It’s warm. Cosy even, but that doesn’t make sense. He’s just been thrown into a blazing fire. At any moment now, he could start suffocating from the smoke or have his flesh cooked. But he is still alive. He watches through the flames as the woman heaves from the prior battle, then takes out her phone and dials someone once enough energy comes back.
“Hey, it’s me, Eve.” She idly looks at her nails.
“...”
“Mhmm, I killed it, we don’t have to worry now.”
“...”
“I was going to shoot it, but then I ran out of bullets. Don’t worry though, I pushed it into a dumpster fire. He’s just gonna be a pile of ash!”
“...”
“What do you mean? Of course it’s dead…” Her tone shifts, becoming slightly annoyed.
“...” As she listens to the other person on the phone, the colour from her face drains a bit. Her pupils visibly shake and she turns around.
“A-are you kidding me!? Why-”
Kyle darts up and grabs Eve by her arm. She lets out a startling cry as he pulls her into the fire. She crashes to the ground and the blaze starts eating away at her. He immediately tries covering his ears, Eve’s screams are piercing. Her hair is singed, further feeding the fire as it spreads around her. Her skin tears apart and her flesh darkens. She looks at Kyle through it all, eyes dry and strained red. She writhes aggressively, making it hard to hold onto her. The scent is utterly putrid, he can taste it. Her body spasms and contorts as more of it is charred, and then the screams seem to stop. The inferno rages on with smoke billowing up and out the alley. He stands motionless in the fire, unaffected physically, but a new memory burned into his mind.
It takes a moment for Kyle to remember how to move again. Eventually, he rushes out of the passage and starts violently coughing out smog. A massive headache forms along with the urge to puke, and he almost collapses onto the street. Thankfully, he has enough strength to stumble over to a wall and sit down for a moment to process what just happened. Okay, so, he’s immune to fire. He just burned somebody alive. That somebody is the one that kidnapped him. And there are more people involved with this. He rubs the side of his temple with one hand and lets out a long, exhausted sigh. What has he gotten into? Shaking his head, he gets up. He looks up at the sky and notices the sun has nearly set. Oh. He’s supposed to be at the cafe for lunch.
“Uhmm… April? Are you sure you told Kyle to come back here?” Tim says, fidgeting with the buttons on his shirt.
“Yes! I did! I don’t know where he is right now!” She puts her hands on her face and groans. “He’s not responding on the walkie-talkie…”
“Maybe he bailed on us,” Julia dejectedly muses.
“What?! No way! He’s, uh, just late,” April reassures, but her hope is dwindling.
“Three hours late! What is he doing?” Tim exclaims before slouching in his seat. “Maybe Julia’s right-” The door flies open and Kyle runs in, breathing heavily. The three of them stare at him, surprised.
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“Woah! What- What happened to you?!?” April yells.
“Huh? Oh-” He looks down at himself, his clothes covered in ash. “Yeah… that’s a long story. I got some pictures!” He tosses the photos he took onto the table, and plops down into an empty chair at the circular table. Julia takes the photos with symbols and examines them.
“Hm… interesting…” She says, her brows furrowing.
“Can I see them?” April leans over Julia’s shoulder. “Ooh! A pentacle! That’s cool.”
Julia nods her head, “Yes, but I’m curious about this one. Monas Hieroglyphica.”
“Monas Hiero-what?” Tim tilts his head. Kyle can’t help but be curious too. Julia flips the photo over for them to see.
“This peculiar symbol was the work of John Dee. He was a lot of things, including an occultist and alchemist, and wrote a book called ‘Monas Hieroglyphica’ to explain this symbol and other such things. To sum it up, this symbol represents ‘the unity of all creation’.”
“Wow, how’d you know this?” April asks.
“Oh, just a bit of searching online. Honestly, I don’t know too much about it.”
“So, what about the triangle? Does it mean anything?” Kyle interrupts, curiosity unable to be contained.
“The triangle, that’s simple if we’re going by alchemy and occult logic, it should represent fire. Then fire can represent things like conversion and transformation,” Julia explains while resting her head on her hand. “… Where did you find these?”
“Oh, I just, y’know, found them in an alleyway.”
“What!? You’re saying you randomly came across these? How… On the FIRST day?!” April’s mouth hangs open, shocked. Kyle doesn’t respond,
“You better tell us how you got like that too, no matter how long the story is.” Tim points at Kyle’s clothes.
“Well, funny thing, while I was following those things,”— He looks up at the ceiling, quickly thinking of a cover story— “a dumpster caught on fire, and I kinda… had to go through it?”
The three of them all have varying degrees of bewilderment on their faces. A drop of sweat forms on Kyle’s head as he awkwardly smiles. April breathes in with her nose and puts her hands on the table.
“Are you kidding me?” She says with all seriousness.
“I mean, there is a burnt dumpster in that alleyway,” he quickly backtracks. “I-I didn’t cause it, if that’s what you think! I genuinely have no idea what’s going on, and-!”
Tim squints at Kyle suspiciously then shrugs. “I believe you, staging a dumpster fire sounds like way too much effort for a fake story.”
Julia checks her phone and jumps up from her seat. “Shoot, I’m late. Sorry, I got to go, you should probably also start leaving.”
“Alright! I’m taking all the pictures home. See you next time!” April waves as Julia hurriedly exits the cafe. She turns to Tim and Kyle. “See you guys, too! I’m pretty tired.”
“Yup, can’t wait to go home, who knew that abandoned fisheries were so fishy,” She hits him on the arm. “Ow, sorry!”
“That was the worst joke ever,” the two of them sit up and leave the cafe, leaving Kyle unattended.
Once they leave, Bailey walks out of the employee’s only door and spots Kyle still sitting there. They step over to the circle table and greet him. “Hey, Kyle! So, how was the ghost hunting?”
“Mm, it wasn’t bad. I hope the next time will involve less fire though, haha.”
“Yup. Oh, I wanted to let you know something! I know you’re a little… lacking in the financial department… but you’re in luck!”
“Am I?”
“Sure are, a position for a park ranger just opened up,” they say while putting their arm on the table.
“Huh, what happened to the old one?” He inquires.
“I dunno, some old grumpy guy named Hunter. Someone found him crushed by a tree earlier today. A freak accident, probably.” Kyle’s face goes a little pale.
“... Damn, well, thanks for letting me know.” He stands up from his chair, “I should go home now, bye.”
Bailey waves their hand, “Bye!”