Bound by Hellfire

Chapter 6

I stood to my feet as the shadow's words swirled into my ears. The wind once again blew ashes around me as the leaf detached from my face.

"Who are you!?" I shouted

I could barely hear my own voice as the roar of the fire grew, but the shadow seemed to have heard me just fine.

"That answer will come soon enough. I think the question you should be asking is who are YOU?"

The shadow warped and twisted. Its humanoid shape flickered in the fire as the ashes and smoke swirled above it.

"I know who I am," I said strongly. "You're the one hiding your face"

I watched as the shadow's makeshift head cocked sideways. It was expressionless and yet it I could tell that it was looking right through me.

"Do you remember this place?" It asked, its distorted voice echoing through the trees.

I looked around. The auburn trees swayed in the wind. The sky was as blue as could be, with not a single cloud to question its vastness. It could have been beautiful. I wanted it to be so and then my eyes landed on the car. The twisted metal frame plumed its fire into the air, becoming one with the overhanging trees.

"Of course I do," I spat. "It's the last thing I can remember."

The shadow flickered once again and with it, the light from the sky. Everything was dark as night. The leaves that had been so vibrantly orange withered and rotted before me, giving them no defense from the wind that brushed them aside. I could see the road now. It was cracked and old, nothing like how I remember it. 

"Pity... the darkest moment in your life and yet your brain seems to not let you forget." The shadow hissed.

I was fixated on the road. The leaves rustled over my sneakers as I looked longingly for them to stay. My body was weightless, I wanted the wind to take me with them, far from this place so I'd never have to see it again. Then I heard it--- it wasn't deja vu, but a memory. Of laughter. A woman's laughter that can only be described as cheerful, loving, and happy. It was my mom.

Tears swelled in my eyes as I looked up from the ground. Everything was full of color again.

"I don't want to forget... This is the last memory I have of my parents. Dark or not" I mumbled.

Those were words to myself. Not to this shadow, not to anyone else. For my own sake, I needed to hear myself say it.

"You are missing a part of yourself, Adam. A part of you that in time will desperately try to claw its way out. I am here as a guide of sorts, to break you free from these chains that bind you so tightly."

Those tears of sadness quickly turned to anger as I looked into the void before me.

"I don't need your lecture! I have made a new part of myself, and you are just a part of my brain that wants me to forget that."

The shadow receded, growing smaller as it sank into the fire. He bowed his head as he conceded to me and the flames dimmed to a steady crackle.

"So be it," The shadow bellowed. "I fear you will face your past soon enough, and when that time comes--- fire will rise."

The landscape that my brain had made quickly turned to darkness around me as my eyes fell once again. It felt as fast as a blink. My eyelids still felt heavy but they gradually opened as I once again lifted myself from the ground. The stone floor I found myself on was cold and damp. Moss scraped under my fingernails as I sat up against a hard stone wall.