Chapter Three: I can get through this

Stephanie took a moment to look around them. She looked at the lake and something about it just seemed very off. No one likes dark water, the thought of unknown creatures swimming around her in the darkness was more than she could handle. The thought alone sent a chill down her spine. She climbed down the ledge onto some rocks, eventually reaching the sand. She walked up to the edge of the water. She wanted to dip her toe in to test it's temperature.

Suddenly the blue flame burned brightly and shot out embers on the sand. Stephanie took a step back and looked at them. It spelled out "Danger".

"Hmm, I suppose we will have to find another way."

The flame hovered up and down. It took a moment, before it got a burst of energy and began moving quite fast down the coast.

"Hey, wait!" She ran after it.

Suddenly it stopped. There on the right was a small dock, and on the end a rowboat. She couldn't believe she was gonna have to row this thing while he hovered pretty. Still she was greatful for his company. She climbed onto the dock. It was a bit shaky and very old. She walked slowly on it, and got into the boat while it rocked back and forth. She could swear she saw something swim away, but she decided to not look further into the matter and just get to the otherside as quick as possible.

"Ok let's do this"

The flame nestled into an old lantern hung at the end of the boat. She began rowing. It was a struggle at first, but once the boat gained momentum, it moved with ease.

She kept up the pace for as long as she could, eventually, she started to notice that the light around her started to seem to be more green than blue. She checked the lantern, but the flame was still the same. Looking around she noticed there was a green light coming from the lake. Actually on closer inspection it looked like two green flames coming up to the surface. The flames got closer and she began to see, the flames were in the eyes of what looked like a skull.

***

"Ah hey, you may wanna take a look at this!"

The flame woke from its slumber and hovered over the edge of the boat. Just then a rotten hand grabbed Stephanies arm.

"Aaah!Let me go!" She screamed and struggled to get free, hitting the arm to no avail.

The corpses head appeared over the edge. She stared at the flames in its eyes,and at that moment she stopped struggling, and smiled. She stood holding its hand, ready to jump in.

A burst of light appeared as a beam of fire shot at the corpse. A deafening screech filled the air as the lake lit up. Thousands of corpses swimming in a frenzy, like a school of fish being chased by a shark. They scattered and disappeared.

Stephanie woke up from her daze, rubbing her eyes, she looked up at the flame.

"Thank you." She said.

The flame hovered close for a while before heading back into the lantern. She gathered her courage and carried on.

She was close now to the town.The flame shot up in excitement. A dock ahead! She didn't bother docking the boat, there was no way she was doing that again. She jumped onto shore, rolling in the sand laughing.

"We did it!"

The blue flame transformed back into his human form, and he was laying on her. His naked body pressed up against her. His devilish smile sent a shiver up her spine.

"You're welcome, now it's time you do me a favour" He winked to her horror.

"Get off of me!"

She tried pushing him off, but he grabbed her wrist.

"Shhh. That's not what I want, well not now anyways. I want you to steal me some clothes from the market."

"Market? Ok just get off of me, and turn back into a flame while you are at it!" She said turning her head to face away from him.

"Oh no, I can't go there looking like that. They'll notice me, but I've got an idea." He smiled and looked at her.

She tensed up as his hand caressed her neck, moving down to her collar bone. He grabbed a necklace she was wearing, and studied it intensely. It was a silver necklace with a moonstone at the end. He looked up at her. Their eyes met with such intensity, he wanted to stay like that a while longer,but with a burst of light his blue flame hovered above her. It hovered there for a second more, before going into the crystal.

She held it in her hand, closing her eyes and picturing again what had happened. Remembering what he said when he was on top of her gave her butterflies, so she jumped up and started moving to try act like it didn't affect her.

"Let's just get this over with."

***

The hill was really steep. Stephanie took a deep sigh. At least there were lights everywhere now. Beautiful red lanterns hung on both sides of the streets. There were statues of creatures everywhere. It reminded her of the temples in Japan. With that thought her fear melted away.

She reached a fourway crossing and wondered which way she must go. She didn't want to ask him for help, so she decided to go with her gut, and follow the direction where all the people were heading. She would often get lost in tokyo, when she couldn't find a train station, she would just follow the masses, and it always worked so, she went to the right. There were buildings on this street and the further in she went, the more built up the street became.

She saw someone sitting on the pavement having a smoke. She approached him. Although she felt like she was going the right way, she would rather make sure and not waste her time.

"Sorry, do you know where the market is?"

"Ah you must be new around here. Yeah, just take your first left and then another right. You can't miss it."

"Ah, thank you."

He looked at her a little while. He felt like he knew her, but she walked away before he could say anything.

Finally the market. She could see why he said you couldn't miss it. It took up the whole street, and people were everywhere shouting for people to come buy whatever it was they were selling. The stalls were small and she wasn't exactly sure how she would get away with stealing anything. She walked through the crowd. People didn't really move for her, so she found herself dodging them constantly.

She moved over to the side to take a break and check the stalls. She saw one selling clothing. The clothes were different from what the men wore back home. They were long shirt dresses with baggy sleeves that went to your elbow. Pretty plain looking except for a small pattern on the v-neck collar. She was sure it would fit him, and the temperature here was quite warm, so he would be comfortable.

She pretended to wait in line for the food at the stall next door. The people selling moved really quickly. She just needed them to sell something to someone facing the other direction, and just like that, her opportunity. She acted as if she was tired of waiting in line and walked past the clothing stall, grabbing one and putting it under her shirt. She weaved through the crowd, this time she was doing the pushing.

She got to the end of the street where there was a circle overlooking the dark lake. There were a few couples around so she went into the bushes on the side.

"Ok, here you go" She layed it down over a rock.

The flame swirled out of the necklace. She quickly turned around.

"Nice work ... Ok you can turn around now"

"Jeez that was quick...Uh.. You are still naked!"

"Ha, sorry I couldn't help myself. You are quite cute when you are angry you know...Ok seriously, you can turn around now."

She turned around looking at him and started laughing. He looked at her inquisitively.

"We forgot to get you shoes!"