Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The interior was larger than the twins had expected. The indoors mall was the largest building they had been in, since they had been living in the same small town for as long as they could remember. The place was absolutely crowded with people, as the twins had expected. They weren’t appreciative of the amount of people there, but it wasn’t something they could do anything about.

“Well, I have absolutely no idea on where to go.” Anthony pointed out.

“Me too, haven’t we only been here like one time with Infernus when we were a lot younger?” Ashley replied.

“I can barely remember. Even if we have been here before, it doesn’t look familiar at all. Let’s just start wondering around I guess.”

Ashley and Anthony began to explore the building, passing many stores that they had zero interest in. They walked past many people, but tried to avoid making eye contact due to their unfamiliarity of public outings.

“Not a single store looks interesting to me. Especially that one gothic looking place, someone must be desperate for attention if they shop there.” Ashley said.

“I noticed a video game shop, but fifty bucks won’t be getting me much of anything. I don’t even know how to play video games, thanks to working in a glass shop all my life.”

“You know better than to put down the Glassery, especially after what Infernus has done for us.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess being at this dumb mall isn’t as good for me as he thought it would be.”

“Well, there’s a directory thing over there, we might as well take a look at it.”

Ashley and Anthony looked through the lists of stores on the directory.

“Whoa, are you seeing what I’m seeing? They have a skateboard shop here! I’ve always wanted to get into skateboarding.” Anthony said.

“Hey, that sounds like a great idea, I’ll bet we could do some really cool tricks on their boards.” Ashley replied.

They hurried over to the skateboarding section, happy to finally find something that interested them. There was a half-pipe available, and many boards on display to use.

“Hey, how’s it hanging? I’m Gus.” said the cashier. “You two lookalikes want to try out some skateboarding?”

“You know it, man.” Anthony replied.

“Aight, I’ll grab two boards for the dude and chick, give me just a sec.”

Gus reached under the counter and pulled out two boards with flame designs on them. The twins weren’t surprised for this coincidence to happen, since flames sell a board well.

“You two give these boards a shot on the rink, and we’ll see if you’re interested in buying them. Take a helmet and some body protection too, I don’t care how ‘cool’ you might think it is to go without them.”

The twins suited up and entered the rink.

“This isn’t hard at all.” Ashley said as she started rolling across the ground on her board.

“That’s just moving; I doubt you can do any tricks yet.”

“We’ll see about that, how about you get started on some practice?”

Anthony decided to listen to his sister and start getting a feel for his board. After a half hour of getting a feel for the boards, Anthony noticed that Ashley was at the top of the half-pipe, already eager to head down.

“Watch this, Anthony!” Ashley sped down the hill and cleanly came up on the other side.

“I can do that too!” Anthony climbed to the top of the ramp, and prepared to go down. As he went down, he accidentally lost balance and fell backwards off of his board, tumbling to the middle of the half-pipe. Ashley ran over to check on him.

“You all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“I’ll leave you to practice then.” Ashley skated away to a different section of the skating rink.

“Pretty sick fall you had.” A girl suddenly spoke up.

“Ugh, why did you have to see that.” Anthony  groaned.

“Cheer up; most of us have been there when we first skate. I’m Cassie.” The girl reached out to shake Anthony’s hand. Anthony shook it back.

“I’m Anthony. I’m here with my twin sister Ashley over there.” He pointed her out to Cassie.

“She definitely looks like you. Where’d you both get those contacts that made your eyes orange?”

“What?”

“Did you buy them here or somewhere else? Those orange contacts look pretty cool.”

Anthony realized she had taken awareness of his irregular eye color, and he realized that he’d better make up a lie quick.

“We got them somewhere else, but I can’t remember the name. It’s been a while.” He lied to her.

“Oh well, that would have been cool to know.”

Ashley came back over to Anthony, after realizing that he was actually talking to someone.

“Who’s the chick?”

“This is Cassie, sis. She saw my not-so-gracious first trick.”

“How long have you been skating?” Ashley asked her.

“Over a year, and I come here pretty frequently. Especially with all the ‘no skateboarding’ signs posted just about everywhere.”

“That’s pretty cool.” Ashley replied. “Maybe you could teach us beginners some things you know.”

“I’ve never taught anything before, but I’ll see what I can do. Might as well do all I can for my new twin friends.”

Ashley and Anthony were thrilled to be in the presence of someone new, and being able to enjoy a shared interest.

“It’s been fun, but we need to get back to our, uh, uncle.” Ashley said.

“That’s cool, and if you come back here, you’ll most likely find me here. Have a good one.” Cassie replied.

Ashley and Anthony headed out of the rink.

“How were the boards?” Gus asked.

“They were good.” The twins replied. “We’re thinking about purchasing them.”

“Great!” Gus exclaimed. “I’ll ring you both up over here.”

Once the boards were purchased, the twins knew it would be time to get back to Infernus. They made their way out of the mall, and started their trip back to the Glassery.

“I was not expecting to interact with anyone.” Anthony said while they were riding the bus.

“Oh yeah, hanging with Cassie seemed really natural.”

“Do you remember what she said? She called us her friends. I think she’s the first average human for us to be friends with.”

“I guess so. Looks like something good definitely came out of today. Maybe we can even persuade Infernus to let us hang with her again.”

The bus finally dropped them at the last stop, and they started their way to where the Glassery was located.

“Oh god!” Anthony let out.

“What?” Ashley exclaimed.

Anthony pointed towards Infernus’s Glassery, to reveal the building extremely damaged with smoke flying up everywhere. The twins sprinted as fast as they could to the wreckage, their hearts pounding against their chests and their eardrums banging.

“INFERNUS!” They screamed as they entered through a massive whole in the wall. The entire shop was a disaster, with glass shards in every direction and the building’s foundation scattered in the mix.

“INFERNUS, WHERE ARE YOU?” They both shoved debris around, suffering cuts in their hands from the broken products. Finally, a heavy cough came from a corner of the store. The twins located Infernus, who was half-buried under rubble. He didn’t look good at all, suffering cuts all over his body.

“Ashley…Anthony…” He let out weakly.

“Infernus, what the hell happened here?!” Ashley shrieked. “Who did this to you?”

“It was…looking for you…both of you.” He wheezed.

“What was?!” Anthony yelled.

“…A metallic rhinoceros…it crashed through the wall and looked everywhere for something…I was nothing but an obstacle for it to shove aside.”

“We’ve got to get you to the hospital!” Ashley wailed.

“No use…I’ve lost a dangerous amount of blood from the incisions…Listen, I am so proud of you both, Ashley and Anthony…you will grow into the strongest fire warriors this world has ever seen…I’m sure of it…I’m glad to have been your teacher.” Infernus gave his parting breath and left the twins alone with his body.

Ashley and Anthony lost it. Immediately, a pure rage of destruction and the most horrible of curses flowed from them. Both of their bodies were 100% fire, and they kicked and threw the debris of the wasteland wherever it would go. About an hour later, they finally began to lose their rage filled energy.

“He’s gone.” Ashley growled. “Just like that.”

“We should have never gone to that mall! We could have been here to protect him! It’s all our fault!”

“No! It’s that monster’s that Infernus mentioned! Whoever created it is responsible, and they must suffer from their actions by our fiery hands on their throats!”

Ashley and Anthony were certain of one thing; Infernus’s death would not go unpunished.

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Chapter 5

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Chapter 7