~The Flame From Within~

~Through Fire and Flames~

Two white hot columns of fire shot out of my hands like nothing I'd ever seen, the full force of the sheer stunning speed of the flames smashed into the dark cloaked figure, propelling it through the trees like a projectile ball of fire.

Then I ran.

Fueled by fear, I ran faster than I ever have before, my heart was racing at the speed of light. I felt trapped, enclosed in the seemingly never ending unbreakable cage of the forest. Looking behind me was no longer an option. I needed to keep sprinting, fast enough to outrun the terror. All I wanted was to get home, safe and sound and not have to worry about what I had just witnessed ever again, but that wasn't an option. The fact is that it had happened, and I can't just suppress it. A million different questions were racing through my head in those few startling seconds; what the hell just happened? how did it find me? what if my dream last night wasn't just a dream? I didn't know how long I'd been running for, but I was getting tired. Nothing had happened to me so far, so I reluctantly slowed down to a jog and looked behind.

To my horror, there was a trail of flames behind me, a few of the trees were on fire, branches dropping off, but it was too cold and there was too much snow for it to spread, thankfully. Had I done all this, was this all my fault? To my relief, the flames died out quickly. There was no time to explain what had just happened to me, the only thing that I needed to focus on was getting home, getting as far away from that... thing... as I could. Gladly, I found the path I had previously come down, and followed it back to safety. I just hoped that whatever that thing was, it was either dead or never coming back, but somewhere deep down, I very much doubted that any of this was over. 

The memory of that strange conversation with my mum flickered back into my mind, I hope she's okay, we're not the closest of family but she looks after me. She says I can talk to her about anything, but the fact is, it's hard to talk to her about things that are personal to me. I can rarely relate to her and I feel like she'll judge me in some way. I put my inhibitions to the side and carried on. I checked the time on my phone and it was 11:33 am, turns I had been out for almost an hour, I was nearly home. 

Walking up the garden path, I breathed a sigh of relief, I was safe. There were other houses and cars -civilization- . As I was closing the door, I took a quick look round outside, just to check, and then turned the key in the lock. It felt a little chilly so I proceeded to turn around and find the thermostat to turn the heating up. I strolled down the hallway round the corner and the most curious thing happened; it suddenly got warmer. I went to touch the radiator to find that it was piping hot,(and that my hand was now hurting because of it) what was happening? I cautiously walked back round the corner to where the door was. Big mistake. 

There were icicles coming from the door and light switch, the hallway had taken a light blue hue, I looked back behind me and there it was... Looming over me... the same figure I had seen in my dream, in the forest, only now slightly singed. The shock felt like 500 volts ripping through my skeleton, It was close to me, only about a meter away now. Although dim, I could still see the details. Its wide, black eyes piercing into mine, blank white flesh hanging, torn, from its bony face, wrapped in a ripped black cloak that draped to the floor. In the same frozen seconds I took all this information in, I tried to think of possible ways to escape. The door was already locked, I wouldn't have enough time to open it even if I tried. The whole figure blocked the hallway. Swirling blackness enveloping it's body, twisting around it like black dust.

There was no way out.