fire department and I’ll get some wet towels to shove under the door to keep the smoke out!” Kassie shouted as she ran for the bathroom. Symarah grabbed the phone but there was no dial tone. She got her cell phone from her purse and tried to dial 911 but there was no service. There has always been service here she thought to herself, there’s a tower right down the street. Frantically she grabbed Kassie’s cell phone but it didn’t have service either.
“Why aren’t you calling 911?” Kassie asked in a panic as she shoved the wet towels under the door.
“House phone is dead and the cells have no service.”
“What, that’s not possible, we get full bars here.”
“I know, but look.” Symarah showed her the phones.
“Shit, what are we gonna do?”
“We could climb out the front windows and slide down the awning,” Symarah suggested. But the windows wouldn’t open. They ran to each window trying to open them but none of them would budge.
“We’ll have to break it,” Kassie said, as she grabbed a hammer out of the junk drawer. She hit the window as hard as she could but it didn’t break. “What the hell?” she said in utter disbelief.
“Wait, that window is open,” Symarah said as she ran to the side window and looked out. “Damn, it’s too high and there is nothing to break our fall. We’ll have to yell for help.” They began frantically screaming for help.
Jareth had just sat down to enjoy his dinner at the restaurant down the street from the magic shop when he heard the screams. It was very faint, undetectable to the human ear, he could barely hear them.
“Damn,” he muttered as he threw $50 on the table and headed out the door toward the shop.
As he neared the magic shop he could see smoke billowing up from the building and a quick glance inside the windows on the first floor confirmed that it was on fire. The whole first floor was engulfed in flames. He searched for Symarah with his mind and quickly found her at a window on the second floor at the side of the building. He ran to the window to see Symarah and another women leaning out screaming for help.
“I’m here!” he shouted up to them to get their attention. “Do you have a rope or anything you can use to climb down with?”
“No, this is the only way out but it’s too far to jump.” Kassaundra shouted. “Call 911.”
“There’s no time, you’ll have to jump, and I’ll catch you,” he yelled.
“You can’t catch us, it’s too dangerous,” she said in a complete panic.
Jareth sighed in frustration. This would be so much easier if I could just use my powers he thought to himself.
“I promise I’ll catch you; I’m stronger than I look, besides what other choice do you have?” he asked.
“He’s right,” Symarah said, “we are running out of time, we’re going to have to jump and pray that he catches us, otherwise we’ll burn.”
Kassie looked down at the stranger, it was a long way down and she was terrified but they were both right this was their only option. The door to the living room was now completely engulfed in flames and she couldn’t breathe from the thick black smoke.
“Are you sure you can catch me?” Kassie asked the stranger.
“I promise you will be safe,” he remarked with a reassuring smile.
Kassie climbed out onto the ledge and looked down at the man. “Please dear Lord, let him catch me,” she prayed as she closed her eyes and stepped off the ledge into thin air.
After what seemed like an eternity she landed safely in the stranger’s arms. He carefully set her down on the ground and steadied himself to catch Symarah.
Symarah climbed out of the window and braced herself for the fall. She jumped off the ledge and hoped for the best.
Jareth easily caught her and set her down next to her friend.
“Are you both okay?” he asked.
They shook their heads to indicate that they were okay, but neither of them looked up. They were sitting on the ground, huddled together,
Learning to Kill: Stories