Tension's Like a Fire

They had decided to put the plan into action as soon as they could. That meant to them that very night.

She was packing her bags because she was “going home” as part of the ruse to catch the people who wanted her.

Alex had been gone most of the day, actually pretty much since shortly after he came up with the idea at 10 that morning and it was about 5.

She was alone in the room they shared and was holding back her fearful tears. Her body was trembling like it had so many times, only this time it wasn’t from being cold.

She didn’t want to do this.

Well, she did because she wanted Sally back more than anything but she was afraid things wouldn’t go as planned.

She stopped only having a few more articles of clothing to go. She put her hand to her forehead in attempts to calm herself down to no avail. The tears that she’d been holding back began to slip by her defenses. It wasn’t long until she was sobbing softly.

She didn’t even hear the door open.

“Jazz.” Arms wound around her pulling her into his chest. “Hey, hey, hey, why are you crying?” Alex’s voice sounded soothing as he rubbed her back lightly.

“I’m terrified.” She answered honestly. She couldn’t lie here.

“You’ll be fine I promise. You‘re going to be safe and so is Sally and we‘re going to get her back. Got it.” He said cupping her cheeks to make her look at him.

“Alex, things don’t always work out the way you plan.” She said as more tears rolled down her face for Alex to only wipe them away with his thumbs.

“Don’t worry, there’s always plan B.” He said quietly with a soft smile playing on his lips before pulling her in for a kiss.

Her lips responded instantly, without any of the hesitation her brain had as it questioned what the hell was happening.

Her hands went to his sides only for a moment before moving up his back stopping to grip his shoulders to pull him closer. Making the kiss deeper signaling for them both to open their mouths and let their tongues dance in the limbo between mouths.

She was afraid she was going to die, she wasn’t going to go out without one last grand hurrah.

He followed her lead dropping his hands from her face, his right finding her hip instantly the other hitting it’s corresponding hip after a short moment of no contact with her body at all. His hands slid to the small of her back pulling her body even closer as they remained attached as if the only way for them to breathe was for them to steal the air from each other’s lungs.

Their kiss differed from the dream kiss in one main way, the love in this kiss was non-existent this was a kiss that needed to happen, a lustful kiss.

Slowly his left hand began to slip south and she didn’t do a damn thing to stop him.

***

“Now Jazz, you know we’re going to be hanging around listening and watching. You’ve got nothing to worry about.” Rian assured as he sat her bag down next to the coffee table in her destroyed living room.

She smiled lightly even though on the inside she was panicking.

“Bye, Jazzy pants.” Jack said as he hugged her.

“Bye Barakitten.” She smiled proud of her nickname.

“Good, but not original. We’ll have to work on that later.” He joked as he pulled away. “Plus there’s one person who called me that in particular that made it special.”

“So Sally’s the only one who can call you Barakitten. Got it.” She said smiling still playing tough for the rest of the guys.

Alex could see straight through it because he knew better.

“No bitch I’m the only one allowed to call him that. Step off my man!” Alex shouted trying to make her laugh before they left her.

She did laugh. “Whatever Alex, Jack knows what he wants don’t hold him back just because it isn‘t you!” She tossed back.

“Oh my God they’ve turned her into one of them.” Rian said as he laughed.

“Just when we thought there’d finally be more normal people than crazies.” Zack joked than stepped up pulling Jazz to him in a soft embrace. “Bye Jazz.”

“Bye Zack.” She said as they released each other.

Rian stood there looking at her with a smile.

She smiled back and held her arms out. “Bye Rian.”

This goodbye was meant to look as authentic as possible incase someone was watching, they really hoped they weren’t listening though. They wouldn’t have felt okay leaving Jazz without reminding her that she was still safe.

Rian stepped away and Jazz turned back to Alex and took a meaningful step toward him.

“Alex.” She said simply.

“Jazz.” He said back in the same tone smiling down at her.

