Chapter 1
I heard screaming. Not just any screaming, but rather an ear-piercing, horrific screaming that seemed to be coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. The echos of it reverberated off of the walls, it sounded as if someone was being burnt alive. My head writhed in pain at the sound of it.
And then I felt it.
I was burning. My body, every inch of it, was wrapped in an indescribable fury of pain. The fire licked my insides, the intensity of it threatening to drag me down into unconsciousness. I fought to stay up, but the pain was so strong. I thought about giving up. I imagined the relief that death would bring. I wondered how death hadn't taken me yet. I wished it would. I wished I would die. I welcomed the thought of death, the thought of cool water relieving my misery, running through my veins and putting out the fire that swam through me. I couldn't take it anymore, why didn't I die? Why wouldn't this hell let me go?
I welcomed death, but it did not take me.
The screaming continued; it was a constant sound in my dark and painful nightmare. And then, although I would have thought it impossible, the burning in my veins was intensified even more. I writhed in pain, twisting and thrashing around, trying to get rid of the awful burn. The screaming sounded even more horrific than before, louder and more urgent somehow...my throat was burning almost as bad as my body.
That's when I realized the screaming I heard was my own.
But my throat did not burn from the screaming. It burned with a fire unlike any I have ever experienced. I was thirsty, unbelievably thirsty. As if the burning in my veins wasn't bad enough, now I was doing all I could to think, to keep coherent. I needed...something. I wasn't sure what I needed yet, but I knew that I was going to have to do something when I came to consciousness. The burning continued for an impossible amount of time. I thought I was in hell. The pain was constant, excruciating, and torturous. I can only vaguely recall hearing an angel, telling me I was going to be ok, singing to me a sad and beautiful melody.
And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. I was no longer screaming. My throat still burned, but it was tolerable compared to what I had just been through. With every second that passed, my mind seemed to sharpen. I could form complete thoughts, and I told my body to open my eyes...