Lucid Nightmares - Fated Flowers Saga

Ch 14: Inferno of the Heart

I want to scream. But one should not scream in a McDonald's because it's bad manners. My emotions swirl inside my body making it impossible to focus on anything else. It continues to nag at my mind. My thoughts remind me of my mistakes. Orferio's mistakes. His lies. His smiles. The tension between the brothers.

It's as if my life was an ongoing existential crisis.

I take a shaky breath, staring hard at the empty box of fries. I focus my energy on not snapping at Orferio when he pulls away from me. He's ignoring me. Everybody is ignoring me.

I understand they want to avoid starting something, but I can't keep a lid on this.

Finally, Maya looks up at me again. "Uh, Jules, you okay?"

I look up sharply at her. Wrath builds up inside of me like a swelling tidal wave. My eyes begin to burn with tears threatening to spill. I swallow hard and begin to shake my head, unable to keep my mouth shut.

I smell smoke.

The distinct smell catches me off guard. I blink a few times and wonder if Avriel actually burned her fries. The smoke grows stronger. It's coming from beneath me.

I look down and suppress a scream.

The box of fries is on fire.

I stare at them with wide eyes, paling. My intense fury dulls. Taken aback, I slump back into the chair with dazed eyes. "What just happened?"

Orferio jumps beside me and glances between me and the fire. He bats at the flame, "Whoa, calm down, your fries were not that cold," he jokes lightheartedly. He smiles at me but I don't return it.

My head explodes with pain causing me to wince sharply. I moan and rub my aching temples. "That kinda hurt," I admit. I rub my bloodshot eyes trying to ease the burning sensation to avoid crying.

Max appears calm as ever and sets his spoon down after the last bite of his sundae. "You're not used to using your power, that's all," he reassures me. "With some practice, you'll be back to where you were four months ago, or for you guys, four years ago."

My heart begins to pound as panic enters in my mind like a disease. I gasp for breath and lean farther from the flame. I did this. I started a fire. I bat at the flame a few times as it begins to grow. Orferio frowns in frustration and tries to smother it with a napkin.

A shrill voice sets me off.

"FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!"

An ear-splitting alarm starts up, scaring the life out of me. I look up sharply, seeing flashing red lights in the corner of my eye, only to be blinded by an icy spray of water. The sprinklers are activated.

The harsh beeping leaves a ringing in my ears. The alarm echoes loudly. Ghosts of red lights flash across my eyes.

I'm taken back to the explosion. The swell of fire engulfing my body. The searing burns that raced across my skin, cooking me alive. The screeching of the alarms. The flashing lights.

I'm going to die here.

Maya and I are going to die again.

My hands begin to tremble violently. My eyes dart across the room. My breaths come shorter. My lungs refuse to exhale.

I'm not fireproof. Maya isn't fireproof. We're going to die here.

They're coming for us.

The Shadows are coming.

"JULIETTE!"

A ragged scream tears from my throat. I scream and fling my hands out to protect myself. Fire races up my arms, burning through my veins like a liquid drug. Locked inside a blind panic, fire explodes from my palms as if they were flamethrowers. I aim towards the ceiling. A plume of thick fire rises to the ceiling like a growing demon, fresh from ascending from the Underworld. It rears its ugly head as it escapes the control of its master.