“Take care of yourself.” She said smiling a coy smile.

The other guys decided they should walk out. Secretly hoping there’d be “a moment” because they were hoping for him to be with her. If only they’d known about what happened earlier today they’d be throwing a party, popping the corks off champagne bottles.

“I’ll be too busy taking care of you.” He said as he finally pulled her to him with his hands resting low on her back.

She pulled away to look at him and smiled bigger, charmed by him. She ran her hand over the side of his face gently. “Goodbye Alex.”

“See ya soon Jazz.” He said trying to figure out exactly what he was supposed to do.

She pulled away seeing his questioning look. Seeing that he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. She just solved his problem.

He smiled one last time and walked out the door.

She locked the door behind him and turned to lean her back on it so she could look at the apartment.

“I need to make this place livable again.” She muttered to herself before pushing herself off the door and getting to work on putting the place back together.

Over an hour later the place could be maneuvered through she figured that meant she could take a break.

She decided to go for a run. She hadn’t been out jogging since the night the guys saved her and she missed it, plus she figured that if they came after her once when she was jogging they might do it again. She didn’t want to play the game of sitting and waiting. She wanted it over more than anything.

She went back to her room that was still a mess but the furniture was no longer overturned and changed into another of her jogging outfits. As she pulled the zipper of the jacket up her hands shook to the point that she almost couldn’t get the zipper all the way up.

“Fuck.” She muttered to herself. “Calm down Jazz, you’re going to be fine.” She talked herself down took a couple of deep breaths but she knew that this wouldn’t help her much. She knew that she wouldn’t actually be calm until she was running.

She struggled with putting on her shoes due to her shaking as well but once they were on she took one last deep breath and opened her door and started running.

She took the stairs like she always did so she wouldn’t have to stop running and wait for an elevator.

Soon enough she was on the city street taking her usual route.

She ran and began letting go. All her problems falling behind her like raindrops hitting the pavement. She was no longer an orphan that grew up in a foster home, no longer the kid that never had the option to go to college because the state only takes care of foster kids until they finish high school or turn 18 whichever comes first, no longer the young woman barely scraping together a meager existence with the help of her roommate, no longer the girl who’s best friend/roommate just disappeared, no longer the girl who feared for her life because she was being hunted. She simply was. Almost like she became part of a greater beast that is running. She wasn’t just performing the action that was running, she was running in a greater cosmic sense.

Except for the one thing she could never out run. The one problem that never fell to the wayside. The memory of the plane crash.

The thing that made her an orphan.

Once she realized this was the one thing still in her head she picked up speed like she always did. Running faster and harder trying to outrun the one thought that never failed to plague her.

She was almost home, reaching speeds she never had before and it finally began slipping away for the first time ever but it didn’t last.

She crashed into something, it felt like a brick wall, but it caught her before she could fall to the ground which totally discredited her brick wall theory. She looked into a massive black leather jacket clad chest and began looking up slowly but surely she came to face ‘Sleeper’ who towered over her 5’5” frame almost as much as Sally’s 5 foot frame. She couldn’t scream, she couldn’t struggle, she couldn’t move.

The guys were positioned all around the area. Jack had been using his power to float himself to follow her as high as he could but he lost her. He couldn’t levitate as fast as she could run, at least in that final stretch that is. He wondered why she just sped up like that but was more concerned with trying to catch up.

Alex was hiding a few fire escapes above hers just watching hers through the grates and focusing his full attention on listening to every sound inside her apartment.

Rian the one who probably should have been following her was actually taking a piss break at the McDonalds across the street and Zack was in the lobby pretending to read a magazine like he was waiting for someone to come meet him.

Unfortunately none of them were in the right place at the right time.

Jack caught up to her just in time to see Sleeper tossing the now unconscious Jazz into the back of a car.

He immediately lost focus and came crashing to the ground because this felt like strike two.

Now they had Sally and Jazz.