The Inconvenient Countdown

     I coughed and wheezed as thick smoke entered my lungs, blocking my airways. As I sat up in bed, dust and ash began to cling itself to the surface of my eyeballs causing my eyesight to be blurry and dark as if I was viewing the burning world around me through a dingy, rusted filter. The atmosphere felt choppy and thick as the heat increased.

     As I struggled to scan my surroundings, a flicker of crimson caught my eye. I looked downward to recognize the number 9 branded into my wrist with an appearance of a red stamp. I shook the sight out of my brain and tuned my focus to the situation.

     The fire grew bigger and bigger, red and orange flames licking each available surface, climbing dangerously up the walls. Panic and desperation overwhelmed me as loose, charred boards fell abruptly from above, crushing the objects below it with clamorous thunks and the sizzling of spreading ashes.

     I weakly, and with squinted eyes, watched as the collapsing building around me crumbled, gradually leaving a charred, unforgiving skeleton of the house behind in his tracks. The temperature intensified in dramatic waves to the point where my skin began to boil and peel, stimulating welts and bruising. I screamed in terror as my skin, muscles, and tissue blackened and became wrinkled as if it was a burnt marshmallow positioned in a campfire. I wobbled and wailed in pain, until I toppled over, fully engulfing myself in deep flames. My vision blotched and blurred until everything slowly went dark.

                                                                                ***

     I sputtered as I peeled my eyes open, my body paralyzed as I slowly gained consciousness. Instantly I felt my throat clog and swell as a dense smog filled my lungs. Soot began to attach itself to my eyes as I sat up in bed. Fire surrounded me from all directions, consuming everything in its path, creeping closer and closer to my bed. In desperation I spun my head around in fear until my attention was lured to a scarlet pattern on my wrist.

   It was the number 8.