Fiction Friday - 7 March 2008
This Week's Theme: Start your entry with a fire.
If this is hell, then it isn't so bad.
Crouching low to the ground, I keep my breath shallow to avoid taking in too much smoke. I can feel my eyes drying out from the heat, and I squeeze them shut to protect them. Where to now?
And why did I even come in here? The heat is so.. comforting... I could just...
Focus! I snap open my eyes and shake my head, adrenalin flooding my system and bringing me back to alertness. Just in time. I dive out of the way as the smouldering timber breaks free and swings from the ceiling, smashing into the wall, passing through the space I had just been in. I crawl along the floor, trying to reach safety. Fear is knotting my stomach, and as I hear the popping and bubbling noise, I almost lose control. It is not your flesh. It is the paint and the timber. Focus...
If I should die here, at least I'm doing something worthy, for once. Perhaps the universe would notice how you died, and what you died for. Passing through the inferno, would it exempt me from one beyond this life?
I'd laugh, but I'd choke I think. These are not the thoughts I believed I would have at the end.
There! The room. That's where I heard the shouts from, that's where I need to go. I rush for the door, and without hesitation shoulder it open. There, in the corner, alive? Please god alive...
Red and amber devils with hot tongues have followed me, surrounding us, blocking the path out of here. There is only one way out, the window, escape... life! I scoop her up and turn my back on the flames. One way out. One chance. Holding her tight, I raise the sash with my left hand, and duck out on to the narrow ledge. Only one storey. What is that short distance, compared to the fate that the flames have in mind. I pull her closer, and pray. I feel her arms tighten around my neck. Alive! Thank god! Reassured, I steel myself, and leap, away from hell and to the safety of the ground below. I turn us in the air, so that I take the brunt of the impact. As we fall, gracefully to earth, she opens her eyes and smiles. Recognition. Thanks. Perhaps more?
Then the impact, and blackness...
I awaken to the final roar of the building consuming itself, and I am bruised, but live to tell another day. And she? She looks peaceful, at rest. Please... the gentle rise and fall of her chest. The slightest quiver of eyelids. Signs to reassure me. I wipe my face with soot-smudged hands, ash and embers falling around us like snow. Open your eyes. You're safe now.
Crouching low to the ground, I keep my breath shallow to avoid taking in too much smoke. I can feel my eyes drying out from the heat, and I squeeze them shut to protect them. Where to now?
And why did I even come in here? The heat is so.. comforting... I could just...
Focus! I snap open my eyes and shake my head, adrenalin flooding my system and bringing me back to alertness. Just in time. I dive out of the way as the smouldering timber breaks free and swings from the ceiling, smashing into the wall, passing through the space I had just been in. I crawl along the floor, trying to reach safety. Fear is knotting my stomach, and as I hear the popping and bubbling noise, I almost lose control. It is not your flesh. It is the paint and the timber. Focus...
If I should die here, at least I'm doing something worthy, for once. Perhaps the universe would notice how you died, and what you died for. Passing through the inferno, would it exempt me from one beyond this life?
I'd laugh, but I'd choke I think. These are not the thoughts I believed I would have at the end.
There! The room. That's where I heard the shouts from, that's where I need to go. I rush for the door, and without hesitation shoulder it open. There, in the corner, alive? Please god alive...
Red and amber devils with hot tongues have followed me, surrounding us, blocking the path out of here. There is only one way out, the window, escape... life! I scoop her up and turn my back on the flames. One way out. One chance. Holding her tight, I raise the sash with my left hand, and duck out on to the narrow ledge. Only one storey. What is that short distance, compared to the fate that the flames have in mind. I pull her closer, and pray. I feel her arms tighten around my neck. Alive! Thank god! Reassured, I steel myself, and leap, away from hell and to the safety of the ground below. I turn us in the air, so that I take the brunt of the impact. As we fall, gracefully to earth, she opens her eyes and smiles. Recognition. Thanks. Perhaps more?
Then the impact, and blackness...
I awaken to the final roar of the building consuming itself, and I am bruised, but live to tell another day. And she? She looks peaceful, at rest. Please... the gentle rise and fall of her chest. The slightest quiver of eyelids. Signs to reassure me. I wipe my face with soot-smudged hands, ash and embers falling around us like snow. Open your eyes. You're safe now.
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