I looked myself up and down in the mirror, my hair still wet from the shower. The mirror had fog still enveloped along the sides, but the middle had been wiped down with a towel. I ran my fingers through the wet stringy mess and brushed it down into the correct position. After doing that, I messed with it for a few seconds with my hand. I continued into the hallway and then into the room that Ben had made for me. It now consisted of a bed and a dresser, though he had promised we would fill the space with whatever I wanted. For now it had dark blue covers, a black pillow, and white sheets. I pulled on a pair of jeans and socks, then rustled through the dresser for a shirt. The door squeaked behind me.

“You’re gonna have to show me your workout regimen,” Ben whistled. “What are all those scars from?”

I pulled a shirt on quickly and gave him a look that stared daggers into his soul. He raised his hands in defense.

“Right, boundaries. Forgot you’re a teenager,” He said. “I’m headed to work, just thought I would let you know. Boss called me in and I can’t deny a bigger paycheck. You headed anywhere?”

“Yeah, I got a date,” I said, trying not to blush.

“They didn’t tell me I took in a lady’s man,” He smiled.

I tried not to look annoyed. 

“Is she a keeper?” He asked.

“I sure hope so,” I said, smiling.

“Then go get her, bud,” He shoved my arm playfully and walked out. I rubbed at it and started to look around the room for a hoodie. Once I had found one, I continued out of the room and towards the door. I grabbed my backpack off of a chair in the kitchen and then pushed my way out the door. I rode the elevator down, Rigby leaned against the wall and pressed the button for the lobby for me.

“Got a hot date?” He asked, checking his nails.

“How could you tell?” I joked.

“You weren’t smiling the last few times you came on the elevator, now you are. It’s a good look on you kid, really brightens up the room,” He said. I tried to take the compliment, but it felt odd receiving it. 

“Rough day so far?” I asked.

“Yup. Some white collar punk tried to use me as a coat hanger. I threw him off three floors before his and told him to use the stairs. We don’t tolerate that here,”

I nodded. 

“Let me know if he bothers you again and I’ll beat his ass,” I said, trying to sound sarcastic.

“I might take you up on that, kid,” He said, now with a smirk of his own. “Here’s your stop, see you on the way back up,”

He shot me a finger gun and I left the elevator. I walked out into the world once again and breathed in the city air. Smog was a lot more prominent today, Lyndontown was not known for Sunday drivers. I scanned the street around me and noticed a silver Ford Escape about ten yards away. I walked over to it and peered inside to see Lyla smiling from the driver seat. The passenger window rolled down.

“Hop in,” She said. She had a yellow hoodie with a black hood and jeans. It was refreshing compared to her usual work attire, and I welcomed it.

I swung the door open and sat down inside. She moved her hand to the shifter and put the car in drive.

“Where are we headed?” She asked.

“Are you hungry?” I said.

“Not really,” She said, trying for a smile. “Sorry, I feel like I just killed your idea,”

“Don’t worry about it,” I argued. “If you aren’t against exercise, we could go to the industrial side of town,”

“That’s near the Slabs, isn’t it?” 

“Don’t worry m’lady, I will protect you,” I joked. She laughed and pulled away from the apartment building.

“So, did anything interesting happen to you yesterday?” I asked eagerly. I waited for her to spill about me saving her last night. My mind flooded with memories of me continuously kicking the mugger, losing control in a way that I never had before.

“Nope,” She said quickly. Her heart started to beat faster for an instant. She was lying about it, but why? Did I really make that bad of an impression?

“Well, someone did catch me off guard,” She said, hiding a smile. “Someone asked me out on a date,”

“Oh, really?” I said, trying to sound as intrigued as possible as she turned on her blinker. “Who's the lucky fella?”

“Well he’s a bit of a dork,” She laughed. “But I’m glad he did it, it took him long enough,”

We exchanged smiles and then she looked back at the road and she slammed on her brakes. I shot my arm across her chest to stop her from flying forward. I tried to stop the momentum from jerking me forward, quite successfully, and then started to inspect the situation. The car in front of us was smoking from the front, I heard the slow beat of a heart in the driver seat. They were knocked out, the vehicle in front of them was a fuel tanker. I threw the door open and started towards the car in front of us.

“James, where are you going?” Lyla shouted, unbuckling her seatbelt.

