The Amplified : Fire Blight (Book 1)

Chapter Eleven - Cultists Guide to Camping

At first there was darkness, then there were flames. The way the fire coiled around itself was familiar. Satisfying. The landscape began to grow around me, tombstone, crooked trees and figures in the distance with guns blasting away at everything in sight. Six people hid behind the tombstones which slowly crumbled away at the touch of the bullets. Then everything just stopped, bullets stopped mid shot and the people stopped moving, but the flames still flickered around me like a boundary. I moved towards the people to inspect them as I got closer their features became familiar, Adam shielded himself behind the furthest tombstone, a lightning bolt stuck in the air leaving his fingers, the metallic blue ripping through the darkness and what looked like a javelin in his other hand. Next to him was Ellie, her clothes were in shambles, strips of maroon laced her scarf that was now wrapped tightly around her left arm. She starred at my sister who was beside her, tears ran down her eyes as she looked down at her lap where Megan lay crimson dripping from her side, her hair was knotted with leaves and dirt tucked into each curl. Her eyes were closed so loosely that I could barely tell if she was alive. By the crooked tree curled up behind a tombstone was... myself. I saw myself with tears welling up in my eyes looking at Megan's body, my fingers combed through my hair with flames still glowing from my palms growing across my arms. The last person hid behind a tree, but I couldn't see their face. Their body was covered in a silver shroud that began to blind me the more I looked. My heart started beating louder until it was the only thing I could hear, just the thud of my heart against my ribs. Without warning, I let out a scream that rattled my surroundings until they completely changed into the face of a little girl with her sunlight gold hair in pigtails who smiled grimly.

"They're all awake. Yay!" she squealed as she ran away from me. "Now we can have fun with our new playthings."

I have been called many things in my life, but never did I expect to be called someone's plaything. The girl with golden pigtails ran around me in circles, she was no more than eight years old. I tried to turn my body to follow her around, then I realized that my hands and legs were bound to a chair, I also had duct tape over my mouth. The walls around me were grey and depressing with wear and tear embellished all over them. At the end of the wall I saw a metal door, next to it was a shelf of bags and weapons. Lights hung from the extended ceiling from thin wires, swinging to the smallest gusts of wind. When she came back around to look at me with a big smile.

"Don't worry I won't bite, but I'm not too sure about them." She said whilst pointing behind me, I tried to turn my head to see what she was pointing at, but she started laughing. "Let me help you silly." She said as she spun my chair around to face my peanut gallery, Stephy, Megan, Adam and Ellie, all of them were in the same position as I was and none of them looked to please to see me. "Let's get these off you." She said as the tape across all of our faces flew off and floated in the middle of the circle."

"OLIVER STARK, I SWEAR TO GOD, I AM GOING TO END YOUR USELESS, PATHETE-" Adam screamed at me before his tape flew back on to his face.

"Someone is grumpy." The girl said as she walked into the middle of the circle and sat with legs crossed. "Sooooooooo," she said looking at me. "Do you know any fun games we can play before my sister comes back?"

I looked at the unsettled group of people worriedly then back at the girl. "Maybe, you can untie us, and we can play tag," I said clearly trying to hide the worry in my voice.

"Boring!" she said and with that, I felt a force shove me to the floor whilst still on the chair. I could still see the little girl she turned herself towards Megan. "What about you miss?"

"Firstly," Megan said calmly. "What's your name?"

"My name is Amelia." She cheerfully.

"Well Amelia, my name is Megan. It's nice to meet you."