A bit earlier, the girlfriend saw Roscoe and Timothy and retreated into the hotline. The smoke masked her. “Is she always this crazy?” Timothy asked. Roscoe cut his eyes at him. “Okay, that was a stupid question,” the youth redacted his question. Paint started to bubble and pop on the two. “She is melting this place…”

As if the ventilation system was coming on, rattling is heard through the vents. Heat exhausted from above them temporarily then the vent fell in between them. They parted the area and it rained down fire. “Whoa!” they both exclaimed.

“How’d she get in the vents?” Timothy asked.

She poked her head out and went back in. The rattling continued. “Follow that sound!” Roscoe yelled out. They tracked the thumps to a wall. Roscoe struck the knob to burn his hand, “Aw damn! She has this place overheating!” The structure crunched and the wall collapsed. “That’s a blessing in disguise.” The fallen wall exposed a red environment, luminous in effect. The girlfriend hissed at them.

“Whatever spirit possessed her is going crazy right now,” Timothy commented.

“Should we go to a priest or something?”

“…if we’re lucky enough the exorcist will come to us…” For a moment he was hoping to see the Princess and Ashton. “No bailout this time…” Timothy commented to himself. “Let’s continue forward.”

“Right let’s continue forward, no demon is taking my girl!” Roscoe charged into the hole.

“Right…” Timothy sighed.

“Roscoe!” the girlfriend’s cry echoed.

A gust of hot air slowed him down, “Hun!” Roscoe called out.

“That’s not who you think it is,” yelled out Timothy.

“She’s in there somewhere!”

The girlfriend laughed with the flames exhausting from her mouth.

Roscoe stood off with his girlfriend, “Babe don’t make me hurt you,” he drew his gun.

Flames fanned off her hands, “Shoot me you bastard!”

“Hey man, don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”

“Nothing new…”

“What?” Part of the wall shattered, releasing a thick plume of smoke. All their senses were cut off beside their hearing. A series of coughs took place.

“Roscoe… are you going to shoot me?” the woman’s voice echoed.

“… I will if I have to…”

“Do it then, all you do is a lot of talk,” she crept up on him. Smoke masked her.

When the smoke had a break in it the girlfriend punched at Roscoe but missed. With the weak structure and her increased strength, a hole was punched in the wall and then it crumbled some more. Roscoe went to grab her, but he succumbed to the heat and smoke. The girlfriend fled through the hole, producing a blue gap. Timothy saw the smoke ventilate out of the girlfriend’s hole; he ran towards to it escape but tripped over Roscoe. “Oh damn, wake up, wake up,” he shook him to no avail; he proceeded dragged him through the hole the girlfriend created. “He looks burnt, I have to find something to dampen him up.” A lightbulb goes off, “Oh, yeah, the bubble wand from yesterday. Hopefully, there is enough moisture in this to help him.” Timothy wrapped him in a bubble. Something popped back up, in the corner of Timothy’s eye. He turned too her, “Oh shit!”

“What are you doing, boy who knocks on my door at weird hours of the night?”

“Saving your boyfriend. You…” He ducked from a stream of fire. “Oh shit, she still has fire in her.” He rebounded back up to be met with another stream of fire, he attempted to repel the fire with a bubble, but instead it got contained. “Ok lady, its time for you to…” He avoided another burst of flames.

“All that talk,” the girlfriend laughed. “I didn’t take you for being afraid of fire, isn’t that what you…”

“I’m not a user you stupid bi…” He jumped back away from a fireball she spat up. He swung the wand aggressively to produce a bubble that did not gain any distance. “What the fuck…” he rolled his eyes sighing.

The girlfriend spat at the bubble, and it turned to steam on impact. She growled at him, they circled each other, her lips puckered and his arm with the wand behind him, lined up with his hip. She released a fireball; he countered by swinging his arm; the orbs clashed creating a cloud. When the cloud dissipates, they are both out of each other’s vision. “Crap where did she go?” he whispered to himself.

Timothy checked his surroundings waving the wand, ready to produce a bubble. The film of liquid expanded as he moved around. He released one bubble and ran away from it. Then another bubble was created, and he ran from both. Eventually he made a line of bubbles, a stream of flames popped all the bubbles creating a thick vapor. Timothy now knew what direction the girlfriend was in, and he contained the vapor in bubbles near the source of the stream. She is now visible to him, and he is still concealed. A bubble appeared in front of the cloud. The girlfriend screamed a fierce wave of fire that was met with a volley of bubbles that neutralized the fire. The cloud grew bigger and with that so did Timothy’s range on her once she was fully consumed in the cloud, she found herself in a bubble. “Got you!” he celebrated with the wand held high and the girlfriend contained, the princess came from behind and took the wand from him. “Enough magic for you.”

