The smoke in the air made my lungs burn. I’d have real damage if I didn’t get help soon.
I pounded on the door. “Let me in!” There was no answer. I couldn’t wait. I ran to the next door and pounded on that one. I was desperate. “Let me in!”
That’s when I saw him, a lost straggler, a huge man with white hair and a large barrel chest, walking down the street. Walking. Not running and not panicked. He slowed as he passed me, I assumed to tell me I was going the wrong direction. This guy said nothing though. He stopped completely. Stopped and stared me straight in the eyes. The stare, at first curious, changed into something else.
I ran to the next door and slammed my fists into it over and over. I yanked the handle. Locked. I yelled for help, but no one answered.
The acrid smell of burnt rubber and strangely enough, pork filled my nose. I knew I had to figure this out quickly or I’d suffocate. Pounding on the door was futile. I stepped from the stone stoop and straight into the man.
“You’re Merric.” His arms looped around my head, pulling me into his chest. “You’re Merric, and you can’t see my eyes.”
My head was so deep into his chest, all I could do was suck on his coat and sputter. He laughed and squeezed, his hands a vice on my head. “Where’s your power now? You’re nothing without your eyes, and you will die.”
I pushed my arms against his chest, but I didn’t match his strength. I couldn’t breathe. I fought to bite him, but my teeth couldn’t get through the coat, and my fingers couldn’t claw his arms. I kicked him, but it didn’t work. My lungs burned. There was nothing left in them. He was right. I was going to die.
Die.
Then, like magic, like some beautiful magic, my face was nowhere near his body, and my lungs filled with smoky air. I coughed and coughed.
Through the haze, I saw the man’s body frozen still, floating about six feet off the ground. Rudolf was holding him in place with something that looked like a gun but wasn’t. The Libratiers rushed towards us. Hincho lifted me from my feet, and they took me far away from the streets and smoke, down into the heart of the city.
Chapter 18
Giraffes and Bears
Doc waited right outside the elevator. Manon held my hand. Enzo cried and apologized over and over. Rudolf stood in the corner watching, his face covered in soot. Occasionally, he’d run his hands through his hair. With me still in Hincho’s arms, Doc did an exam right in the garden. He spent a long time checking out my neck and lungs. He gave me the all clear, physically. Emotionally, it was another story.
I’d never been so scared, and I kept replaying the day in my head. There was nothing in the world I wanted more than my mom. The man had held me so close. If the Libratiers hadn’t found me, I would have been dead. My death had literally been right in front of my face.
Enzo said the man was Galvantry and the whole reason I needed guards. Manon said Rudolf was a hero. Rudolf said nothing.
Hincho, Wilbur, and Naugle kept apologizing and saying they’d failed my uncle and, worse, my dad.
When Doc was satisfied I was all right, he sent me to my room to shower.
Manon came with me and waited on my bed. I couldn’t get clean enough. Under the water, all I thought about was how close I had come to death. I wanted my mom to hold me. I wanted my dad to kill the man.
Even though it was still late afternoon, I put on one of my pairs of hot pink pajamas and my white housecoat. I wasn’t going anywhere.
When I finally went back into my room, Manon ‘s eyes were red, as was her nose. I asked her, “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” She wiped her nose. “Look, don’t worry about me. It is you I am worried about. How are you?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “You look like you’ve been crying.”
“So what if I have?” She sniffed her nose. “This is all too much. You could have been...” She trailed off for a moment before she went over to my table. “You still haven’t opened your gifts.”
“I guess not.” I didn’t care about them. “What have you heard about the fire?”
She ignored me and took a present off the top of the pile. “You should open them before tonight. Here, I can get you started.”
“Why does it matter?” My voice cracked with tears, and I crawled onto the couch and crunched up into a ball, thinking about how the man suffocated me in his chest.
“Your doctor thinks you are in shock.”
“He’s probably right.” He was. My brain wasn’t doing so well with everything. “I was almost killed.”
Manon picked up a small square package. She tore the paper away. “Cubox of your very own.” Manon flipped the box several times and pushed a nearly invisible button. A small flame hovered over the box. She handed it to me. “Here, blow.”
I did. “Can I get the news on this?”
Manon nodded. “You can but—“
“News,” I demanded, and red flames erupted into my room, red and oddly silent. My gut reaction was to run, but there was no smell, no heat.
A reporter’s voice broke the silence in the room as the flames shifted to singed rubble. “While there are still many questions surrounding the attack, one thing is for certain; replacing the material goods is easy, but the loss of life—”
Manon turned off the cubox. Tears ran down her face. “There will be an investigation, but the Galvantry have already taken credit. Things will move fast from here on. Bollard is coming.” Manon’s shoulder’s slumped, her head hung down, and she held the bedpost to support her. “He is furious. He thinks someone here is to blame for your
