Holden Steele's Ruin [Completed]

Chapter 13

The nightmares came back like I knew they would. They were bad, really bad.

I woke up shrieking for my brother, strained sobs ripping through my clogged chest as hot tears freely flowed down my burning skin. Opaque smoke rented the vicinity as I searched blindly for him, I found him, but once again I was too late. The flames danced over his body, like a slow tango. They devoured him, licking his skin before taking mammoth bites out of his flesh, leaving smouldering black holes where they had taken mouthfuls

Cries of anguish mixed with mine as the greedy flames continued to consume Blake. Large angry holes soiled his clear olive skin, exposing gushing red flesh, blood and bones. He screamed again, the large opening on the side of his face flashing his once immaculate teeth, now charred black by the unforgiving flames. My stomach wrenched painfully as I chocked on a sob.

I stretched my hand towards him fighting against the flames as I bit back my cries of pain, sighting out his hand from within the inferno. The pain that shot through my arm was excruciating but I was holding his hand and that was all that mattered. I wasn't ready to let go, I wanted to kick and scream against the heartless force that was ripping my brother away from me as the relentless wind blew his ashen body leaving me to grasp at air.

My eyes flung open, the vivid bright orange flames replaced by the void darkness of my dorm room. I drugged in a ragged breath, feeling like a boulder had been lodged deep in my chest and was being forced out through my throat. I blinked my eyes rapidly urging them to gain focus, tears slipped past them as I wrung my trembling fingers together, practicing Dr Jones' breathing technique.

I looked over at Avery's bed, sighing in relief when I noticed her soundlessly sleeping figure under the blanket. I grabbed the battle of water on my nightstand, gulping it down, my throat suddenly feeling like sandpaper.

Sloppily reaching for my phone, my hands flew against the few applications settling on a particular one, sorrowful sobs wrenching from within me.

"Happy birthday Poppy!" I heard Blake shout before I was dowsed in cold water, shocking me straight put of my sleep. I shot out of bed trembling like a feeble leaf as I glared heatedly at my brother.

"What the heck Blake!"

"Its your birthday, we do this every year. Why are you even shocked?" He was right, every year he would do exactly this and every year I would still wake up disoriented and shivering uncontrollably. I groaned in irritation, pinching at my wet clothes that had stuck to me like a second skin.  

"Wow Poppy are those wrinkles I see?" He made a move to poke his finger against my forehead but I slapped it away roughly, resonating a wince from him "your getting old sis"

"I'm not! Your older than me!" My mothers melodious chuckle rung from behind the camera making her presence know to me.

"Yeah, but your the one with the wrinkles" green eyes eyed me, accusation flashing in them.

"You can't be mean to me, its my birthday!"

"So?" Was his monotonous response. I huffed charging towards him, my sole focus on tackling him to the ground and when I did I smiled proudly, sticking my tongue at his disoriented frame beneath mine.

"Mum are you seeing this!" He wined like an insistent child, wheezing when I roughly jumped pressed all my weight on him.

"Its her birthday" my mother defended from behind the camera shooting me a small smile "happy birthday sweety" she added sweetly before the camera began moving, the video coming to an end.

I watched the video repeatedly until the whole night, crying softly at what could have been. I watched it commemorating the image of Blake to my head, I memorised the lively green eyes that were always filled with mischief, his clear olive skin that was no longer pocketed with smouldering holes and his brilliant white smile, no longer blackened by ragging flames. I wanted to completely extinguish the ghastly image I had conjured in my dream, I wanted it gone.