“I can only hope, but the magic keeps finding me.”

“Mor… oh, ho, ho, you’re doing that humor thing. I’m catching on.”

“You’re turning into a mortal.”

The Princess slapped him, “Don’t ever insult me like that again!”

Timothy grabbed his face and a little bit of blood dribbled out from his mouth. “Damn, it was a joke, I thought you were getting a hang of the humor thing.”

The Princess huffed.

Gloria and Lucille arrived back at the hotline. “Timothy!” Gloria cried out.

“Gloria!” the two hugged. “I’m sorry I keep dragging you into this mess, I really want you to know how much I appreciate you sticking with me through this whole thing.”

“Of course, that’s what friends are for right? I’m so happy your okay… Plus you saved me from…”

“Saved you from…”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Hush, you know what you saved me from, no need to mention it again.”

“You’re talking about Duke, aren’t you? And that little girl?” interjected Lucille.

“What?”

“You didn’t want to hang out with me, you just wanted to know about the event because you think the Loving Hands Friendship House kidnapped that girl! I should have known you were ingenuine!” Lucille sobbed, running off.

“Lucille, it’s not like that!” Gloria cried out in vain.

“Aw well, we have a girl to save, a town to save,” Timothy said breaking Gloria away from the moment. “Gloria, once we get the girl, you can reconcile with Lucille, but it’s important we don’t all burn up.”

Ashton went inside the burning building. He looked around to see the charred objects of the hotline. The cords of the phones had coiled tightly into smoldered ball with the bottom of the exploded phones remaining. “That did sure did a lot of damage in here,” he commented. He walked around the pile of debris, stopped to check it for anyone; nothing was underneath it. Continuing on he saw the hole that the girlfriend had produced, “I hope it didn’t get to far…” he said to himself as he walked out the hole he saw the boyfriend. Ashton examined Roscoe’s body burn free, just red, “He must have succumbed to the smoke.” He fanned his face a bit and then heard some coughing. Roscoe looked up to see the silhouette fade away.

Ashton who had been exploring the ruins showed up behind the princess to see the girlfriend floating in a bubble. The girlfriend was screaming inaudible things creating steam. “There’s my fire,” he said.

“Let’s get it back,” the princess said. She started a chant, her eyes rolled back in her head and her index fingers and thumbs connected. “Esca retra, esca retra, esca retra, esca retra!” The bubble turned black, as the essence left the girlfriend’s mouth. As the essence filled up the bubble, Ashton eyes widen, “About time I get to be normal again.”

“So, to show gratitude you’ll spare the town?”

“No, what is wrong with you? Get the girl!” barked the princess. She was anticipating something and held the wand under the girlfriend.

The bubble lightens up into a white smoke that became dyed orange, it popped, and the vapors are inhaled by Ashton, recharging him as indicated by his red eyes. The girlfriend fell into another film of bubbles, and one kept her up above the ground. The spirit that was possessing the girlfriend evacuated from the woman. What should have made him sulk but a devilish look on his face, “Back on duty?” he asked.

“Yes,” the princess answered.

“I’ll be honest with you; I’m destroying that spirit.”

“As you should; take all that frustration out on that spirit that stole your flame,” Timothy added.

“Ashton go get the spirit; mortal get the girl!” Ashton departed in pursuit of the spirit. Ashton pursued the spirit, hands full of fire. Orange streaks filled the air as he trailed the wind; people took photos as he passed by. He flailed his arms whipping the spirit with a trail of heat. In contact it propelled the spirit forward. “Yowch!” the spirit cried out. The spirit turned the corner and as Ashton wrapped around the turn charring the corner of the building. They cross over into the parking lot. “Open space now!” Ashton threw a fireball past the apparition hitting a car blowing it up. The explosion was enough to startle the spirit from proceeding forward. “Oh no,” it cried out.

“Oh yes!”

