Into the Game

Chapter 6

Walking down the dirt road was peaceful; something Elizabeth may have looked for before this madness. Now the silence provoked her brain to think of all the terrible things that were about to happen.

She walked farther, every once and a while pausing to rub her ankle. She was sure that she had broken it, or at least fractured it, but had no idea what to do. Jena or Cami would probably say to grab some sticks from the woods and make crutches, but after her first visit to the woods, she didn't venture from the open road.

She wondered how far away she was from the forest she started in. How long she had been gone. If anyone noticed.

After walking for quite a while, she started examining her senses. Sight. She saw, gray in the sky. Black, and gray from the road. Green and brown, from the surrounding forest. Hearing. Nothing. Nothing but her feet crunching on the gravel. Feeling. A combination of pain and numbness in her ankle with every step. Smell. Dirt, woodsy smells, post storm smell- it must have rained recently- and wait. What was that? It was a disgusting smell. Like rotting eggs. Sulfur! But why was there sulfur in the air? Then she smelled something else. Smoke. Then she saw it. She saw the flames and she ran towards them.

It was bright, and she felt the heat while she was still at least a hundred yards away. It was a house, and it was completely engulfed in flames. It wasn't until she was close enough to touch them that she realized there wasn't anything she could do.

That's when she heard it. The screaming. Jena's screaming. From inside the house. The door, miraculously, still wasn't burnt down. It looked like a gateway, for her to go through, practically inviting her.

💠

Inside, she felt the flames lick her arms and legs. It was painful, but she had felt so much pain lately and was in such a panic that she hardly noticed. She stood in the entrance and listened as hard as she could.

The conflagration was so distracting she hardly noticed anything else but she strained her ears and heard the screams coming from above. She had to get upstairs. She spun around until she spotted a set of stairs. She ran towards them and thought. She had to do it. She just had to. She carefully place a hand on the banister and quickly lifted it, shaking it out. She started up the stairs, as fast as she could with out, well, dying.

She was about half way up when her injured ankle stepped through the stair. She screamed in agony as the flames hugged her leg. She tried putting her hands on the step to get out but that just burned her palms. The stair creaked with her weight and it's weakness combined and once again, she fell.

This time there was no accepting it, she didn't quietly fall, she screamed. With the combined torture of the falls and extreme heat that could only possibly be because she was on fire, she screamed, and screamed. She screamed higher and louder then she thought she ever could. Of course, screaming only allowed the flames to enter her mouth and burn her throat. This of course, made her scream more. She felt like she was made of flames.

Although it really had only been a few seconds, it felt as if ages had passed by the time her body crashed onto the concrete floor of the basement.

Once again, Elizabeth greeted her only friend, the darkness.

💠

She woke up, but kept her eyes closed. Everything hurt. There was a roaring around her. Why? Then she remembered the fire, and ripped her eyes open. She was blinded by the light and the heat that confronted her eyes. She forced herself to get up.

As soon as she stood, her head began spinning and she collapsed again. She reached up and touched her forehead lightly. It hurt and as she pulled her fingers back, they shone bright crimson.

She was stuck in a burning basement, and she couldn't leave. She should have cried. She should have wanted to give up. But she couldn't. She just felt so angry towards everything about this world.

"I hate this! I hate everything about this!" She screamed, as loud as she could. "I wish whoever- whoever is doing this was dead! I wish it was you who was stuck in this burning building! I will kill you. I swear," she said, but by the end of it she was just talking. She was determined. She would kill whoever was running this twisted, horrible game.

She began coughing. Lightly at first, because of the smoke, but as soon as she started, she couldn't stop. Quickly they became, terrible, gut wrenching coughs. She clenched her eyes shut, but she was sure she was coughing up blood. She couldn't do anything but sit there and cough up her entire inside. It was as if she was just coughing up all hopes of survival.

She continued to cough, for who knows how long. She just sat on her knees, in the middle of that concrete basement, that house crumpling around her. Eventually she stopped coughing. Not gradually, she just stopped, all at once.

She opened up her eyes. No basement. No fire. Just grass, and trees, and a small stream, that reflected the exact scene she was seeing. And a little piece of paper with writing on it. Once again, a note. She crawled over to it and read it.

Please. Look at yourself. You could never stop me.

At the bottom of the note there was a little arrow pointing to the creek. She crawled forward and looked at it, to see her reflection.

At first she had no idea what she was looking at. It didn't look like the Elizabeth she remembered. Her hair was tangled, matted, and infused with dirt and blood. Her forehead had a large gash that was still pouring blood out, which trailed over her brow and eyes, all the way down her face and neck to where it disappeared into her shirt. Her face was covered in burns and cuts, so it looked like one large scab. Her eyes were red, and they couldn't cover all of the pain that was trying to hide behind them. Her lips were chapped and bleeding. She licked them, hoping to give temporary assistance. The burns and cuts traced down her arms, and were joined by bruises. Her nails were all either gone or caked with dirt. She looked down to her legs. Her right leg looked a lot like her arms, but he left leg was covered in severe burns, all in bands. The ankle had a band of bruises, that were all shining green and purple. Her shoes had almost totally melted. Her shorts had been singed, but they still were working. Her shirt was almost stuck to her skin. And the jacket she got was totally gone.

For the first time, she realized what a horrible situation she was in. And for the first time, she allowed herself to cry. Like the coughs, they started out small, and soon became total, body shaking sobs that she couldn't contain. She cried and cried. The note was right. What position was she in to try and save anyone, including herself? She allowed herself to just lay on the grass and cry for hours. She vaguely noticed it had become dark, and she was still crying. She cried herself to sleep that night, and her dreams consisted of flames and pain. It was all topped off with the sentence "You could never stop me." Repeating and echoing over it all.