Playing With Fire by Jordan Mendez Read Free Book Online

morning, and my stomach had
just about had it. I tore open the drawers in my desperate search for a scrap
of food. I didn’t care if I had to fight a mouse for it, I was going to get my
food as soon as possible.
    “Hey,
Bookworm,” I called out in frustration. “Where do you keep the food in this
dump?”
    Air
whizzed by my ear, and was followed by a sharp pain. I yelped, more from
surprise than pain, but still I grabbed my throbbing ear.
    “Scarlet!
Show some respect!” Jake scolded me. Jake was just about the only person that
didn’t hesitate to punish me when I acted badly. He didn’t do it much though.
He did it for the bookworm because he was the only person who had ever shown us
kindness.
    The
Bookworm didn’t pay any attention. He was too busy staring out the window, with
a somewhat shocked and disbelieving expression. We all gazed out the window
along with him in curiosity. It didn’t seem very interesting to me. The people
on the streets were walking in one direction: to the center of the town. There
were the richer citizens, and some of the middle class, but the ones that were
seen the most were the lowest class and homeless. Most of the homeless were
adults, because homeless kids tended to die quickly, with the exception of my
family, who knew how to survive better than others. I was about to look away
when I realized something was off. Everyone’s eyes were the same color: so
light that they were almost white.
    Anyone
else wouldn’t think twice about it, but growing up where no ones’ eyes were
lighter than your own, it can be kind of weird seeing a bunch of people with
white eyes passing by. I looked harder, and realized that wasn’t the only part
that didn’t seem right. Every one outside had the same look on their face:
completely blank. Not Darren’s face when someone says something smart type of blank,
but genuine zombie like blank.
    “We
have to get out of here, now,” The bookworm said in a dark tone.  Without
warning he whipped around faster than I thought possible and bolted back
towards the stairs. “Get away from the window! Quickly, before any of you are
seen!” He called back to us.
    No
one hesitated. Jake and Al jumped behind the counter with me while Seth, Darren,
and Vaze shot behind a bookcase. No one moved, and I wouldn’t be surprised if
no one breathed either. The way the bookworm ordered us to hide so suddenly
made it feel like if we moved we’d be discovered. I was pretty sure none of us
knew exactly why we had to hide from the people outside. They weren’t even
paying attention to their surroundings, which was obvious by the sound of one
of them walking headfirst into a streetlight.
    “As
quietly as you can children, come to the back,” The bookworm’s voice made its
way to us in hardly more than a whisper. Jake was the first to move. He slipped
through the space between the two halves of the counter like a ghost. Al
scrambled along after him with me at the rear. In less than a minute we were
standing before the bookworm again as he was putting out the fire in the
fireplace. In his arm was a bundle that looked about as big as me.
    The
bookworm laid the bundle onto the ground and unraveled it. Its contents
surprised me, because you probably can’t find these things in any bookstore.
What lay before us were my best friends: daggers. Heck, anything dangerous was
my best friend, unless of course it was trying to kill me. There were also
enough cloaks for all of us.
    “Throw
on a cloak and grab a dagger!” The bookworm had already grabbed a dagger and
was frantically putting a cloak over his shoulders. My brothers did the same
and I decided to follow their lead. Vaze had already gotten his things before
the bookworm started talking.
    “We
must get out of the town as soon as possible, before the Convergence begins.
Vaze and Scarlet would be fine but the rest of you wouldn’t be able to fight
it. The only reason you’re not doing what the citizens of the town are, is