One Left
"PLEA- "
Aborted coughs cut their cry short, leaving them to heave in gulps of acrid smoke. Tears streamed down their face, slowly washing away the blackened dirt and blood staining their skin until heavy drops clung along their chin and fell to the floor.
Surrounding them on all sides were hungry flames that climbed the walls and licked along the ceiling. The place was groaning and crackling, boards snapping and falling in bursts of embers and flame. It was deafening, a living hell that encroached closer and closer to the crying body stuck in the middle.
"Don't leave me! God, don't leave me!" Their body was broken and screaming in pain. They tried to drag their mangled limbs across the boiling floor, but they lacked the strength to pull their dead weight. A flailing arm reached out to the figure beyond the flames. The coldness of their gaze was a cruel contrast to the overbearing heat. The figure remained still, watching the hopeless soul hack up cough after cough as little rivulets of blood and saliva drooled from their mouth. Their lip curled. Disgusting.
"No! NO! Please! Don't leave me here! DON'T LEAVE ME! "
Large chunks of burning debris crashed around them and covered up their cries. Their throat was raw and bloody, but their turmoil was incessant as they pleaded to the retreating back of the figure. The figure was more focused on spinning around and walking away, leaving them to burn.
Reaching the exit, the Whumper stepped through the archway to join their awaiting men. A lackey kicked the door closed behind them as others carried heavy crates to block it. A precaution.
The Whumper moved forward steadily, kicking up the dirt beneath their boots until they reached their mark. Arms held behind them by one of the Whumper’s larger men was the Whumpee who quickly tried to shuffle back from the Whumper with wide eyes. The man holding them growled and shoved them with a tighter grip, silently commanding them to cut it the fuck out. Still, the Whumpee stepped back again, almost involuntary. The man wrenched their head back by the hair and shoved their face into the side of the Whumpee's.
"Stop. Moving."
The Whumpee obeyed, but all that time their eyes never left the Whumper, and the Whumper never stopped looking back. With the now still Whumpee, the Whumper moved in closer and took a gentle hold of their chin. The fear coming from the Whumpee was palpable, so potent that it could bring a full smile to the Whumper’s face, but deep within the reflected flames in their eyes was an anger that if left alone, could fester. Now, we can't have that.
"You’re not leaving them, ar--"
"I don't like disobedience, (Whumpee's name)." The crackling of flames filled the silence. The Whumpee swallowed but their gaze never wavered. With a defiant flicker, they opened their mouth to speak, but the Whumper cut in, clear in their motive to nip this rising problem in the bud.
"Don't disappoint me."
With a flick of their wrist, they flung the Whumpee's chin from their hand and stepped around them. The man holding the Whumpee kicked them behind their knees. The Whumpee just barely caught themselves on their hands when they fell. In the next moment, they were grabbed by two other men who picked them up and dragged them back to the awaiting vehicles.
As the framing of the building began to creak and fall, a piercing scream erupted into the night sky, only to be cut short like the blast of a firing gun. The Whumper slammed the car door behind them and watched the building fall in on itself through the rear view mirror.
Two birds, one stone. They eyes flickered over to the Whumpee curled up between two of the Whumper's men, silhouettes framed by an orange and yellow glow.
And a third on the horizon.
