Along Came A Fire

by Mystery Hunter

The track - the sidewalk - raced under his feet. His vision was tunneled. The only thing in sight was the finish line - was the mouth of the alley. Then suddenly there was a bang and red on the road - red on the walls. And everything was spinning, only the sidewalk - only the road - under his feet. Then blaring lights and only blackness. For which a part of him was grateful for.

21. Chapter 21

The cot was hard beneath his back as he lay awake staring at the shadows of the bars on the ceiling that seemed to warp in front of his vision into scenes that he had only dreamt of. The thought of getting out, but the replaying video of how he had gotten in; the sick curiosity of how he would die, but the numerous times where he had managed to pull himself back from that brink. The black masses on the ceiling grew and wrapped around him, allowing him to close his eyes until he opened them to a grassy field. Faceless people were running around, their actions smeared like blobs of ink, but there was a red stain over near the road. As Caim got closer he realized no, it wasn't near the road, it was on the road. Red smeared across the pavement… Blood smeared across the pavement. Pain welled up in Caim's chest and he was finding it hard to breathe as bile rose in his throat. The sound of sirens blared in the background and he was suddenly running, sprinting in the first direction his eyes turned to. As he kept on running he found that his pace was slowing down, that his legs were growing heavy, and as his sight became tunneled he felt himself falling backward. The sirens kept up in the background and there were paramedics on the scene, dressed in white and saying, "Everything will be ok, you just need to calm down-

-and everything will be ok." The white was too bright as Caim blinked and swallowed despite that it felt like he was swallowing sandpaper. The voice came again, speaking softly, "Good job, alright, you can close your eyes again-

-and again and again! When will this stop!?" Caim stood in front of a figure dressed in a ripped suit with its face a distorted pattern of sharp edges and ragged holes. They towered over him, giving Caim the feeling that if they wanted to they could just squash him right there. Then the suit morphed into a guard uniform and Caim felt a little bigger, as though he had just stood up straight after being hunched over forever. The figure was still shouting at him, Caim could see one of the ragged holes moving quickly, but he couldn't hear the words anymore. He turned away and found himself sitting up on a bed in an unfamiliar room, dressed only in his pants. His shirt and sweater were strewn on his side of the bed and as he froze he could feel the slow rhyme of someone breathing beside him. As Caim swung his legs off of the side of the bed he felt a hand graze his and he whipped his head over to look into a pair of-

-gentle blue eyes. There was a hand on his, steadying its trembling. "Breathe. Just breathe. You're alright. You're safe. It'll be easier if you just-

-breathe." The hand tightened on his throat. "You don't deserve to breathe." The voice sounded oddly familiar, as did the feeling of the palms on his neck. "Just die already!" Then the hands were wrenched away and Caim lifted his head to look around the inside of a nearly empty bus. "Last stop!" was called from the front and he struggled to get himself down the stairs at the back of the vehicle. He stepped out into the grey snow, into a drift that swallowed his shoes and instantly froze his feet. It didn't matter though; he couldn't feel them anymore, just like he couldn't feel his chest move with a heartbeat or the movement of taking a breath. It was like his whole body had shut down and as he made his way down the darkened street he looked to the sky for the first time in his life to see if there was something there. There was nothing but darkness, and the snow turned to black ice causing him to slip. He fell to the ground and the black ice folded around him like a cocoon. He didn't like the feeling of-

-something warm on his forehead, it gave him a headache and send fire down his spine. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt like this, and the hand that touched his arm felt like it would burn him if it didn't move away soon. "Just one more-

-person! One more person through!" Caim felt too many people pushing past him, all trying to go in different directions as different instincts kicked in. The two doors at either end of the hall were gleaming beacons but he could only pick one. The gunshot decided for him and he pushed towards the air, shoving by people who were pushing towards the sterilization. Once outside he took off at a sprint. There were red streaks moving quickly around him, yet they were moving slower than they should have been. A blast sounded from beside him, sending him crashing to the ground where the red absorbed him, twisting and turning around him even as he called out in a silent voice. Then he was up, the feeling of hands on his shoulders forcing him towards and away from the red masses, towards the safety of darkness. He went blindly towards that strange safety, tripping and stumbling as his vision vanished. Something was moving around him now, and he was bouncing a bit. His head was heavy in his hands and he felt like he could pass out at any moment, but he didn't; he was up, walking through grey and red and black, but the black was unavailable to him. There was red behind him that wouldn't let him go that way. He could hear shouting, lots of shouting coming from a small expanse of white before him and it wouldn't stop. Over and over again, just shouts, beckoning him. " Come on, come on, come-

-on. Come-" The slightly shaky bit of laughter hurt his ears with its clarity. "You scared me for a second." The hand that was once again on his squeezed gently. "Alright. Well that's it. We'll leave you-

-to die. I just have to leave him to die." Caim was startled by the familiarity of the voice as he backed up away from too much pure red, too much blood, that was smeared over the already red space. The blood glowed though, and seeped from a red form like lava that stretched out menacing tentacles that were reaching for his ankles so they could climb to his throat. Caim backed up quickly, too quickly, and was sent sprawling backwards. A red shape zoomed past and a scream got lodged in his throat. Too much, there was too much red. A black square was off in the distance but he couldn't reach that, couldn't get away from the red spiraling up his side and his arm and his head to squeeze around his chest like a corset . He got to his feet though, even with the red attaching itself to him and the stuff below him and trying to pull him back. The black was getting closer, and closer, but the red was slowly pulling him down, down. Black lines appeared in front of his eyes and his hands found them, gripped them, but then his body let itself be claimed by the red and he fell. Then there was a black shape moving towards him, reaching through the black bars to take Caim's hand and grip it tightly. White overwhelmed him then, and he let himself fall into blackness.