Bombastic pt 14
The door buzzed, an angry sound as if it were irritated someone dared open it. Serena placed the back of her hand to it like she’d seen Vas do, not entirely sure what she was looking for. “Feels cool to me,” she reported.
Vas smiled. “Trust me if there was a fire behind that door. You would know right away.” He assured the kid . “Pro tip rabbit. When you open the door, always stand to the side, never in front. Just in case, go on then, you unlocked the code so it’s all on you to open the door.” He said with a tick of his head.
Serena stood off to the side and cracked open the door, looking down the stairwell. “Looks clear,” she told him. “Smells a little like smoke.”
“Good, hopefully the fire is above us. We gotta move fast rabbit cuz fire moves faster. So unless you wanna get to cook, we gotta double time it. Hope you got a little gas left in that tank of yours.” Vas said, looking up and down the stairwell for the glow of fire.
“I can make it the rest of the way,” she reminded him. “You go first on account of your legs are longer.”
“Yea but then there's no way you can keep up. Cuz the longer legs and all that … and you definitely don’t wanna be left behind do ya?” Vas said ambling ahead.
“I won’t be,” she assured him, “promise!”
“Okaaayyy.” He said with a wry smile and eagerly started taking the steps two and three at a time. Vas was eager to get out of here but he wasn’t above a little fun now that it felt like they were at the homestretch. “Hop, hop, hop, rabbit!”
Going down was easier than going up, and though she couldn’t take steps more than one at a time, she somewhat managed to keep up, hitting the landing just before Vas hit the one below, near a full flight of stairs ahead. The sprinklers weren’t making it any easier, she was cold, wet, tired, and the gravity of everything had yet to set in. There was no warm, safe bed to look forward to. No sneaking to the kitchen for a snack. No classes to go to in the morning. Everything was just… gone.
Vas whooped having opted to slide down the railing, flailed when he hit the slick landing and thumped into the wall. “I'm okay!” He said rubbing his head. “It’s slippery …” He said stating the obvious.
“Yeah huh,” Serena agreed, holding onto the railing. “How much further?”
“Almost there. All the water will keep the fire away too, looks like we finally got a bone tossed our way.” Vas brimmed fully soaked. “Also don’t swallow the sprinkler water it’s gross.”
“I won’t…” Serena promised. “I didn’t even know we had so much water!”
“That's how sprinklers work.” Vas said going down the stairs a bit more carefully now. “Man I'm so hungry I can’t wait to get back and eat.”
“How far is it?” Serena asked. “An’ how are we gonna get there?”
“Home? No idea how far. But like I said we'll need to find a phone and call ‘em for a pickup. Super easy … I'm so raggin' on my mates for leaving me behind. I keep telling ‘em I'm do handsome to die and to the idea that a little explosion could kill me! No faith in me at all!” Vas said smugly.
Serena was going to remind him that it did kill two Erinyes, and they were super pretty, but decided against it. Right now, the hellhound was all she had left. “Don’t you have one? Or… just the broken radio?” She asked.
“Just the busted one.” Vas shrugged. “I may be badass but the radio? Less so.” Vas stopped short at the end of the landing and windmilled his arms to keep from falling over. “Whoa … that's a sudd drop …” He said looking over the edge the stair to the lower landing was destroyed and the bit’s left clearly unstable.
Serena sat on the landing above, not caring if it was in a puddle, her shoulders slumping. “We don’t hafta go back up, do we?” She half whined.
Vas scooped Serna up in his arms. “Nah … you’re gonna wanna hold tight …” He said stepping back all the way t the back wall and taking a couple of deep breaths.
Serena clung to him, “Holding tight!” She said, squeezing her eyes tight.