Kinetics: In Search of Willow Read Free Page A

caught in the same
hallucination, and a sinking feeling in my gut told me it was only
a matter of time before it would also happen to me.
    Not before I find
Willow,  I scolded myself.
    Willow had to be safe.
    I ran past a wall of windows which
should have offered a view of the schoolyard and skidded to a
halt.
    The fire that we had seen from the
back door of the gym was outside these windows too, and I felt
myself start to shut down again.
    Willow,  I reminded myself.  I have
to keep going.
    The fire was at least three stories
high, but as I sprinted past the windows, I noticed that the fire
had no source other than the grass. What was feeding it? Was it
surrounding the whole school?
    I looked away, determined to make it
to Willow's classroom before the fire or whatever was afflicting
the others could get to me.
    Finally, I reached her classroom, but
she wasn't there.
    I shouted her name over the chaos of
voices and screams. I searched the faces of people sprawled in the
hallways and into the classrooms, but I saw no sign of
her.
    I began running from room to room,
kicking doors open and repeatedly shouting her name. I skidded into
the main hallway and stumbled to a stop.
    Willow was standing across the expanse
of the hallway staring at another girl whose back was facing
me.
    The other girl was unaffected by the
insanity around us. I couldn't see her face, but I saw messy blond
hair. Her shoulders rose and fell harshly as she
breathed.
    I slid behind an overturned table and
watched the silent, staring battle between the two girls. Willow
took a step forward. The other girl, who I vaguely recognized as a
transfer from a few weeks ago, stood her ground but clenched her
fists.
    Willow took another step forward. Her
eyes never blinked, never wavered. Beads of sweat trailed down her
brow. Her expression was more intense than I'd ever
seen.
    I shifted behind the table, and my
foot knocked into a jar and it rattled across the floor. The other
girl's head snapped in my direction, and fierce blue eyes found
me.
    Suddenly, I wasn't in the school
anymore. Instead I was surrounded by a hurricane of fire. It roared
and hot winds circled around me, whipping my clothes.
    "Stop!" I shouted, but the fire closed
in. The heat was nearly unbearable. I wanted to close my eyes but
they wouldn't close.
    “ It's
all your fault, Eugene,”   whispered a familiar voice in
my mind, resonating through my skull and into my bones. As I heard
the words, a face protruded from the fire and a flame shot out at
me.
    “ You
should never have been born ,”  said another voice, louder
this time. Another face. Another flame.
    “ You
could have killed us all,”  shouted a third voice. A third face appeared, and the three
joined together, whispering and shouting their hatred.
    The voices. They were the voices and
the faces of my mother, my father and my brother. All rolled into
one judgmental, three-headed fire beast. From the waves of flame,
licking at my heels and my face, the beast circled me, growling
angrily. My family stared down at me, their faces reflecting the
hatred in their words.
    "You killed, us
Eugene," it said, the faces
bobbing. "You made us die because you were
too weak."
    Their voices had merged,
creating an entirely new one.
    "No," I said. "No, I didn't mean to!
I'm sorry!"
    I shielded my eyes against the hot
glare of the fire beast.
    "TOO
LATE!"  it screeched, and the monster
rose up like a snake preparing to strike.
    I covered my head with my arms,
yelling, "I'm sorry!"
    The monster struck, but when it did,
the fire exploded around me and dissipated, leaving me in total
darkness.
    I spun around, reaching with my hands
to find something, anything. The darkness was so absolute that I
couldn't see my hands in front of my face. My breath sounded loudly
in the silence.
    I reached down in the darkness to
touch the floor, but there was nothing there.
    I was standing on air.
    My heart beat faster. What if I fell?
What would I fall