The hard thumps from the bumpy road competed with my beating heart. I sat next to Janet in the back of Ray’s minivan and digested the plan he came up with, but the chilling winds entering through the cracks of the window disrupted my concentration.

“It’s freezing.” I zipped up my gray leather jacket and looked at Janet, who appeared focused and unbothered by the midnight weather.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be heating things up real soon.”

“Let’s just stick to the plan as much as we can,” Ray suggested up front, his hands on the steering wheel. “That means getting in there, freeing those people, and getting the hell out without being detected.”

“You really think it’s going to be that easy?” Janet asked. “Freeing the Dreamers and fleeing afterward isn’t enough. Alvin will just track them down again. We have to kill him.”

Ray scoffed at her remark as he drove deeper into the dusky woods. “Look, I was down with you getting revenge on this Alvin guy at first, but after thinking about it, I decided I don’t wanna be booked as an accomplice in a murder case. Just thinking about what would happen if we got caught tonight scares the hell out of me.”

I leaned forward and placed my hand on his shoulder. “After you get us inside, you can leave. We’ll navigate through the place on our own.”

“Yeah, like that’s not gonna weigh heavily on my conscience.”

“Don’t let it. This is our fight, not yours.”

Ray chose not to respond while pushing forward to our destination. My nervousness reached its peak when the glowing neon lights of the laboratory came into view.

“This is as far as I can go without being spotted,” Ray declared. “I’ll guide you the rest of the way from here using Bluetooth. I amped up the signal strength on your cell phones so we can communicate clearly without any disturbances. I’ll handle their security cameras and other protection methods as well, but you two need to act fast. I won’t be able to stay hacked into their system forever.”

“Noted,” Janet said before stepping out of the car.

“Hey.” Ray got my attention before I slid out of the vehicle. “Make sure you come back alive, alright?” His voice was low and worrisome. “The world needs people like you.”

“I will.”

“Alright. And I don’t know if you know about this, but if Alvin is as bad as you say he is, he’s gotta have the Mark of Sin.”

“That doesn’t sound good. You mentioned something about a mark before, right? What is it?”

“I went back into the documents and took another look. There wasn’t much info on it, but those who could see the Shadows warned Obsidian about the mark. Basically, it appears when a Dreamer makes a pact with a super powerful demon. If this is true, you could be running straight to your death.”

Great. Now there was more to worry about.

“The mark sounds dangerous, but I’m not dying, Ray. Not until I purge every last one of them.”

A laugh escaped from his pursed lips. “You’re brave, I’ll give you that.” He removed two laptops from a briefcase in the passenger seat. “Go on. I got you covered from here.”

I hopped out of the car and joined Janet a few feet away. We nodded at each other as if we had come to the same unspoken agreement: it was time to put an end to Alvin’s diabolical scheme.

We crept through the wooded area with Bluetooth devices attached to our ears, steadily moving closer to the lab with Ray’s voice guiding us through the headset. It wasn’t until I spotted two guards on patrol that our smooth cruise hit a roadblock.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

To evade security, we crouched and hid behind a thick tree. The snap of a branch below Janet’s foot startled a nearby skunk. My nose twitched from the nauseating stench released by the animal.

“Ray,” I whispered and pinched my nose. “There are two guards nearby, and we just got sprayed by a skunk.”

He cackled on the other end. “Damn, even the animals out there are corrupted, huh? Alright, let me see if there’s an alternate route.” There was silence for a moment before he said, “Okay, head east until you see a gun turret. Don’t worry, the hacked surveillance camera shows there’s no one behind it. Go north afterward and you should be back on track.”

“Gun turrets?” I muttered, somewhat nervous. “Are we in a video game?”

Janet smiled like a child in the playground. “More things to blow up,” she chimed in before scampering east.

I followed behind her until we reached the back of the building. The light panel installed on the door was red, indicating it was locked.

“Let me handle that,” Ray voiced on cue.

The light panel turned green, giving us access to the laboratory. This was it. There was no turning back.

We ventured deep into the mechanical danger zone, stealthily navigating the narrow, emerald halls of the first floor and avoiding detection from the suited men who guarded the area. On Ray’s command, we scurried up a secluded stairway leading to the second floor.

“Y’all almost at the chamber room,” Ray informed us. “Keep going.”

We advanced further into the cold building following Ray’s orders until we were spotted by a male scientist. “There are children roaming the premises,” he yelled out. His call acted as a beacon, signaling multiple guards to race in our direction.

Janet and I bolted from our position, running through the halls and rooms of the lab with security in hot pursuit. The chase came to an intermission after we darted into a red room and shut the door.

“Ray,” I shouted into the headset. “Ray, can you hear me? We’re in danger. Are you there?”

I removed my phone from my jeans and saw our call had been disconnected. This was the absolute worst time for us to lose communication with him.

“He probably drove off after he heard the commotion,” Janet assumed. “He did his part, Aliyah. We don’t need him anymore. Let’s take these guys out and find Alvin.”

After surveying the room and seeing glass jars filled with chemicals on the shelves, I knew Janet’s plan wasn’t a good idea. “We can’t fight them here. It’s dangerous.”

A sudden bang on the closed door made me jump. Janet conjured a fireball in her hand and replied, “Fine. Then let’s bring the heat to them.”

She released the fireball outside of the room as soon as the guards opened the door. The flames not only pushed the suited men back into the hall, but set their attire ablaze until the fire consumed their bodies.

“What? Too hot for you?” she jeered as they cried out for their lives. “Not so tough now, are you?”

“They’re done, Janet. Let’s find the Dreamers.”

We ran up to the third floor, the memory of the corridor coming back to me at the sight of lifeless bodies in the rooms we sprinted by. We were soon met with another wall of defense, this time armed with their fingers on the trigger.

“Fire,” ordered the suited man leading the pack.

My body stiffened in fear, the bang and flash of gunfire making me believe death was inevitable. Instead, a barrier of flames protected us, causing me to feel more alive than ever from the searing blaze warming my skin.

“You guys are pathetic,” Janet laughed out. I couldn’t help but wonder if her efficiency with fire was due to her mastery of the element, or the rage of vengeance flaring within her.

Either way, she was starting to scare me.

“What the hell?” one of the guards hollered. “Our bullets were fried.”

Janet smiled at their intimidated expressions. With a thrust of her palm, she released a wave of flames that incinerated the group of men. Their ashes were all that remained as the fire traveled down the hall until it extinguished.

Okay, now I was terrified. And judging by the dark aura beginning to form around her body, I had every right to be.

“Janet, you need to cool it with the flames. You’re carelessly setting the place on fire and killing people.”

“Really? They were gonna kill us with no hesitation, so spare me the good girl act. Or is it only okay to kill someone when your boyfriend is involved?”

“What? I told you that day in the elevator I wasn’t going to kill Cassandra, and I didn’t. She was shot by—”

“Obsidian’s men, right? So tell me how these people are innocent?”

The sobbing from a female scientist in one of the rooms caught our attention. Janet marched inside and approached the woman.

“Where is Alvin’s room?” she demanded to know.

“P-please don’t kill me,” the woman pleaded, weeping as she kneeled.

“She’s not going to kill you,” I assured and assisted the woman back to her feet. “We just wanna know where the Dreamers are.”

“And Alvin,” Janet added.

“I c-c-can’t tell,” she faltered, pausing at Janet’s glare. “U-upstairs. Alvin and the Dreamers are upstairs.”

“Thank you,” I said to the woman before following Janet, who dashed out of the room after receiving the information.

I had a bad feeling about what would happen next.