The Rubbish Realm

Chapter 14

Evander tossed the book to the side, careful to leave it on the page it was at. He had ordered the candles exactly like the diagram had told him to, measuring them exactly. He stepped in, expecting to be taken to another place... and nothing happened. He stepped out, then stepped back in. Nothing.
"What?" he asked to nobody in particular, frustrated deeply at his inability to work such a seemingly simple spell. Granted, he couldn't read the instructions, but why should that stop him? The pictures seemed pretty clear.
He stepped in again. Again, no effect.
Picking up the ruler, he measured the distance between the candles, made sure the chalk guiding lines he had made were perfectly accurate... they were. He hadn't done anything wrong.
He figured he might as well step in another time. Couldn't hurt, right? And... nothing. Not even tired, except from the tiredness of trying many times and not succeeding.
He held the book up to the window light, wondering if it could illuminate anything he had missed. The candles were how they ought to be, the lines written as they had been on the diagram... maybe they had to be lit? Melton had a lighter, after all, the one he had made. He grabbed it from Melton's pack and pushed in on the sparker. A grinding sound was audible from the inside, then a few sparks flashed out, sizzling to nothing on the wooden floor.
"Sweet, it works," he mumbled to himself as he ran back into the room. He sparked it again near one of the candles and it lit. Putting down the lighter, he lit the other four candles with the first one, being careful not to drip wax on the floor. He then measured the first candle again, restoring it to its original position. He checked to make sure... yup, they were all lined up. He stepped in, felt his foot brush against something and a slight thump, then he was tired and slumped unconscious as the world faded to black.

Melton awoke from his nap, resting his ankle, to the smell of smoke. Was Amberly burning something in the kitchen? He limped over there, using the wall to support him... no fire, nobody there. He sniffed again. Still a strong smell of fire... "Amberly, something is burning!" he yelled. She'd be faster.
He didn't hear a response, so he yelled again as he followed the scent. "Something is burning, Amberly!" The slight pain from yelling so loud burned in the back of his throat as, while limping to a hallway, he noticed smoke billowing out of a doorway inside of it. "Amberly!" The pain in his ankle suddenly an afterthought, he ran towards the room. That was where Evander had been working, clearly. The door had been shut, and he pulled on the rather warm doorknob, ripping open the room to see... a conflagration. The whole room was ablaze. Melton peered in for a second, but when not seeing Evander inside, slammed the door shut. Had the portal worked? "Amberly! There's a fire!" No response.
He sprinted up the stairs to her room, adrenaline drowning the sharp pain from his ankle, as he started to yell with all his breath, rapid-fire, yelling her name over and over again. He threw open the door and she startled awake.
"There's a fire!"
Already startled, she jumped to her feet. "A fire?" She didn't even sing it, the terror was so audible in her voice. "Where?" She glanced at his ankle, realizing he was upstairs on it.
"Downstairs. It's big." Melton, glancing backwards, saw opportunity and followed it, sliding down the bannister to the first floor. Amberly ran down the steps, not undignified enough to slide down after him. They sprinted towards where Melton had seen the fire... and it had spread. The fire was no longer contained in the room, and the smoke was stifling.
Melton turned to Amberly, downcast. "We're not stopping that."
Amberly nodded resolutely, or at least as resolute as Melton had ever seen her be. Raising her hand, she tested her fear affinity on the flames, but they only shied back for seconds before spreading again. The heat grew more intense, the smoke threatening to smother them.