Chapter 8: Grief I

"I live at the end of the street. Let me pass!" Jordan ordered, his voice loaded with power.

The man in the uniform froze immediately those words entered his ears. For a few seconds, he didn't know what to say. He had been holding Jordan by the arm, but his grip was now weakened. The only house at the end of the street was an old orphanage.

A place that was now covered in flames.

"I'm sorry kid. That's where the explosion happened."

Jordan felt a wave of shock wash over him. While taking a step back, he fell to the ground.

"No! You're lying!" Jordan refused to believe what the man before him had just said to him.

Jordan got up speedily and dashed off in the direction of the orphanage. He thought the man just said that so he wouldn't pass. So many logical explanations came into his mind but he refused to believe any that suggested he had lost the only people he cared about in the world. He kept running even though his legs were injured. The closer he got to the orphanage, the faster his heartbeat.

Jordan was so mentally convinced that nothing could happen to the orphanage that when he got to the location that it was, he refused to believe what his eyes were showing him. The entire neighborhood was burning in blue flames. Everything was destroyed. Specs of ash flew up in the sky as the firefighters fought to end the devouring flames. The tall 3-story building where Jordan had spent his entire life was reduced to ash.

Jordan looked around and walked to the nearest adult he could see. Just like the man he had met before, the man he approached was wearing a yellow-red outfit. He was a firefighter.

"Excuse me, sir, I think I'm lost. Can you please help me? I want to go home," Jordan said in between pants. The heaving of his chest and the sweat all over his body showed how tired he was.

The tall muscular man with short black hair turned and looked down at the kid behind him. After hearing him, he felt obliged to help.

"You shouldn't be here. It's dangerous."

"Please sir, I just want to go home. I'm lost."

"Okay, kid. Tell me where you live. I'll have someone give you a ride." the man spoke with a caring tone. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine." He gave Jordan an assuring smile.

"Thank you, Sir. I live at the orphanage not too far from here." Jordan said returning the smile. "I must've taken a wrong turn."

"I'm sorry kid." The smile on the man's face instantly disappeared the moment he heard the word 'orphanage.'

"Why? Don't you know where it is?" Jordan asked with a struggle in his voice. He was smart enough to know what the man meant but he was still unbelieving.

"You… I… They…" The man didn't know what to say. How was he going to tell the fifteen-year-old in front of him that his entire family was dead?

"If you don't I'll go find someone else who does." Jordan turned to move when the man finally spoke.

"I'm sorry kid. This is the orphanage. There was an attack and…"

"It's not! I told you, I'm lost. I don't live around here," Jordan struggled to say as sobs escaped his mouth. He was fighting so hard to hold back the tears in his eyes. "This can't be my home!"

"Come on, kid. I'll-"

"No! This can't be my home!" Jordan faced the man, his eyes had turned red with pain.

Just then, two men came out of the destroyed building with a body lying on a stretcher. Jordan was standing about 20 meters from them. His feet went into instinctive motion the moment his eyes caught sight of the person being carried.

It was Xavier.

His corpse, at least.

"No!!!" Jordan ran to the men. He was stopped by some other firefighters but they let him pass when they heard the voice of their black-haired colleague.

"Let the boy pass. He lives here."

By the time he got to Xavier, the tears he had struggled to hold back came running out of his eyes.

"No! This isn't real. I'm just having a bad dream. This can't be happening," Jordan cried out, hugging Xavier's corpse. His skin had burns all over. He was in an unrecognisable state but Jordan knew it was him.

After a while, the men had to separate him from the corpse. He was held down as Xavier's corpse alongside 15 others was brought out of the house, sealed in a long black bag, and taken into a van. With every corpse he saw, the piercing feeling in his heart worsened. It hurt the worst when he saw Jill.

When all the corpses had been loaded and sent to the morgue, the men holding Jordan let go and he fell to the ground. The shopping bag he had brought was firm in his right hand. He hugged his knees to his chest and rocked his body on the ground.

"This is just a bad dream! This is just a bad dream! This is just a bad dream!" He kept repeating those words to himself.

Everyone who saw Jordan felt pity for him. Of all the people that recided in the orphanage, Jordan was the only one who was out when the explosion happened. He was the only one who survived.

It didn't take long after the fires were put out that an expensive black jeep drove into the premises. The two sides of the car bore the insignia of the Platinum Magical Academy.

Three men and a lady dressed in a platinum white suit came out of it. They walked straight to the leader of the firefighters.

"What the bloody hell happened here?" one of the men asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sir, from what we've gathered, this was an attack carried out by an intruder from an enemy nation. Forgive the incompetence of me and my men for letting the culprit escape." The firefighter said, bowing his head to the ground. The man before him was obviously a powerful man.

"Fuck! Not again!" the man cursed under his breath. "How many casualties?"

"Fifteen."

"Any survivors?" the man asked, looking around at the destruction all around him.

"Only one," he pointed to Jordan. "He's just a kid."