Shelter

I looked at the burning room with terror. Almost everything was on fire, except some waterproof stuff. It was getting difficult to breathe in the smoke. I felt as if my lungs were going to explode any moment then.

I scanned the hall for my friends, but all I could see was smoke all around.

"Will..." I coughed. The fire was getting huge and I feared that what will happen to the people down. If the fire continued to spread with this phase, it would engulf the whole museum.

"Adrian!" I heard Isabella's voice from somewhere. She gripped my arm and pulled me. "Listen, we're going to jump off the window."

"We're going to WHAT!?" before I could even think about the situation, Isabella jumped outside and obviously because she was holding my hand, I was experiencing a little reduction in my weight, loss of thinking ability and a phenomenon called gravity. In short : I was falling! And screaming.

"What the heck!" I screamed on top of my voice.

But just that instantly, I felt a warm blanket of air around me. The acceleration of my fall was decreasing. I looked around. Isabella and Will were floating too.

"Umm... guys... what's happening?" I asked, still in a daze. But looking at their faces, it was obvious that they didn't know.

We slowly landed on the road. Fortunately, nobody saw us otherwise, it would have been really hard to explain how three kids came flying out of nowhere.

"What just happened?" Will looked clueless and Isabella looked just the same. None of us had any idea about what just happened.

But the air felt... familiar, like... I should have known. But I already had some serious matter to deal with. I just couldn't bear the weight of another mystery on my head!

"Leave it. We have more important things to bother about." I sighed. I had finally given in to the strangeness of my life. Now if anything is normal than... it's pretty dangerous.

"Okay" Isabella said, but she still looked troubled. "What about those attackers? Who were they?" she asked as she glanced at the burning building.

"Hey! Asking 'what', 'why' and 'who' is my area of expertise. You can't take that! " I said sarcastically, but Isabella glared at me so intensely that almost made me regret doing so.

"Umm... sorry." I cleared my throat. "So since we don't know, moving ahead is our best bet." I offered and Will nodded in agreement.

We made our way from the museum to a silent, dark street. Isabella had said that it's best for us to move forward more stealthily.

'Why not? Three kids with some dangerous weapons and tattered clothes, walking in deadly silent streets. Nope. Not peculiar at all.' I thought. Will and Isabella couldn't shrink their weapons. They were too exhausted to perform a spell.

I remembered how Will changed his spear into a bow.

"Will, that was your arrow, right? I mean... it caused the fire."

Will silently nodded as if he was regretful of something. "Archery is a skill that all the descendents and children of Apollo are destined to master. I summoned a flame arrow just to distract him... but... I ended up burning the whole museum."

"Hey, it's okay." Isabella tried to console him, but it seemed like it was not going to work.

"There were so many people in the museum and I... " his voice broke. It was evident that he was blaming himself for everything and it shattered him. But honestly, that's how I'd feel if I had been the one risking the lives of many people.

"Will, we'll think about that later. Right now we should be worrying about a shelter." I told them. "Sun will set in about... an hour at best and I don't want to roam around the streets like a ghost."

"Hmm... but where will we go?" Isabella asked and I didn't know the answer.

"We should try and look for... Umm...we should start looking at least!" I said, uncertain of my words, but I didn't know what else to say.

***

We had been walking for an hour now. The sun had long set and the stars glimmered in the night sky. The traffic on the road was decreasing as every minute passed by. Finally all the shops and malls were closed.

The street seemed to be abandoned with just three kids wandering around.

"We have been walking like this for AGES!" I complained though I was the one who suggested it. My legs couldn't go on any longer.

Then... I saw light coming from a sweets shop.