Chapter 37 - Cashing Fire

'He's just a boy,' the officer in charge said to the female officer, chuckling in the process. 'You failed to restrain, a what..? A seventeen or eighteen year old junkie? You are a disgrace, Sergeant Stone.' In Bradwield, the highest police rank was lieutenant, followed by commissioner then the sergeant and then the corporal and below corporal were the trainees.

The sergeant gulped, 'His flame weapon is what makes him irrepressible, sir.'

'So you're telling me that with all your guns you were chased away by a seventeen year old junkie who happened to hustle some jeans or a skateboard to get that flamethrower? Humph! Where's the flamethrower, boy?!' The officer in charge had resumed communicating with the Flicker through the megaphone.

'What flamethrower?' The Flicker's smile had changed to a smirk. His entire body was covered in ash but the crimson of his hair was still noticeable even from afar.

'Don't play dumb with me, junkie, where did you leave it?!'

'Oh…You mean this flamethrower?' With a flash he removed his hands from behind his head and his pupils turned blood-red. He sent huge waves of fire from his hands in the direction of all the police cars.

Noticing his eyes turn red, Brendan knew what this signal meant. He rushed from where he stood towards the officer in charge and the other officers beside him. Just like in his fight with Thomas, everything paused still. Everything including the Flicker and his flames had become immobile. The birds in the air had also become stationery. The only sound he could hear was of his own breathing. He carried the officers one at a time on his shoulders, effortlessly, and dropped them all behind a coffee shop then rushed back to where he had previously stood.

Again, just like before, everything snapped back to life. The fire targeted at the police officers only got their cars making them explode into balls of flames and covered a huge area with smoke.

The Flicker turned his smirk in all directions. It took him a while before he finally noticed Brendan. He began to walk towards him, at a steady pace. He wore the most horrific smile Brendan had ever seen. As he got closer and closer to him he began snapping his fingers and doing a weird sort of dance. 'So you're fast, too,' said Flicker sounding mildly impressed. 'I knew you'd come. It's Eriksson, right?' He had stopped dancing but his smirk remained.

People had begun to clear the block in fear.

Brendan could hear them ask each other questions about how they got to where they were in the wink of an eye. They obviously did not know that they had been rescued. One officer, the woman; Sergeant Stone, as she ran, stopped and looked at Brendan and Flicker facing each other. Brendan had his back turned to her so she could not see his face. 'Thank you,' she whispered softly from behind the building before running away with the others.

'Where's Samantha?' Brendan asked him with a frown on his face. He took a step forward.

'Sam? Let's just say that you won't be seeing her ever again.' His pupils had returned to their original blue.

'Where… Is… She?' He took another step forward.

'Meet me in the forest. I will shoot a signal for you into the sky. Follow that signal so you can find the place you can watch her die. Don't even think about bringing the cops coz I'll just burn 'em all and you won't be lucky in saving them this time.' When he finished speaking, his eyeballs flushed red and he breathed heavily into the palms of his hands and fire came out of them. He pulled the orange flames towards him and brought them down steadily in front of him to form a cloud of fire. 'And don't think about keeping me waiting…Ciao.' He gave Brendan a hand salutation and climbed onto the cloud of flames and the cloud rose up into the air. As soon as it reached about a hundred feet high, it shot through the sky like a shooting star in the direction of the Bradwield Forest.

Brendan was left standing alone. Two fire trucks and four ambulances arrived. There were numerous bodies on the ground. Others were breathing faintly, fighting to stay alive whilst others were motionless. Why did the Flicker lure him out here? What did he want to do with his sister? Was he, Brendan, even strong enough to stop him? For Brendan, there was only one way to find out. He looked around him to see if anyone was looking in his direction. Sure that no one was, and with everything turning still, he rushed with his acquired "heightened speed" towards the forest.

When he ran, it was a different experience all together. Like a video game. Everything passed by him in blurs and whirrs, the wind hot upon his face, his heart beating faster in excitement. Just like in a game, the possibility of a crash thickened the skin and brought out sweat into the palms, but the quick maneuvers encouraged more acceleration. Faster…faster…faster.

He ran until he reached the entrance to the forest he had used twice. It took him a few seconds to get there. His "trusted" rock was still there.

What if this was all just a setup by both the Flicker and the Finch? So much pessimism and bad thoughts were rushing through his mind. Some thoughts he dismissed and others he considered true. Nevertheless, he stood by the entrance and waited impatiently for the signal from the Flicker.