Chapter b Lynx

"Oh God, you're serious." Emi broke her gaze. "And where will we meet afterwards?"

Iggy shut his eyes. "At the murder house. I'll go straight there," he lied.

"No," she refused. "If any of us are heading out in the daylight, we're all going. You're going. I'm not leaving you behind, no matter what." She held tight to his hand. "Believe me. You are going to be OK. I won't let you die here, alone." She laid her palm against his chilled cheek. "I promise."

He bowed his head. "Of course."

"Hey Takeshi!" she hollered up the stairs. He appeared at the top step with a bag dangling in his hand. Emi reached into her pocket, withdrew a key ring and chucked it up to him. He caught it and looked down at it in his palm.

"Car keys?" he asked.

"Yeah, I was planning on stealing it, but if I touch the ignition, it will kill the battery."

"So…-" he glanced over his shoulder at the locked front door "-you want me to go out there, in broad daylight?"

"Precisely, and with the black-out blanket, of course!"

Hunched over, and blindly wrapped head to toe in the black-out blanket, Takeshi waddled out through the front door. Even the slightest gleam of light was hot. From the shaded kitchen window, Emi hollered, "left, step ten, right one, forward ten," until Takeshi bumped into the back of Lot's car. He rounded it and got into the driver's seat, then he peeked out from the blanket and started the engine. He reversed the car until the trunk pressed into the front door. After throwing it into park, he turned around and crawled through the back seat passageway into the trunk, where he came into the front of the house.

Emi was fast to pack the trunk with the bag full of knives and the few handguns Takeshi had found. "This bag is so heavy. What did you put in here?" she asked him.

"Everything that I found," Takeshi replied casually. "Three handguns and a couple dozen knives."

"You found them so quick."

Iggy stepped forward and asked weakly, "you'll be able to find Baine?"

Takeshi smirked. "I find anything that my heart desires. I promise you, my King, we will find your brother." Takeshi wrapped the blanket around himself like a hijab and crawled back through the trunk to the driver's seat and he flipped the back passage door shut that locked the sun out of the trunk area.

Emi headed down the stairs. "I'll get your friend," she offered. She came to Becca's room, and just stood there staring at her with hot disapproval. Becca squirmed beneath the glare, until she awoke, and looked up at Emi who was leaning against her door frame biting her lip. Without explanation, Emi simply said, "we're leaving. Come with me."

Becca rose from her bed like a plank, too solid to bend much, then she hobbled past Emi into the hallway. While following Becca back up the stairs, Emi kicked a hard object and she paused. It was a video camera with the view screen half open, and an image illuminating Iggy's face. She picked up a shard of wood from the floor and jiggled the camera screen fully open without touching it with her hands, then she poked play.

On the first floor, Iggy turned around to see Becca, half dressed and less awake than all, standing at a tilt behind him. She was unaware of what was happening, but compliantly going with the flow. She approached the car parked in the front entrance and looked down at the small trunk. "Where are we going?" she managed to ask sluggishly.

Iggy slipped his hand along the top edge of her shoulders. He dipped his nose down into her hair and inhaled the lovely smell of vanilla. "To safety, I hope," he whispered. He kissed her forehead, and guided her closer to the car.

On the ceilings, the light bulbs flickered and made a buzzing noise. A pungent smell of smoke saturated the air. Iggy tucked Becca into the trunk and looked back at the stairs for Emi. Flames climbed up the walls from the lower level. He ran to the railing and peered down below into the rising smoke. "Emi!" he screamed, reaching out a hand. "Emi!"

The electrical storm swarming around her caught everything around her in flames. The bulbs shattered one by one until they burst. Sparks flew out of wall outlets. She looked up the stairs. Her black eyes filled with anger and jealousy. She clutched the video camera tight in her hand, cracking it in her grip, and she hurled it up at him. "What the hell is this?!" Her voice was utterly demonic. Multiple voices overlapping one another.

Watching the camera rolling across the floor, Iggy lifted his hands. "It's not what you think!"

The electricity around her grew in intensity, her voice transmuted deeper, and with each step she ignited a stair into flame. "It isn't?! It's very clear to me now what that whore means to you! She's the reason why you didn't bother to find me, isn't it?"

"It's not like that," Iggy shook his head. "I swear, it's not. I could never replace you, Emi. Never. You're the one and only one for me. We didn't have a choice. There were drugs, and Aster and Lot. They had us here as slaves!" Iggy gestured toward the trunk. "Please. I need your help, now. I need someone to help me protect her. I can't take back what I've done."

Emi's power lessened. Her body settled. The electricity reabsorbed itself, and she stood staring at him scornfully. As the house flooded with smoke and fire, Emi shouted, "fine! But, I'm still angry!" She marched to the trunk and rolled inside, shoving Becca far into the corner.

"Where…?" Becca dared to say.

Iggy cut her off, "we are going to help someone very dear to me." He ground his teeth and swallowed back the tears. He bent in as if he were also going to roll inside too, and starting with Emi, he pecked kisses onto each of their lips. Then, he slammed the trunk door shut. Unknowing that Iggy was staying behind, Takeshi floored the gas pedal and the car zoomed off into daylight.

Iggy walked backwards to the top of the stairs, spread his arms, and jumped back into the flames. The fire crawled up the walls around him and a thunderous cloud of blistering hot smoke bellowed high above, falling down, coming closer, and since the fall definitely didn't do him in, maybe he'd suffocate, instead. He'd be a goner either way, just as he wanted. He lifted his chin and looked straight into the dark abyss looming overhead and he smiled.