Fighting with Fire #2 ✔

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟒 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨

Rapidly, I looked around me, to see if anyone was around. But it was dark, and it felt like I was in the middle of a forest.

"Somebody, please! Help me!" I called out into the woods, not thinking straight. I stood up with Ember securely in my arms. "Please wake up," I murmured to her, before pressing a gentle kiss on her cheek.

I need her to wake up.

"Theo..." My name echoed eerily through the trees. "Theo...Theo..."

"Who's there?" My guard instantly flew up, before I remembered I needed to help Ember. "I need help!"

"Didn't you say you'd rather burn with her than die alone?" The voice mocked, relaying my own words back to me.

"Not like this." I wept (shut up) a little more, glancing down at a lifeless Ember... A dying Ember... "Never... never like this."

"What's it going to be then, Theo?" The voice questioned. "Will you die with her or die alone?"

"I don't want her to die," I whispered, not even answering the question. I realised as I spoke, "I'd rather I die and she live..."

"Fine," the voice snapped.

In an instant, Ember's body caught fire in my arms and I was forced to gently drop her to the ground before my arms started to blister from the flames. She kept on burning and there was nothing I could do, until her body fully disintegrated into a pile of smouldering ash and smoke.

"No...!" I tried to grasp at the smoke and ash, but it fell through my fingers, "Wh-what happened?"

The voice laughed mercilessly. "You chose to die alone."

And then I was falling into the darkness, the voice's laughter still ringing in my ears, tears dried onto my cheeks.

Falling...

Falling...

Falling...

It felt as if there were no end to the pit of desperation into which I was falling.

I can't imagine a world without Ember, the thought ricocheted around my head, not even realising that this was just a dream, just a nightmare. Just a night terror.

I have to wake up, I knew the fact, but I was still falling, cartwheeling through dark, empty space.

I could've been in a black hole for all I knew; after all, there was no time, no light, and no particles... Nothing apart from me falling.

But it didn't even feel like I was falling to my death, or into anything at all. I could've been falling upwards, as opposed to downwards — that's how disorientated and confused I was.

What felt like an eternity later, my body hit the floor... Or some floor at least, and I was able to get to my feet — I wasn't dead yet.

I looked around me, and suddenly wherever I was, was flooded with light — bright and brilliant sunlight. The sight of it caused me to shield my eyes. As the dark had been so dark, the light was almost too much.

What the hell is this?

Jade was suddenly by my side, standing next to me, looking out across the mountains — hang on; where did the mountains come from?

"So, you chose to die alone," she stated blankly.

"I chose to die to save Ember," I stated back, not looking at her, knowing somewhere deep down that she wasn't actually Jade, merely some figment of my twisted imagination.