Cody let meride on his back. It was an amazing and a bit hair-raising experience riding on a wolf. It did not take Cody long to get me there. He dropped me at the edge of the forest, told me the place was supposed to be some kind of a deserted building and wished me luck.
This was weird. I thought and rethought and rethought. I could not understand why someone would kidnap Dale, on top of that, chose to tell me instead of his parents. There was only one possibility I could think of, I had what they need, and it wasn't money. What's the thing that only I have? I thought further. My paintings?--I don't know, a demon?
My journey out of the demon wood was easy, but to find that building Cody told me was a different thing. Wading into overhead length bushes, I wasted almost twenty minutes to search for that place, found it with nettles and thorns in my hairs as a present from the trees. It was out of sight from the main road and well hidden in the middle of the neglected dry swamp. Lucky that I glimpsed something old and decided to take a look. It was a sort of warehouse.
Hair bristled on my neck as I swam my way through tall grasses toward the warehouse. Not only because the area was deserted, and the silence crept me, but also because of that haunted look of the building. This sure was no place for a child or even an adult to come and play. It was a sort of a place where kidnappers would imprison the victims.
The place smelled damp, old, bad like unwashed socks, somehow a bit salty and rusty, and dead. I gazed at the dirty wall stained with something purplish and brown chemicals. That was enough to make me terrified. Adding up the dark vacant entrance, my whole body just shrank into the size of a tiny marble. It was like a black hole trying to suck me in….suck me in…
A solemn hum resounded across the space accompanying the gloomy atmosphere. At first, I thought they were ghosts when I saw something white floating in the middle of the darkness. Scare the shit out of me. But later I realized that they were the DW dressed in their code, still scare the shit out of me. Laid prone in the blood pool before them was Dale.
The scene kicked me in the guts. My whole body went numb and cold. Everything had gone blank in an instant. I moved forward to Dale, hands and legs shook like I got epilepsy. I touched him lightly and quickly bounced my finger back as if touching a hot plate, but no, this wasn't a hot plate. I was afraid it was as cold as a dead body.
Taking in an ocean-deep breath, I summoned every last drop of strength left in me and put my hands on Dale again, turned him over. It was hard to explain the feeling of relief when I found that he was still breathing. But tears that were detained by the shock were all at once released.There were bruises all over his body and he was stabbed in the stomach.
I raised my head and looked at Don Winter, the head of the DW gang. Usually, I was scared of them, especially him. But Dale's condition had invoked my courage. I said.
"You're the one sending the message?"
"What message?" Don looked a bit bemused but his voice was very threatening.
"Don't play dumb!" I started to yell. "You send me the message to come here! You kidnapped Dale and tried to murder him! Is this about that day?" I pointed at the two members who used to beat Dale up before. "I think you've done more than enough last time. You broke his arm!"
Don smirked. "I don't understand a thing you babbling about."
"Are you denying all of this?" I said sweeping my hand at the faint Dale.
"No." said Don with deep dark voice. "It's our work."
"You admit!"
"But we did it because we got an order from someone else." He added.
"Wh…who?"
Don Winter stood up and moved toward the exit. The gang followed him. "I'd love to hit that guy with our own accord. Just for fun. It's sad that now we are their slaves." I detected a slight quiver in his voice. "And there's one more job for us to do."
Is he talking about being a demon���s slave? I wondered as they left, didn't really give much thought of what's another job of theirs.
"L…Le…Leigh?"
"Dale! Are you okay?"
"You shouldn't be here." He tried to get up.
"Wait. Wait. Just lie down." I pushed him down on his back, about to fetch my phone for the 911.
A sudden explosion drowned the place. I turned around and saw that the DW had lighted up the bombs they hid somewhere near the exit. The blast didn't damage the place much but the fire caught up and spread out rapidly. The next thing I knew, we were already surrounded by the burning ring of fire. And the blazing conflagration turned this old building into hall of flames.
Oddly, I wasn't as scared as I should be. Apart from the goggling and the sudden heart-jump, I was actually quite composed. All that in my head was to get Dale to safe ground. I had responsibility with me now. Dale's life was depending on me.
I tore out a part of Dale's cloth and wrapped it around his wound tightly while trying to lug him. I bet my luck for the exit. There was only one way, I had to run through the fire, or we're all going to die. And I couldn't let Dale died. Not like this.
"Leigh…"
"Be quiet." I said sucking in a smoke-concentrated air, coughed a little bit and held my breath.
It did not took me long to get ready this time. I have to protect Dale. I have to rescue him. Take him to the hospital. I told myself and darted into the fire.
Who knew how long I ran in the sea flames. But when I got out, I found that we were blocked by another fire walls.
Amid the walls of flames, I fell down on my knees, unable to breathe. I panted heavily as the air gradually escaped and the heat replaced. It felt like my windpipe was boiled. And I felt like I was burning inside, not the anger, literally burning inside. I was worried about Dale despite all of this, his situation must be worse.
I decided to lay Dale down on the ground. He should breathe better there. Coughing harder, I tried to look ahead hoping to find some way.
But no, the black smoke befogged the place. And I could see nothing but orange and black color, could smell nothing but heat. This is the end of me. I just hope Dale lives.
The smoke and heat befogged my thought as well. I could not think straight. Actually, I couldn't think anything. And I felt like my conscious was borne further and further away.
Hot red curtains made me felt like I was in hell. At the word hell I smiled a little bit. Dylan lived in hell. It would be good if I could see Dylan here before I died. One last time…
A tear rolled down and quickly evaporated into the air. I miss him…I really miss him…