Elegy of Flight: Chapter Eight (Burning with Desire)

Elegy of Flight

Chapter Eight: Burning with Desire

"Carina, how are you feeling?" the teacher smiled. She wasn't a conspicuous teacher, not mean, nor overly full with love. Not strange nor strict. She taught the class of science and chemistry, not badly. She taught, and that was all Carina had ever seen her as, a teacher.

Carina nodded. The whole past week had been a daze; seven days now since she had first heard of Naomi's tragic accident. Carina understood now. At first she had simply felt blank. She felt almost like she was unrelated, the Naomi was a stranger. The days could have been called average if not for the troublesome people who had come along with them. Now Carina felt empty. Naomi had been a big part of her life, effectively her best friend. He absence had started to creep up along with the thought that never again would she see Naomi. The thoughts flooded desperately, trying their hardest to cause destruction and break the floodgate behind her eyes. Naomi. Gone.

Naomi and her soft smile, her short brown hair that was always cut perfectly straight around her shoulders. The days they spent bird-watching, sky-watching, star-watching. Talking, sleeping eating, her house, her life, just everything was gone. Gone forever.

"Carina?" The teacher was still there, waiting by her table. It was strange, Carina had not asked a question nor requested help. It must have been the fact of the current events, and also that she looked completely out of it.

"Carina, could I request you just help me arrange some beakers after class?" She asked, tapping her watch to indicate the lesson was almost over. Carina suppressed a groan. What had she done this time to have to enjoy this punishment. Instead she simply agreed passively.

"Good." She clapped her hands contentedly just before the clean bell of the class chimed. She pointed to a table of rinsed glass as the rest of the class filed out. "Just dry those, I'll be right back soon." She then left after the rest of the class. Carina got to work, slowly and halfheartedly drying the beakers. Her hands moved slowly around, and when she went to put them away she simply shuffled over between the bench and the cupboard. The minutes stretched long and tall. Time seemed to move so slowly. Carina was eager to escape, yet at the same time she was too lazy to make the effort to move faster in order to do so. All it was in the room was her, the sound of air, and the strange smell.

Strange smell? She hadn't noticed a strange smell before. It must have just recently come, gradually perhaps, because it had never hit her nose in a sudden. Carina shook herself off not worrying about it and continued to dry the beakers.

Quick and hard footsteps echoed just outside the room before abruptly stopping. The door handle twisted and tried, but the door did not open. Was the teacher back?

The door started shaking furiously from the handle, whoever was out there couldn't get in. Carina went over to open the door from them, perhaps the teacher had locked the keys out. The handle was stiff. Carina tried again. Solid and locked, this time for real, and the person on the other side knew it too. The door shook once more then went still. Carina listened. There was a bang. Carina jumped back in fright. The door shuddered, whoever was behind it was trying to kick or hurl themselves against it.

"Stop!" Carina cried, "What are you doing? Just wait for someone to unlock it!" Silence and stillness once again made itself present. A thin slip of paper peered under the door, wavering slightly. The person behind the door retreated, their footsteps once again hurrying down and away. Carina picked it and held it in front of her stinging eyes. It was a ticket of sorts, a scrap found in the bottom of pockets. On it was scribbled a penned message in Alistair's long handwriting. 'Try the window.'

What? What was going on? Why had Alistair been trying to bust down he door? Try the window? Climb out of the window? This was de ja vu all over again but this time.... Carina walked over to the window. First floor, nothing special, there was no latch or opening. Carina's vision become more hazed. The whole air stung, smelt bad, and tasted strange. Alistair appeared on the other side of the glass. His hands pressed firmly against the pane, his face looking worried. Carina shook her head to indicate that there was no way to open it.

Alistair slammed his fist on the window with a frustrated thunk. He scouted around himself outside, then seeing nothing pointed to the metal chair inside the classroom while making eye contact with Carina.

Nope. No. No way. She was not smashing a window for a reason she didn't even know of. This was insane. What was going on?

The door thunked once again. Carina turned. The room was hazy. The door looked more like a warped amount of rectangles rather than the light wood it was.

The thudding grew louder, its dull hollow sound centered in the middle of the door caused the frame itself to quiver. The thunk turned into a crack, splitting its way up to the handle, like a scar in the wood. The handle turned and came loose. The door flew open in its dilapidated state from one final kick.

There stood Anne, in all her glory, triumphant over the door. She made eye contact with Alistair briefly through the window and they gave each other a knowing nod. Anne moved quickly, not only grabbing Carina tightly by the waist, but half lifting her so she could move more quickly. Carina was speechless. Caught in confusion, with no idea what was going on, she let herself be whisked away as Anne increased the escaping pace. Behind them there was a flare and a loud hiss. By bending her head just over her shoulder she could see a bright red haze, its heat extending far beyond their current position.

~~~~

Anne and Alistair made a point of avoiding the fire brigade. They made sure Carina was as far away as possible too. The place is question was Anne's room.

"They will question you, and be implying all sorts of nonsense." Anne explained, "they may even suspect you of grief induced arson."

The room that Carina had been in had caught fire in a great and sudden inferno. Since it was a gas lit accident the build of the damage was from the first burst, but lingering flames had caught alight to the rest of the building, charring a great deal of areas. The gas had been filling the room. If Anne had not broken the door, Carina would have been dead.

"Listen" Anne said, making eye contact firmly. "You are susceptible to danger. Something about you causes things to want to be out to get you."

"Insolence" coughed Alistair. Anne ignored him.

"In this case, it was the teacher, I know what she was planning, she intended for that fire to take out out. She locked the door."

"How do you ...?" Started Carina, but Anne hushed her.

"Don't worry about things like that. Just know that we will defend you. Just make our jobs easier by not getting in such predicaments."

"Stop!" Carina was angered now. "You keep mentioning something about protecting me! It's time to explain."

Anne stood up and gave Carina a coy smile before walking behind her chair and putting her hands on her shoulders.

"I guess you really should know.." she started, "The truth about Naomi." Alistair did not look pleased at these words. He shook his head slowly at Anne, his lips twitched, about to speak.

"No?" questioned Anne.

"Yes!" Yelled Carina, turning away from Alistair to face Antoinette. "Yes, tell me!"

Anne took both of Carina's hands from behind, pulling her to a standing position before leaning over her should so she could speak closely in her ear.

"Are you sure you wan't to know?" She asked. "Are you sure you want to know everything about Naomi you didn't. Are you sure you want to know about Her, Me, Alistair? Are you sure you want the truth?"

Yes. Yes.

"Yes."

~~~~

[sort of losing interest in this myself so its a bit rushed. Carina you better still be reading it!]