I shove the photo deep into my tight sleeve, heart pounding as I frantically scan the room - for clues, for answers, for anything that makes sense. My eyes land on a chest, old and splintered, muffled whispers leaking from inside like trapped breath.
I reach out, fingers trembling, but my elbow knocks against the lamp - the one emitting that strange, radiant light. It crashes to the floor.
Instantly, the room erupts in a cloud of shimmering dust. It clings to my skin, fills my lungs, blurs my vision. Through the haze, I see flames - rising fast, devouring the walls, licking the ceiling. I scramble toward the stairs, coughing violently, clutching my chest as my airway tightens - each breath a battle, each step a blur.
I barely make it out as the flames follow close behind me,
I barge the door open, as I sucked in a breathe like it might be my last.
I crash to the ground gasping for more air. The fire spreading faster than I could move, faster than I could think, swallowing the ground as an whole, inches away from doing the same to me, I take one last deep breath as I gather myself up and run, far away from the fire.
I keep running, I feel the heavy footsteps following behind me, I feel the fire lighting up everything I leave behind. but I don't look back - Not once.
I fear what I'll see. I fear the consequences.
I come to a halt, breath ragged, heart still echoing the fire's roar.
Before me stretches a surreal expanse - ground blanketed in a soft, cotton-like layer, pale as cloudlight and scented faintly with lavender. It cushions my feet, weightless and unreal.
The platform meets a pool of sparkling water, its surface mirroring the sky with impossible clarity. Horizon and reflection blur, as if the world itself is folding inward. the mess I've made.
Just as I take in the beauty of this place, a pair of large hands grab me from the back, holding me in a deadly grip, his arms locked onto my throat squeezing it ever so lightly - taunting me.
Shifting my body around; " look at the mess you've created". He spoke, his voice drenched in wrath, his arms tightening around my throat.
The trees burned in a blue flame, the kind of fire i'd never seen.
The fire kept spreading further and further into the place, no knowing when it was going to stop, only that it wasn't gonna come here, not on this ground, it can't. If it could've, it would've by now.
My eyes glistened with tears, as his grip got tighter by the second, he let out a crocked yet sinister laugh, " This is all you know - how to destroy and how to build destruction." His hold insidious.
He wasn't strangling me to kill - he strangled me to control. Breath was mercy.
"Stop" I squeaked my voice barely audible , I swallowed, as my airway got blocked. I couldn't breathe. "Stop. Please, stop" I pleaded, desperately. "From now on you are to obey me, one wrong move and you're dead". He instructed his hot breath hitting my ear, sending chills down my spine. "Ok, J....just let m..m.me go, p.. p ..please", I stammered, my face turning blue, being on the verge of losing consciousness.
He loosened his tenacious grip on me.
Relief flushed through me as I collapsed to the ground, grabbing my throat, coughing, as air rushed back to my lungs.
I could feel his threatening gaze cut through me like a knife, crushing every plan of rebellion I had.
I hadn't soo much so as moved an inch or looked to see if this was the man whom I stabbed.
"Get up". He began, the minute I stopped coughing, When I didn't, he grabbed my arm, bringing me up to my feet. Holding me in a way that would leave marks.
"You're lucky you're cute, or you would've been dead by now, disobey me one more time and I won't be so forgiving."
I summoned the nerve to finally look at his face, for a split second alone. I shouldn't have. His face was deformed, the cloak that covered his face was now gone, His eyeballs not in their sockets, as blood stained the entirety of his face, Black blood. His flesh peeking out, tiny trickles of blood still running down his face.
I could hardly keep myself from gagging.
I failed to not, wonder how he could even see me. How?.
"Can't bare to look at the grotesque you've created, can you?"
I looked down, avoiding his question, painfully aware of his vindictiveness toward me, clearly forecasted in the way he mercilessly dug his nails into my skin, his grip on my arm unforgiving.
I moved like prey beneath a ticking time bomb, knowing one misstep would ignite the fury he barely contained.
My legs were giving up on me as I could no longer walk, I was exhausted, physically and mentally, from all the running. But I knew that if I stopped now, it would be the end of me.
"I don't take silence as an answer for my questions." He began. This time with a slight change in his tone.
"I truly didn't want to do that. I had to." I answered, without even thinking my words over. My voice low, shaking.
I lifted my head to see his reaction, he looked amused with a tiny smirk on his face.
I stopped walking, I couldn't anymore, I needed to rest, I was exhausted.
He stopped along side me, as he turned to face me, He loosened his grip, leaned in, and whispered, "You look tired. Want me to carry you?" His voice was soft, but the malice behind it made my skin crawl.
I didn't answer. I couldn't. My body was frozen - not from fear, but from the certainty that whatever would come next would rewrite the rules of survival.
"N.. .no - I.. I just need to rest for a minute." I faltered, my voice barely a whisper. My eyes glued to the ground.
"I don't take no for an answer, darling". He said in a voice full of menace, lifting his finger, tracing the outline of my jaw slow and deliberate, engraving a deep cut along my face with his long, sharp - inhuman nails, blood laced down my skin as,
he came to a stop at my chin and tilted it upward, forcing my eyes to meet his. He didn't speak. Just watched. Then, without warning, his hand clamped around my jaw - fingers digging in, nails biting deep into my face like he wanted to carve his presence into bone.