Chapter 1. The change.
"See you later!" My best friend Lauren called.
"I'll miss you!" I shouted back. I heard her call something else.
I couldn't hear exactly what she said, but it was something like:"I'll miss you too!" She was going to Paris tomorrow with her boyfriend; I hoped she would have fun. We had been at a bar, celebrating her trip. It had just become dark outside and a full moon was shining. I walked down the empty streets towards my apartment. It wasn't far away from the bar, just a few blocks. It was a little chilly outside, but you still didn't need a jacket. The weather had been very temperamental lately here in Seattle. Even though it was just a year since the awful killings and disappearances, I wasn't afraid to walk alone when it was dark. I was just a block away from my apartment, when the street lights started to flicker. Soon, the lights went out completely. I was alone on the dark street, but I felt like someone was watching me. I walked faster and faster, after 30 seconds I was almost running. I didn't know what I was running from; I just knew that I had to get away as fast as possible. Suddenly, I felt someone holding my shoulders. Hard.
"What do you want?" I whispered, trying to hide my growing fear.
"I'm sorry, but you're going to be magnificent. Don't scream, I will keep you safe" The stranger said in an awfully pleasing voice.
I heard him – I was sure it was a man – whisper: "Sorry" multiple times before I felt a stab of pain in my throat. The pain was over quickly, only to be replaced by burning. My throat burned and the fire soon spread to my chest and from there to the rest of my body. I hurt so bad I wanted to scream and rip my heart out so I didn't have to stand it anymore. But I couldn't scream. Somehow, my brain thought that what the stranger said made sense. I also noticed that I couldn't move. The fire then accelerated in power and drowned all thoughts and perceptions of time.
I could only think one thing: "Let me die!" But the fire didn't let me die; it kept me hanging on just by a thread.
It was like the fire was mocking me, saying: "I could kill you, but I will keep you suffering. Ha ha!" I could picture the fire like Nelson in Simpsons, pointing its finger at me and laughing. The fire raged on and I just kept telling myself it was just a dream.
After long, time started to matter again. At this point it could have been years, weeks, days, hours, minutes or seconds, I couldn't have known. I started to feel more powerful and I began to realize that this wasn't a dream. The fire still burned, as hot as ever. I also started to feel a new pain, a burning in my throat. It wasn't like the fire, but it was worse somehow. Suddenly, the fire started to pull back. I wanted to scream of joy that it was starting to end, but then all the fire concentrated on my heart. Did I think that the first fire was bad? This was worse, much worse. My heart was burning. It rotated and flew out of my chest. It was a battle between the fire and my heart. None won, surprising enough. The fire ended in a large pulse. My heart settled back in my chest and beat a final beat. I then opened my eyes, prepared for the worst.