

“Ah, not too many of them around anymore.”

“Yeah, most of them got totaled to make the movies.” I replied, trying to keep the conversation going. Nice and easy.

“So, what’s your name?” he asked with a smile as he brushed a wisp of hair out of my eyes.

“Elena. You?” I murmured lowly. I don’t know what it was about his proximity that made me nervous, but he also oozed this power that I could feel. It made me feel things that I didn’t want to delve into right now.

“Damush. But you can call me bow.” Ugh, his voice is so deep and smooth.

“Bo?” I made sure I heard him, right?

“Yes.”

“Odd, but okay.” I said as I stuck out my hand to him. Then I remembered how I set that guy on fire, and I started to pull my hand back. He reached out his hand and grasped mine and I gasped, afraid he was going to catch on fire, but he didn’t. Instead, he calmed me.

“You can’t hurt me, Elena. Don’t worry.” He then stood up and lifted me with him.

“What? I don’t know what you mean.” I tried to play it off.

“Sure, you don’t. Anyways can you tell me what happened?” Bo questioned. I quickly told Bo what happened but without the bullets, and me setting him on fire. I told him instead that I was hiding, and the guy must have had gas on him somewhere because he caught on fire easily after stepping on a lighter. I know, it was a long shot at best, but what else was I supposed to say? I doubt the man would smoke and rob someone at the same time. Bo gave me a look, that told me he didn’t believe me, but he brushed it off.

“So where did the cashier go? I need to make sure she doesn’t remember how the fire started.” He said as he looked around. Does he know what really happened? Does he know what I am?

“Oh, Lisa.” I said before I started running towards the back of the gas station. I made sure to stay clear of the fire, which made Bo chuckle for some reason.

“The fire can’t hurt you neither.” He hollered as he walked behind me. When I looked back at him, he was smiling like he was amused.

“Since you know so much about me, you mind telling me? Because apparently, I’m a clueless idiot.” I said with some attitude.

“You’re not a clueless i***t, Elena. You have simply been raised to live as a human.” He said nonchalantly. Raised to live as a human. Does this mean I am not human? Even I don’t know what I am. Things have just gotten more complicated.