With each settling moment, the temperature decreased. Lower and lower, until Iggy felt chilly. But it didn't stop there. He thought he had everything under control but then an arctic coolness washed through him. His hands were especially freezing. Assuming it was his core temperature making his hands feel so cold, he pulled them away from his body into view.
The flames were gone and replaced with a light blue swirling mist that danced around his fingers and gathered in the palms of his hands. Soft feathery movements blew in and out and in and out of his fingers in circles. It was clean and cold like a little snow cloud. Specks of frozen air sprinkled off of it as it spun around.
Then, it vanished. He blinked hard, flipped his hands over and back, but it was gone. The pain in his chest returned, just as raw and intense as it had been, and time regained its natural pace. The pants over his thighs and the lower half of his shirt were burnt away.
Outside in the back, the pungent smell of the house burning flowed through the air. Aster looked over at Lot, and asked, "what's that smell?"
Lot peered back at the house and narrowed his eyes. "Is that smoke? What the fuck is that guy doin'?!"
As Iggy lifted his chin and saw Lot and Aster racing toward him, the smoke billowing into the sky overhead and the glimmering flames from the window behind him, he felt another new sensation.
It was a pulling on his soul that made him heavy and sad, yet it felt like it had a critical purpose, an unignorable message, a direction to go in.
"What the fuck did you do that for?!" Lot stormed up to him. "Why didn't you tell us that you were going to burn the house down?! We wouldn't've dumped the bodies, for fuck's sake!"
"I don't know…" Iggy whispered. "I don't know what just happened."
"You're a fuckin' moron!" Lot turned around, marched past Aster, and went to the car.
Aster looked down at Iggy, seeing his burnt clothes and sooty hands. "Not good, Robert. Not good at all." Then, she turned her back on him, too.
Iggy lagged behind. When he got to the car, Lot was in the driver's seat with the doors locked, staring at him viciously through the window. Aster waited with her hand on the door handle, unsure. The house burned behind them and the smoke polluted the once clear sky.
Then, Lot pressed the button and popped the locks open. Aster opened her door and sat in the passenger's seat, but Iggy stayed put, peering through the opening at him. Although Lot's face was crumpled with frustration, he gestured toward the backseat. "Get in." Shuddering, Iggy sat in the backseat with his arms wrapped around his torso and his gaze fixed on the floor. Lot eyed him through the rearview mirror only to see the top of his black head. "Where are you from?" he demanded to know.
"Nowhere," Iggy answered. Since there was likely nothing standing after the invasion it felt like the truth.
Lot drove the car into unknown territory, trudging through a field, driving the vehicle over grass mounds and holes, heading somewhere that was completely out of everyone's sight. Then, he rolled to a stop and turned the lights off. He turned around and cradled the headrest in between his moist hands. "What the fuck happened back there? Are you crazy? You're gonna get us caught!"
"It came from my hands-" Iggy made two fists "-I don't know how or from where, but… it was fire. I didn't want it, but it came anyway, then I became cold… I don't understand." He crossed his arms over his chest and gripped the balls of his shoulders. "I'm… so confused."
"Crazy. You're bat shit crazy." Lot glared across at Aster. "Crazy."
"Correction: Psychologically damaged," Aster snided. She turned around, too. "You didn't have to burn the place down, you know? We had everything under control." Iggy looked up. Suddenly, Aster jolted back and gripped the dashboard. "What happened to your eyes?" she gasped.
Iggy brought his fingers to his cheeks. "What?" He extended his neck to see himself in the mirror.
"Your eyes," she described, "they changed. They're all black."
It was true. Solid black spheres. They looked like Emi's eyes. Emi. His stomach dropped into the pit of his pelvis.
Lot's gaze wandered down to Iggy's sternum. He hopped over the edge of his seat and reached for Iggy's ragged shirt. He snatched it and tore the holes wider. The swollen, red hot incision running down his chest was becoming even worse since the last time Iggy dared to look at it. The stitches were like threaded hills, just barely holding the two sides together. Thick, yellowish green pus seeped out of it, yet not enough to drip. Brown splotching made his skin look leopard like.
"Whoa! Ho! Ho!" Lot belched. "Well, look at that! No wonder why you went down so fast when I hit you there! Where'd you get that pretty little thing?" Iggy's cheeks flushed bright red. He pulled back what was left of his shirt and covered himself. "You're dying, aren't you?" Lot leaned back and looked at Aster. "He's worthless."
"No, I refuse," Aster shook her head. She whipped her finger at Iggy like a stick. "You're going to make me money. I didn't put my neck out for you to be worthless."
"What the hell can you do with him? He ain't gonna get any better. Let's just leave him here!"
Aster made a fist. "Do you have any other surprises?" She looked down at Iggy's lap. "Is your dick working?"
"What?" Iggy's eyes rounded. "Excuse me?"
"Your. Dick. You have one, don't you? You're gonna make this up to me. I need new material. My videos aren't selling anymore."
"What videos?"
"Pornography," she emphasized the word. "I'm a producer and you're gonna be my actor." She turned around in her seat. "Now, let's go home. I'm tired of this shit."
"I can't…" Iggy started.
"You can't what?" Lot interrupted him. "Get it up? That's fine. If you can't do what we say, then we'll have the extra time to call the military for our annual document checkup. We're due for one." He lifted an eyebrow. The devilish smile that Iggy was coming to despise more and more with each appearance consumed Lot's lower face and deepened the wrinkles around his eyes. "You are registered, aren't you?"
Iggy leaned back. "No, don't do that. I'll help make you some money."