Into the Flames ch 1: Your Guide to Death

Max paced the floor back and forth. Noah sat on the floor, eyes following his older brother.

"Max..?"

"I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" Max huffed. "Okay, tell me again, and tell me exactly what happened."

"What more is there to tell?" Noah shrugged with a guilty expression on his face, "I heard the shot on my way home, I ran to see who it was, and some guys ran past me shoving a gun in my hand. When I looked in the alley, Travis was there, dead."

"Did you get a good look at the guys who ran past you?"

Noah shrugged, "I think it was Jeremy and them."

Max froze with wide eyes, "THOSE guys?!"

"I didn't know what to do..."

"Noah, do you have any idea what this LOOKS like?"

Noah looked over at the corpse in the corner of their living room. Sitting there without a care in the world next to the gun that sucked the life out of it.

"It looks like I killed our brother- But I-"

"The police won't accept any buts! Your story sounds shady enough as it is!" Max exclaimed.

"Yup. It sure does. Story sounds interesting enough to spark my interest, though," said a guy sitting cross-legged, elbow on his knee propping up his head. He had placed himself in the doorway adjacent to the front door and has slouched there like he belonged.

Both of the boys jumped and asked the obvious questions: "Who are you!" and "How did you get in our house!"

"Kyle Windfield," the dark haired boy pointed his thumb over his shoulder, "Back door was unlocked." He made these two statements like he was a celebrity they should have known and like his course of action was more natural and expected than it really was.

Both brothers stared at him, mouths open. Kyle looked between the two of them, waiting like he had all day to finish this conversation.

Max decided to take charge as the older brother. "So, you... What... Why," he stammered, still at a loss of words. Kyle raised his eyebrows, urging Max on. "What do you expect to happen here?"

"I wanna help," Kyle stated like this was the answer to clarify everything strange he had done up until this point. He waited for the recognition that he didn't get and sighed, "You know, because I'm a Windfield?"

Max furrowed his brow, "Meaning..?"

"Windfield!" Kyle spread out his arms and started flailing them about in grand gestures, "You know! Live in that big, old mansion just outside the city? Own the orphanage? Saved the town from that dragon a few years back?"

Recognition crossed Noah's face, followed by newfound confusion, "I thought those people were special?"

"I am special!" Kyle exclaimed and pointed at his face, "Purple eyes? Isn't that clearly something inhuman?!"

Noah shrugged, "The rumors in the school were just you'll-know-one-when-you-see-one. Nothing about you screams Windfield..."

"I'm screaming Windfield! I'm as Windfield as they come! I'm the Windfieldy-est! I'm both a Shadow and a Guardian of Death! Doesn't get much more Windfield than that!"

"Of course it does," remarked a girl sitting on the end table near the front door stated, "Give it a rest. You're embarrassing all of us." She shifted her red-eyed gaze to the brothers with an expression that seemed to reach out and pierce their souls with a spear of fear.

"Y-you're Alice Windfield! The Nightmare!" Noah exclaimed.

"Aw, come on!" Kyle threw his hands in the air. Alice grinned and stood up, flicking a strand of black hair out of her face.

"W-what are you d-d-" Max stuttered.

"I'm here to help with your situation," she said with a glance at the body in the corner, "First things first. Are you sure he's dead?"

"Pretty damn sure," Max stared at the hole a bullet had put through the young man's head.

"Hmmm," Kyle slid over to the body, poked it, sniffed it, poked the wound, tasted the blood on his finger, shuddered, sniffed it again, and felt for a pulse. "This man," Kyle said with a heavy tone and dramatic pause, "Is dead." Like this was shocking news.

Max rolled his eyes.

"Why did you have to smell it twice..?" Noah questioned.

"It's a Guardian of Death thing," Kyle said mysteriously.

"It's a moron thing," Alice corrected.

"Nobody asked you, devil woman!"

Alice snickered and turned her attention to the boys, "So, would you like help from the daughter of a goddess?"

"And a Guardian of Death!" Kyle added.

"And her useless, not-related-by-blood brother?" Alice rephrased the addition.

Kyle grumbled something under his breath. Alice raised an eyebrow at him and looked back at the boys.

Max and Noah exchanged looks. Noah shrugged. Max eyed Alice, "What's the catch?"

Alice shrugged, "I dunno. Pansy, what's the catch?"

Kyle glared at her with his arms folded like a defiant toddler, "You'll have to travel with Satan's evil twin sister, possibly risk your lives, and whatever else happens on the way."

Max furrowed his brow, unhappy with the uncertainty. What choice would be best to help Noah? Maybe both Noah and Travis?

The faint sound of approaching sirens sounded. Noah's eyes got big. "Max..." He looked up at his brother with pleading eyes.

"Fine!" Max huffed, "We're in! What do you need us to do?"

"Oh?" Alice raised an eyebrow, "That quickly?"

"Finally!" Kyle threw his hands in the air! "We get to go home! Okay, the first thing you guys have to do is both of you have to die," Kyle said, pulling a hole out of his pocket which he slapped onto the floor like a cartoon.

"What..?" Noah froze.

"Are you crazy?!" Max cried.

"Probably," Kyle said with a shrug, giving both of the boys a kick.

"Wait a miiiiinnnnuuuuu-!" Max screamed as he fell.

Kyle scooped up the gun and body, tossing both into the hole. "After you."

"Oh, by all means," Alice said with a tone of genuine sincerity that contrasted her facial expression, "Ladies first."

"Goddammit Alice!" Kyle pushed Alice, "You know I have to close the barrier behind myself!"

Alice laughed at her older brother's expense and dove into the hole. Kyle sighed and shook his head, "That woman... Gonna kill us all some day." He took a careful step down, hanging over the edge. He started to peel up the the hole at the edges like a sticker. Once he had a firm grip, he slid over the edge down the hole, pulling the edge in with him. Just like that, they all fell to their deaths.