“Back your car up if you can, do not leave until I’m back!” I yelled behind me, sprinting to the passenger door of the crashed car. From the looks of it, they had rear ended the tanker while they were going pretty fast. Inside was a middle aged woman with a large red splatter of blood across her forehead, which was contacting the steering wheel.

I jerked at the door handle and it didn’t budge, so I rolled my sleeves down on my hoodie and turned my head away as I smacked at the glass with my elbow. It bounced off with a loud thud. I tried twice more and then the window caved in, shattering into a million shards that stuck to the front of my body. I brushed them off and reached in to unlock the door. Once I had done so, I slammed the door open and reached for the woman’s seatbelt. I felt a sudden burst of warmth from outside the car, and heard the roar of flames on top of the tanker. I didn’t have much time.

“Evacuate the area!” Shouted somebody from outside, an authoritative voice. It was probably a cop.

Once I had unfastened the seatbelt, I dragged the lady across the middle console and into the passenger seat before throwing her over my shoulder. Once I had adjusted myself and had a grip, I ran as fast as I could away from the truck. A large roar pierced the cold air, which turned red hot as I continued to run. Flames erupted into the sky like a bonfire that had gotten out of hand. The heat of a million suns burned the hairs off the back of my neck. I set the lady down on the sidewalk, and the cop approached and checked for her pulse. I stood, panting and staring back at the tanker. I closed my eyes and listened closely inside the flames. I heard the screams of a grown man, his heart racing. 

“Help! The door won’t open!” He coughed aggressively in the driver’s seat. I barreled towards the flames and the cop behind me objected loudly,

“Don’t go in there kid! It’s too hot,” The officer shouted as I made my way around the truck. The top of the cab had already caught fire, and it was only a matter of time before the smoke and flames would be too much for the man. I saw him fumbling with the door from the windshield. He didn’t take notice of me, and I wondered if that was because of the smoke or the panic. I jumped onto the step to the door and jerked at the handle. It didn’t work, so I started to look along the ground around me. I checked the front of the truck and didn’t find anything large or heavy to use. I took notice of the grill of the truck, and gripped my hand around one of the cylindrical pieces of metal. I jerked at it with all my strength, eventually giving up pulling at it and began to kick it. It started to bend enough that it could now be pulled off. I wiggled it free and moved to the driver-side window.

I waved through the glass at the man, who now looked at me surprised. I motioned for him to cover his head, which he did whilst wincing and clenching his teeth down so hard I could hear the grinding. I smacked the window, creating a spider web of cracks along the outside. I slammed the metal into the glass harder and it finally shattered. The man opened his eyes again and I was hit with an abundance of smoke. I reached out my hand for him and pulled him out of the truck. I lowered him to the ground slowly and he stumbled towards the sidewalk. I started to do the same, but I tripped over something and met the concrete. The flames roared louder, the sound of trickling fuel igniting filling my ears. I felt something wet hit my back and then a mountain of pain along my spine. I rolled as fast as I could to the right and felt the heat subside into cold.

Lyla

I ran out of the car and towards the wrecked car in front of me. I shoved my keys into my pocket and tried the door handle multiple times. I looked inside to see James already opening the door and grabbing the lady from the car. I turned back around and was face to face with a police officer.

“Back your car up, that thing is gonna blow!” He shouted. I looked back at the tanker and the flames started to rise more and more. I ran back to my car and backed it away as far as I could and parked it off to the side of the road. I left the driver seat and started to run back towards where I last saw James. The police officer that I had spoken to earlier jumped in front of me to stop me.

“This way! We’re leading people away from the fire to safety,” He reached for his radio. “Dispatch we need to contact the fire department immediately, 10-67 and a possible 10-52,”

I followed the officer and was led to the sidewalk away from the fire. I looked around eagerly for James and spotted him rushing the poor woman from the car. He had her tossed over his shoulder and managed to make it to the sidewalk next to a police officer. The officer began to do CPR as James rushed back towards the flames.

“James! Stop!” I shouted, but he didn’t hear me over the roar of the flames.

I tried to run away from the evacuation point but was stopped by police again. All I could do was wait. The radios of the officers sounded.

“There is a teenage boy on fire in front of the tanker, attempting rescue!”

I tried not to gasp and listened closely for an update.