But as the explosion was enough to stop advancement forward, the pressure of Ashton in the rear was enough to not retreat. The spirit went to the side, Ashton cut diagonally, igniting another car and it had the same effect, until it was cornered. “No where to go now,” Ashton said. He placed himself in a crouching position, hands ignited, “Come this way again,” he taunted. The spirit went forward and snapped upward. In the nick of time a person opened a window for fresh air. It fled through the window. Right after, Ashton barged in the window trampling over the person, tossed a fireball at the cracked door singeing it but the spirit escaped through the crack. The forward motion of the fireball had pushed the door shit melting the hinges. Ashton kicked the door down. “Hey, come back!” the person yelled out to be ignored. Out in the hallway all the doors were closed. The wind chime sounded, and Ashton approached it, “Seems like you’re stuck,” Ashton taunted. “I’m enjoying the chase, I’ll let you have a head start.” Ashton opened the door. Once outside the spirit tried to possess Duke and was cooked by a fireball. “Ha got you, you motherfucker.” The spirit turned into smoke in front of Duke’s face. He got jumpy and fled, screaming, “Ah monster!”

“What’s wrong with him?”

Duke ran by the scene at Ms. Ancer’s hotline and saw the Princess.

Roscoe climbed over the rubble to get to the scene. The bubble popped and the girlfriend woke up with Roscoe above her. “Roscoe?”

“Babe?”

“Where am I? And why am I wet?”

“Ms. Ancer’s hotline.”

The girlfriend sat up and looked around, “I don’t see anything, except for a lot of burnt stuff.”

“Well… how do I explain this…”

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“He didn’t do anything,” Timothy joined in

“You’re that boy who keeps knocking on my door,” she retorted.

“… for a good reason…”

“What reason?”

“He saved you!” Roscoe blurted out.

“What are you talking about?”

“So, doorknocker here again,” Timothy reintroduced himself; “So what happened in the hotline was that you were possessed by a spirit. And you started shooting flames.”

“Get the fuck out of here!” the girlfriend laughed. “Shooting flames,” she grabbed her throat.

Roscoe and Timothy nodded their heads, “It’s true,” they said.

“That’s why your throat hurts, the fire coming out of it,” Timothy continued.

“I have allergies. Where did this spirit come from?”

“She’s going to be skeptical the whole time?”

“Yup,” Roscoe answered.

“Roscoe, shut the hell up!” the girlfriend yelled.

“Well, the spirit came from a bookstore, most likely…” Timothy answered.

“A bookstore? Is it haunted?”

“Hmm, that’s a good question.”

“Humor me kid, spirits come from a liquor store, you see what I did there.”

“I was being serious. I seen a person possessed from a spirit in a bookstore.”

“That’s because they let the crazies in there. Roscoe, what did I tell your stupid ass about serving at our house.”

“I don’t serve at home,” Roscoe replied.

“I’m not a fiend,” commented Timothy.

“Mortal! Do you take possession lightly?” the Princess interjected herself.

“Who is this bitch?” the girlfriend inquired.

The princess gasped, “Are you still possessed?” The males laughed. “What’s so funny? You want to be set on fire?” The princess continued.

Timothy straightened up, “No need for all of that. We should be getting on our way.”

Roscoe grabbed, Timothy’s shoulder, “Tim, man I can’t thank you enough.”

“If you want to show your thanks, come with us to the Loving Hands friendship House, we have a girl to rescue.”

“Since I owe you, I’ll come with you. What will I be dealing with?”

“Crazy people,” answered Timothy.

“As long as there aren’t any demons, I can handle it.”

“Cool. Let’s head to the Happy Hands Friendship House.”

“I will take you.”

“Wait! What about me?” the girlfriend exclaimed.

“Oh man, yeah, I just can’t leave my girlfriend here.”

“Right… she can…” Timothy tried to say.

The Princess inserted herself in once again, “She can go home and rest unless she burned her house down too.”

“Who is this lady?” the girlfriend asked impatiently.

“I am no one who needs to answer to you.”

The girlfriend went to press up on the Princess, but Gloria got in the middle, “You know with this fire, you think the fire department would be here,” she said.

“The red truck people with the lights and loud noise, I put them in a pocket, they were in the way.”

“What?” the four humans said.

“It’s hard to walk with obstructions and even harder to burn something down if there are people putting water on it.”

“We get the hint. Can you just bring them back?” Tim

“After I the girl returns home.”

A ping went off on Timothy’s and Gloria’s phones, Gloria looked at the notification to see a video of Ashton chasing nothing. “Ma’am, are you seeing this?” Gloria put the phone to the Princess face.

“What am I looking at?”

“It’s your friend running around with fire we don’t want to have an accident. Could you just…”

The Princess slapped the phone out her hand.

“… talk to him…” Gloria continued.

“I don’t take request from mortals.”

Gloria picked up her phone, “The town will be safe if Giselle goes back home, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can the firefighters…”

“No firefighters!”

“We are going now!” Timothy cut off, “Lets hurry to that crazy place.”