"A Burning Love" EO Story
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters and I was inspired by an idea that was not mine, but the story is.
Author's Note: (**IMPORTANT READ THIS**
This story is rated M for the graphic details and contains content that is emotionally and semi-physically deep. Please don't read this if it will make you uncomfortable... I don't want to go into more detail, but please proceed with caution. But, I don't think the content is triggering, just a little dark.**)
I also want to make it clear that I do not enjoy writing stories like this, nor do I wish that something like this would actually happen to anyone even though this is fictional. In fact, it was quite painful for me to write this story, but that's the whole point of writing- pushing the boundaries and reaching the limits, as readers and as writers, I felt an obligation with this one. I had writer's inspiration to create this story because I felt it had a lot of potential, I almost didn't post it, but it was written, so I figured that you all could read it anyway. I hope I succeeded in reaching those limits and I hope we all can grow a little from this story. Please leave a review, I'd love to know what you thought.
"Love is friendship that has caught fire."
"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." -Albert Schweitzer
Olivia was drowsy, unsure of her surroundings or the events of the last couple hours. She stirred around trying to figure out where she was. She felt this pang coming from her legs when she tried to move, her head suddenly throbbing. She felt something warm on her skin.
Warm, no, not warm, hot.
Heat. White numbing, eye blinding, skin tingling heat.
Now that she was focused on it, her skin felt like there were one thousand tiny insects crawling all over her, biting her. It was excruciating but she still wasn't sure what the cause of it was.
Olivia could feel the lack of oxygen in her lungs, short quick breaths were all she was able to take in without going into a coughing fit. The air laced with smoke. She felt the heat on her body, the heat surrounding her, the pressure in the room rising.
She still didn't know where she was and now she was starting to panic.
She could barely open her eyes and when she did, she couldn't see more than a foot in front of her, the heat burned her eyes, sucking all moisture out of them. But when she did open her eyes, she could see a figure, a face. She squinted hard to try to make out the image of the person next to her. Closing her eyes again to try and get rid of the pain she felt coursing her entire body, she let out an exasperated breath struggling to refill her lungs. Opening her eyes she looked at the face able to pick out distinct characteristics of her partner. It was Elliot's face.
She traced her eyes from Elliot's face and followed the outline of his figure down his body. It appeared that he was lying next to her, partially on top of her, their legs entwined together.
How did she not notice that he was next to her? Why couldn't she feel his body pressed against hers? Why was Elliot pressed against her in the first place, her partner, her married partner?
She took her top arm and reached out for his face letting a small yell escape her lips at the movement, her whole body ached. She placed her palm on his cheek rubbing her thumb across it. His face was hot, rough. There was dried blood on his forehead and under his nose, he had small cuts all over his face. She wondered if her face reflected similar injuries.
His eyes were shut and his breathing was slow and scattered. A whole minute passed until Olivia saw him take in another breath. She was startled when he started coughing. The sound was loud and echoed in her ears.
Elliot squirmed as he could feel his skin blistering, his head was tight, he could feel a weight on his chest, he couldn't breathe. He tried to open his eyes but he couldn't, it was as if they were glued shut.
He felt something moving on his face, a hand maybe? He tried to open his mouth to say something, anything, but he fell into a coughing spell instead.
He fought again trying to open his eyes, he fought hard but ultimately lost. His body was rebelling against him, it seems he had lost all control.
He struggled to lift his arm, but he was able to bring his hand to meet the one on his face. It was soft, delicate. He grabbed it and wrapped his fingers around the other hand. He heard a faint sound, clearly coming from the owner of the hand he was holding so desperately on to.
"El?" he heard the voice cough out again, more clearly this time.
It was Olivia. Why was Olivia's hand on his face? Where were they?
He opened his eyes then meeting hers mere inches apart from each other. He saw the confusion on her face and he probably shared similar looks. Her face was beaten up pretty badly. She had a bruise under her eye and a huge cut across her forehead.
He felt something heavy pushing on his legs, he tried to move them, but he couldn't. He let his gaze fall from Olivia's and land on his legs, entwined with hers. He lifted his eyes back to hers looking for an answer that, judging by the look on her face she clearly didn't have.
How did they end up here? Where were they?
"Liv, where the hell are we?" Elliot managed to choke out before falling victim to another coughing fit.
She looked at him, not sure what to answer, she knew about as much as he did. She closed her eyes willing herself to remember. Searching through her memory trying to put the missing pieces together. The last thing she remembered was chasing down a possible lead for the case they were working. It led them to an abandon food packaging building. That's where her memories stopped, with a loud screeching, and a bang.
"El, the case. We were following a lead. There was a loud alarm. That's all I can remember."
Elliot paused taking in her observation trying to pull his last memories from his brain, "Shit Liv. I know where we are."
"What? Where?" her heart started to beat faster and she struggled to stay calm.
"We are in the basement of that building. The alarm you heard, we must have triggered something. There was an explosion."
She was hit with the reality of his words. Memories slowly flooding back. No one knew where they had gone, they followed this lead without backup, they both were under too much physical trauma to move, and the heat that she felt all over, well, that was fire closing in around them threatening to consume them.
They were in serious trouble now.
She threw all hopes of staying calm out the window, she was in full panic mode now.
How did they end up in the basement of a burning building holding each other in their arms? Would anyone know they were they missing? Would someone find them, or would they be left here alone to die?
Just two weeks earlier they never thought they would be in the position they were in right now. Amazing how much can go wrong in just two weeks.
A/N: More to come shortly. Please review and let me know what you think of it so far. How are Elliot and Olivia going to get out of there? Will they be able to escape or are they going to be left there alone to die? I don't know, what do you think? Let me know!