“10-4, please report ASAP,” One of them replied. The whole place was quiet besides the roar of the flames. Other than the fire growing, no explosion took place. My face felt hot, and sweat poured from it. An officer walked forward with a tall lean figure at his side. Through the smoke. James walked forward, limping slightly and with soot covering his entire face. A man in a high-vis vest walked behind him, covered in the same. James gave me a grin as I ran forward and pulled him into a hug. His hoodie smelt like a campfire, and I quickly recoiled and punched him as hard as I could on the arm. 

“Don’t ever scare me like that again!” I shouted. “I thought you were a marshmallow,”

“I almost was,” He joked, pointing at his back and turning around. The hoodie had black burn marks on his right shoulder and the center of his back. He had caught fire and managed to put it out. I felt around the cloth and then stopped realizing I was in public. I felt the blood rush into my cheeks and I tried to make it less obvious I was blushing by coughing into my arm. The police checked in with each of us, a paramedic made their way to the scene and did a quick run-through to make sure none of us were suffering from smoke inhalation. Surprisingly, James had made it out okay. I peered at the truck driver and back at James. How did he make it to the driver when no one else could?

“Hey, earth to Lyla,” James waved his hand in front of my face. I had begun to stare off into space thinking. 

“Sorry, just a bit rattled,” I apologized.

“It's fine, they said we were free to go,” He said as he took the hoodie off. I tried really hard not to stare at his arms, but they were insanely impressive and I kept finding myself staring at them. I shook my head and we walked towards my car. We climbed in, James somehow wasn’t shivering at the sudden cold environment.

“Aren’t you freezing?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah,” He said. It didn’t convince me but I didn’t see a problem with it.

I looked at him and he looked back. Our eyes met for a second, warmth suddenly spread across my chest and I felt butterflies having a large rave in my gullet. My eyes lit up with images again. This time it was of a young boy with the same messed up brown hair as James. His eyes were the same shade of blue, the only thing missing was a small scar right above his brow. He stared at himself in the mirror with a straight face.

He tried for a small smile, but otherwise was uninterested and unhappy with what he saw. James walked out of the bathroom and walked into a small hallway and into a living room. Inside was a couch and coffee table, a small kitchen, and an unbelievable amount of cigarette butts scattered across the stained brown carpet. On the couch was a blonde lady who was skinny, her eye sockets sunk into her face. The shadows bounced off of her face in the most unpleasant way they could have, making her look like a skeleton.

James waved at her to notice him, but she didn’t move a muscle. Her arms were limp at her side, one holding a cigarette and the other a lighter. Her eyes were half open and stared into nothing. The boy ran forward and shook the dead body of his mother. 

“Mom! Please!” He cried, his young voice starting to break. “Wake up!”

I blinked but the image remained there. James cried into the chest of his parent, completely destroyed mentally. A single tear trickled down his cheek, and the same happened to me. I shook my head and shoved my hands over my eyes, the image disappearing from my sight. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” James asked. I had come back to reality, to the driver seat of my car. James rubbed my shoulder gently with his hand, leaning towards me. I tried with all that I could to face him without breaking out into tears.

“Did I do something?” He asked, genuinely concerned. I shook my head, looking across his face and trying not to imagine his small childlike face in the mirror. I lurched forward and embraced him in a hug. He held his hands up in surprise, then lowered them and rubbed against my back. I slightly reared back from the hug and our eyes met once again. His icy blue eyes stared deep into mine, and I kept glancing down at his lips. Our faces remained close, but neither one of us knew what to do next. My phone rang and we both shot away from each other. We tried not to look each other in the eye, and I tried my best not to smile.

I answered the phone and a distinguished and familiar voice picked up.

“Lyla? Did I get the right number?” He asked.

“Raymond?” I said, trying not to shout. “How did you find this number?”

“I told you I’ve hacked surveillance cameras and you didn’t think I would be able to flip through some yellow pages?”

“Why are you calling anyways?”

“Are you able to come by? I have a lead on how we can find out who he really is,”

“Could it wait a few hours?” I asked, slowly getting more frustrated with him. I looked over at James who was peering out the window, his thumbnail in between his teeth. He looked deep in thought. His bicep flexed and I found myself staring again.

“As long as you can make it today, this is time sensitive,” He said.

“Alright, just shoot me a text of the address and I’ll let you know when I can be there,”

“Got it. See you soon,”

I hung up on him and directed my attention back on James. He raised his head at me and smiled.

“So, the industrial district?” He said eagerly.