Wildfire (Part 2)

River’s strong, you can’t swim in side it, we could string some lights up the hill beside it…

“Why don’t you tell me about you now?” I asked after about an hour. The buzz I had been feeling earlier was clearing away, and I realized that Johnny now knew my life story but I really didn’t know anything about him yet.

            “Well, what do you want to know?” he asked me. But there was something in his voice that made me think he wasn’t too comfortable sharing his past.

            At that moment, I heard Bryce’s voice. I turned to see where he was, and I saw him helping Sarah over to the river. He had his arm around her waist and he was holding her hand. Sarah was resting her head on the crook between his shoulder and neck. There was something about seeing the two of them together that made me feel… anxious.

            “Sorry, would you excuse me one moment?” I said to Johnny and got up without waiting to hear an answer from him.

            I walked over to Bryce and Sarah, expecting Bryce to see me and say something about how Sarah had had too much and he was just going to help her out and get her home. But Bryce didn’t see me at all. He was looking at Sarah with such concern in his eyes as he sat her down on the bank. I stopped short, suddenly feeling peculiarly like I was invading their privacy.

            “Why do you do this, Sarah? I thought we were going to have a nice, happy night together. We were going to tell Janey about us,” Bryce whispered to Sarah.

            I felt as if I had been slapped. I was stunned into stillness. I wanted to run, but my feet were stuck to the ground.

            “But I already told Janey,” Sarah mumbled.

            She was right. She had already told me. I just hadn’t understood. I got my feet to start working again and turned around to leave before either of the two noticed me, and I turned right into Johnny. I hadn’t heard him getting up to follow me, but I didn’t have time to ask him how he was so quiet. I needed to get away from this scene. I grabbed his hand and dragged him away with me. I kept one walking, Johnny didn’t protest or try to stop me, but kept walking with me. His hand was smooth and cold, but my mind didn’t have enough room to register holding a stranger’s hand in mine because it was racing with angry, hurt, surprised thoughts about Sarah and Bryce. We walked and walked until the lights and the music and the noise was gone. The river was the only noise now, and the only light came from the moon.

            “Janey,” Johnny started, but I cut him off.

            “Don’t. I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

            “Janey, please. Talk to me. Are you alright?”

            “I just met you! I don’t want to talk to you about this.” I say, immediately regretting it. I did just drag him all the way over here with me, after all.

            Something was happening. I was angry, and I wanted to punch something. But Johnny, he was right that I needed to talk about what I’d just seen. It was crazy, but he was the only person I could really talk to at the moment. Bryce had betrayed me in the worst way, and he didn’t even know it.

            “I need to go back there,” I said to Johnny, “because, as great and wonderful as you have been tonight, I need to tell Bryce that he just broke my heart.”

            I wasn’t sure if what I said made any sense, but I had to say it out loud so that I would have the strength to go and tell Bryce how much he’d hurt me. Johnny didn’t say anything back, and I didn’t look back to see if he was following this time. I started walking back towards the party. I didn’t hear him follow, but I was not going to stop and wait for him.

            I had walked a lot farther than I remembered. I must have been walking very fast. It took me a couple of minutes until I could see the glow of the bonfire again. But something was wrong. I couldn’t hear the music anymore, and the smell of smoke was getting too strong. I started to run, and I could hear voices screaming.

            The riverbank had caught on fire. Smoke was collecting in black clouds over the scene of people screaming and running away. I forgot about everything that I had been feeling moments earlier and ran into the crowd, looking for Bryce and Sarah. I looked for them where I had last seen them on the bank of the river, but they weren’t there. The fire was spreading larger and larger, but I had to find them. I checked my phone but I had no messages from Bryce. I left the river and ran back towards the fire, desperate to find my friends.

There was no one left on the hillside. Everyone must have fled. The fire was starting to close in around me. Why had I run away from the water? I had to get out, but I couldn’t find a way. I started to scream for help, but the smoke caught in my throat, making me cough instead. I was going to die there, on the riverfront, without knowing what had happened to my friends. The smoke was suffocating me, and I had to kneel to the floor because my head was spinning. The fire was getting closer and closer to me. I could feel my skin start to burn on the surface. That was it, I was going to burn to death.

As my eyes started to close, I saw a tall figure leap through the flames. He ran to me and lifted me from the ground.

“You’re not going to die, Janey,” said Johnny’s voice. It must have been Johnny, but it couldn’t have been. He was carrying me as though I was a rag doll, and he walked through the flames easily, without flinching, and without letting them burn my skin. The smoke didn’t seem to be choking him like it was choking me. He set me down on the cool grass, next to the water.

“You’ll be okay,” he said to me, touching my face lightly with his fingers. His cold skin felt good on my hot face. He stood up and looked at me one last time, and then faded into the blackness that was covering my vision. I didn’t see where he went as my eyes closed. All I felt was a coolness settling on my skin, and Johnny’s voice filling the breeze around me until my mind went blank.

* * * *

            When I woke up later in a hospital bed, the first thing I saw was Bryce’s face. When he saw I was awake, he flashed me his superman smile and gave me a big hug.

            “You’re okay,” he said. “I was so worried about you. Where did you disappear off to? We found you lying by the water, away from the fire, but the doctors said you had mild burns and smoke poisoning.”

            My thoughts were muddled and slow. I was okay. Bryce was okay. Sarah was sitting in the room too, with my parents, all of them dozing off on a sofa. Sarah was okay. What about Johnny?

            “Where’s Johnny?” I asked, the words cutting my throat as they came out.

            “Who?” asked Bryce.

            “Johnny. He’s Sarah’s cousin… I was with him the whole night. He saved me.”

            Bryce gave me a strange look that I didn’t understand. It made me afraid and I asked again where Johnny was. I needed to make sure he was alright.

            “Janey, you were alone all night. Everyone I asked said you were sitting by the river alone all night until a little before the fire started. Where did you go?”

            “What? No, I wasn’t alone all night,” I said, my cheeks and neck getting hot, “I was with Johnny. Who saved my life. Where is he?”

            “Janey, Sarah’s cousin died last year, remember? Are you sure you aren’t just sick from the smoke?” Bryce was looking at me with concerned eyes. Before tonight, that would have made my stomach tighten, but right now all I felt was annoyance. He was not listening to me.

            “That can’t be right… he said he was Sarah’s cousin. Johnny. Johnny saved me from the fire. Maybe he was her other cousin.”

            “Sarah doesn’t have any other cousins, Janey. I think you need to rest a little more,” said Bryce, and kissed me on the forehead.

            My heart didn’t beat faster this time. Johnny was dead? That couldn’t be right. He had saved me from the fire. He was there at the party. Had he lied?

            “Did you see anyone who was really tall, with red hair?” I asked Bryce, determined to prove that I was right, though my words were failing me.

            “No, I definitely didn’t. Janey, I knew everyone at that party. I think the smoke got to your head.”

            That couldn’t be right. Who had I spent the whole night with? I was getting tired again from trying to figure it all out. I felt my consciousness slipping away again, and I decided to let it. I would figure this out when I was recovered from my near-death experience. Right now, sleep was beckoning and I was eagerly answering.

  Just as the last bit of my consciousness slipped away, I the room darkened, and I felt rather than saw someone walk up to my bed. The others blurred out of my vision as it focused on a tall, pale boy with a shock of red hair. Johnny was at my side, lit up like the moon. His lips were moving. He was singing something.

We can dance with the dead, you can rest your head on my shoulder if you wanna get older with me… you and me been catching on like a wildfire.