Death to Bumble Bees

18: bee vs fire

Listen to Engravings by Ethan Bortnick

Chapter Eighteen: Bee VS. Fire

Bee's body was in trembles, the warmth of her blood soaking into the cold ground around her. Coldness seeped into her bones, making a home for itself there.

Had she died? She didn't feel dead. She felt agony. Shouldn't being dead feel like nothing?

Her vision swirled as she fell to her hands and knees, her stomach lurching as she saw the long gashes tearing into her shoulder. She locked eyes with the raw ripped flesh as if it weren't hers until, with a sickening churn, her brain processed what it was she was looking at. Her last meal burned up her esophagus at that point as she doubled over, sick; feeling the pain lap at her skin where each wound laid bare.

After a moment, she raised her cloudy head; coming face to face with pairs upon pairs of black eyes staring at her--something spinning in their lifeless eyes as if connecting pieces to something lost. Slowly sorting something out.

Why hadn't they killed her?

She didn't want to ponder it any longer in fear that they would attack again as she looked down at the puddle of blood surrounding her. Her dazed and terrifying reflection gazed back at her with blurry black eyes as she dragged her palm into the hot liquid acting as a mirror.

"Home." She croaked out into the still air that had suddenly came alive with her voice. Wind blew into her face as the blood-red moon, high above her, coloured the atmosphere orange just as she felt herself slip into her own blood.

But nothing happened. She was still in the Shadow Domain; the monsters towering over her in wait of... something.

"Home!" She spat again, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt the portal open... and then shut again. Crying in a mixture of frustration, fear, and anguish, she thrusted her blood soaked hand in deeper to the substance. "I want to go home." Her voice was strangled with tears as she quaked, envisioning with all her might the place she considered her safety. "Jason." She whimpered pathetically with desperation, and finally, the portal accepted her.

The change in the air was immediate--the warmth of life seeming to encase her as she collapsed onto the hard ground. Her eyes shut as the abrupt light burned into her retinas. She knew she wasn't safe yet--that her wounds were too deep for her to be safe yet--but the security of being close to her world wrapped around her like a thick weighted blanket.

And then that blanket caught on fire.

Everything was burning.

Worse now than it had been in the Shadow Domain, she gasped. The agonizing heat seemed to be coming from every single part of her. Even the skin that wasn't cut suddenly turned into a fiery sensation. Struggling to sit up, she grasped at the roots of her matted hair in desperation, as a cry ripped through her body. She was almost certain that if she opened her eyes, she'd find herself on fire. It felt as if the heat had eaten through her skin and poisoned her bloodstream; melting her from the inside out as she choked on her own screams.

What had the shadow creatures done to her?

She didn't notice the shift around her as Rath appeared, frantic as his eyes finally--after what felt like hours of searching for her, found her. He had felt her presence like a whisper--her soul calling for him. Only, when he had found himself following after her as soon as she slipped into the realms, her presence led him to a place even he couldn't enter. It had to be a mistake--the trick done by the Shadow Men to hide her.

A human couldn't possibly enter it, let alone exit.

Her breathless cry tore him out of his weary suspicions as he rushed over to her crumbled form, "Oh Bumble Bee..." Rath groaned, his throat tight as he looked at the ragged red marks covering her celestial suit--her skin soaked in blood.