Smoke and Mirrors (5)

Five

For Ashes, Beauty

3 months later.

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I was being followed.

I glanced at an apartment complex beside me as I walked, and my gaze stopped on one thing.

An owl.

It was white, majestic and beautiful--harmless. But it was there, perched on a bicycle handle, which was poking through the fence of an apartment balcony.

Cars zoomed by on my other side, but their noise seemed to fade as my heartbeat grew louder.

That owl was one of their own, I knew it was. It had come to spy on me, which could only mean one thing.

They found me.

I broke out into a run and held my tan rain jacket closed.

Ever since I'd made the decision to leave that world behind, I'd been on the run. Apartment after apartment, room after room.

I had moved six times in three months.

And yet there I was, running from them.

Why was I running from a small, harmless owl, you ask? I'll explain. You see, every time one of these guys appeared, Sterling wasn’t far behind. He used them like spies or something.

I spotted my apartment complex and ducked inside the tunnel that separated my apartment door from the laundry room. My door was just ahead, so I jammed my hand into my pocket and began digging for the keys.

"Looking for these?"

I shrieked and turned to see Sterling leaning against the wall, dangling my keys from his finger.

My heart was racing. This was partially due to the fact that I was running, but a large portion of it was due to the fact that four silver tentacles of mirror were slithering towards me.

Sterling pushed off the wall and strode towards me, his screaming eyes a reflection of his own mirrors that wrapped around my legs.

I pulled against the mirror ropes, then grunted as they tightened into my skin.

"Let go!" I gripped my doorknob and tried to shake away the ropes. "I'll scream! If you don't want anyone knowing about you, I suggest you run!"

He cocked an eyebrow at me and one of the ropes began trailing around both of my wrists. It was cold on my skin, like metal. I shuddered.

"Who will hear you?" he asked.

I swallowed. "My upstairs neighbor is a retired military general and likes to protect the tenants of this apartment complex. He's very good at it, too."

"Oh, I'm terrified." His tone was drier than the Sahara desert during a drought.

"Look, let's just talk things out, okay?" I eyed my keys in his hand. If I could just get those back. . .

"Talk things out? Alright." Suddenly, icy strands of mirror wrapped around my throat. "Start talking. You have one minute before I kill you.”

I wrapped my fingers around the reflective snakes coiled around my neck. TIghtening. Strangling me.

I tried to gasp for air. I tried to summon any kind of powers I may have had. Nothing happened. I was, once again, powerless.

“What happened to talking things out?” His voice was taunting, mocking my predicament.

I hated it. I hated him. Did he think I wanted to marry some psychopathic murderer? I wanted out just as much as he did!

“Let. . . me. . .” I tried to gasp for air, but everything was growing darker. Harder. I couldn’t breathe, and my vision was blurring as I stared into his cold, heartless eyes.

“Sterling!” The voice was my mom’s.

I felt his tentacles drop from my neck and I crumpled to the cement ground.

I weakly tried to push myself off the ground, then angled my head to see what was happening.

Silver coils shot from Sterling’s hands and spiralled around mom’s wrists, which were alight with fire.

I stood to my feet and tried to move out of the way--before I got blasted by fire or strangled by a mirror. Y’know, since mirrors strangling people was perfectly normal.

Suddenly, mom’s entire body glowed brightly with fire. I was afraid someone would see her, but before there was a chance for an intruder to see us, she extinguished the fire, leaving Sterling laying on the ground.

I took a tentative step closer and stood over his body. “Is he. . . dead?”

“Sadly, no. He’s unconscious for now.” She turned to me and offered me a smile. “Now, do you want to go home?”

“Home?” I asked, glancing at my apartment. “What do you mean?”

She winked. I should have known then that something was off. “Not that one.”

She jerked her hand and fire consumed us. We disappeared.