Fire that consumes everything

[ Christina pov ]

As I fell down, the ropes that held me broke, being replaced instead by the hand of the cyclops. The fall itself lasted merely seconds, however once we reached the floor I felt my entire body hurt as the impact disoriented me. Raising my head to see my surroundings, I was met by the sight of the monster that brought me down with him, except it was now nothing more than a corpse, slowly turning to ashes with a metal beam embedded on its chest.

I was about to stand up when I felt my entire body be pushed down. My mind didn't process the pain instantly, instead it gave me time to turn back and see my legs being crushed down my a piece of the roof from the room above. Suddenly all the pain came at the same time, forcing me to scream while I tried to get out from the rubble to no avail.

As I screamed, smoke entered my lungs while the fire extended through the room at unprecedented speeds, quickly reaching me and coming in contact with my hands. As soon as the fire touched me, feather-shaped tattoos appeared on my forearms and hands, covering them entirely.

*Cough*

The fire in the room continued to grow and the smoke entered my lungs, however all my focus was on the tattoos themselves, which turned from black to red once the fire touched them and began to hurt me.

*Cough* *Cough*

Excruciating pain. I could feel the skin of my hands slowly burn as every part that was covered by the tattoos was being peeled off and taken by the fire. Eventually the fire moved through all the tattoos, turning each and every one of them into a red coloured feather that destroyed my nerved and skin.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

Once there was no more skin to be consumed by the fire, it moved on to my muscles, burning them away as well. My mind was going crazy from the pain while smoke filled my lungs with every breath I took, making my body ache even further. The pain made me want to pass out, yet every instinct of my body ordered me to stay awake and run, to survive.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

As I started coughing, my throat felt like it was on fire as well, I felt it being ripped apart by the ashes produced by the fire as the taste of iron became unbearable. Still, the pain it caused was negligible when compared to the pain in my hands, which by now were nothing more than scorched muscles and hanging skin that remained attached. With every burnt feather I could feel my mind begging me to ignore my instincts and let it shut down, to stop the pain no matter the cost, to accept death as a release from the unbearable agony that was living.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

I felt every single nerve of my arms turn to ashes as the fire finished devouring my muscles, before moving on to the bones and giving them a scorched, black appearance. They looked as if they would fall off at any moment, yet they continued to be tied together by the few ligaments that remained in place, which were also burning slowly as the fire consumed them as well.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

I couldn't help but curse my small and weak body, which prevented me from getting out. I couldn't help but curse my mother's voice, which caused me to drop my guard even though I knew cyclops could do that. I couldn't help but curse the monster's themselves, who in their relentless pursuit for eating us destroyed every attempt at a normal and happy life we got.

*Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

The fire within the building kept growing, pieces of the wooden ceiling falling down near me, threatening to crush me at any moment. The fire itself started taking shape, looking like the demons I saw on the bible. The smoke darkened the air and blocked my view, making it impossible to see the direction of the exit.

*Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

I could feel my throat break, liquid and gas filling my mouth and lungs. The wooden piece of the ceiling that fell along with and the cyclops was still in place, right above me and pressing me down, no matter how much I struggled my tiny body wasn't able to move it one bit. The fire in my arms kept growing, coming closer and closer to my elbows and threatening to consume them as well while following the tattoos shaped like feathers.

*Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

The demons formed from the fire started smiling, using smoke as their capes while waiting for me to give up so that they could consume me. The bones that formed my hand started falling off as the fire consumed the ligaments completely. The air became unbreathable while my vision started blurring.

*Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

The fire demons started laughing loudly, each chuckle as loud as an explosion. Every time one of them laughed, more demons showed up, the floor started cracking and the ceiling was almost completely gone, pieces of it now forming part of the ground. I began seeing feathers appear in the images that flashed before my eyes. The memories of my life that I saw were slowly taken away by the demons and turned to ashes by the fire, joining the ashes of may arms and the smoke of the room.

*Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough**Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

Suddenly, I stopped feeling pain. The smoke was no longer hurting my lungs with every breath, the laughter of the demons was replaced with a whistle, there was no more pain in my hands, the only thing that didn't go away was the group of demons that surrounded me, waiting for me to fall asleep to take me away.

As my vision started turning into darkness, I moved my arms around, trying to grab anything to get out, however, my hands were incapable of helping me now, because they were no longer there.

The demons kept getting closer and closer, growing in numbers as well. Even though the ringing noise was still there, preventing me from hearing anything at all, I knew they were laughing at me.

The smiles on their faces grew larger and larger, until suddenly something came through them... someone. I could recognise even in my delirious state. As he made his way in my direction, I could see despair written in his expression while small blue fairies flew out of his equally blue eyes. Moving his hands to the burning wood, he began to lift it while simultaneously trying to get me out form underneath it.

As I looked at his burning palms, regret began growing on my heart. I knew I couldn't move even if he lifted the burning wood that held me down, which meant right now he was doing nothing but hurting himself, he would do nothing but dying here with me.

"L-Leave me, Luke." I said between coughs while looking at his desperate expression.

I couldn't make out what he was saying, but I knew from his expression what he meant.

"Thanks Luke, for picking us up-" was all I could mutter between coughs before passing out. The last thing I saw before everything turned black was the blonde hair of my older brother covered in flames while his blue eyes focused on me as he kept trying to get me out while lifting the burning wood that held me down. Blue fairies mixed with red snakes and hit my face as darkness embraced me.

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Author note:

A bit of explanations for this chapter in case you missed some of the references I made. First of all she was partially hallucinating because of the lack of oxygen. The 'demons' didn't exist, it was simply the images her mind created with the fire. The laughter of the demons was the sound of the explosions that kept happening. The blue fairies were Luke's tears and the red snakes were Luke's blood from the lip he was bitting in order to avoid screaming.