Luna Rising

Fire & Blood

Fire...Blood...

The smell of burning flesh seeped into my nose and disoriented me. Where was I? I could feel my body move, but I could not command it. A strong taste of sweet iron was in my mouth and I fought my mind to focus on my surroundings.

Everything felt like I was in a dream, I was detached from my body but could feel my movements. My sight was blurred and I felt trapped.

I tried to concentrate and felt how I slowly regained a more conscious state. Oh how I wished had never tried to do so.

I could feel that there was something between my teeth, I dragged something. No someone!
Focus, Romy, focus. I tried to calm myself

I must kill them! I could hear the voice from the forest again.

A sudden wave of anger flooded through my body. A gurgling sound came from the person I had been dragging by the shoulders l, with my bare teeth.

„Ro... Romy...?" the familiar voice weakly said.

Suddenly I could see clearly again. I looked down at my father, his throat had a huge cut through it. His hands were shakily trying to touch me, but he was to weak to do so.

I took in the sight of his mangled body. His shirt was ripped and I could see the bare flesh on his stomach, blood seeping out of him with every faint heartbeat. I looked into his brown eyes, they were filled with fear.

He tried to breath once more, but the blood was obstructing his airways. He shuddered and then, nothing.

Michael's body went limp beneath me. My father was dead. I had seen him die and there was nothing I could do. My body began to shake, as I looked around. Only a few meters from us I could see my mother on the ground.

Her body was twisted in an unnatural way, her mouth and eyes stood open.
Her gaze that were usually filled with so much life and love was now empty as she was staring straight ahead.

She was gone I just knew it. They were dead, both of my parents had been killed.
It looked like a monster had torn them apart. A monster like... me?

Smoke began to fill the air and my lungs. Only now I realized that our camp was burning. I began to slowly move away, blindly tumbling over the lifeless bodies of people who had been my colleagues and friends.

The flannel shirt on one of the bodies seemed familiar. Max. Dead like everyone I had ever known.

„There she is. Get her!" I heard a strange deep voice commanding someone. I now longer cared of my surroundings. They were all dead and I had done it. For a second time a cold flash of pain went through my body.

„I hope this time, I will die too"

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I slowly regained consciousness as I awoke in a dimly lit room. Every bit of my body was aching, I tried to move, but the pain was almost unbearable.

I felt my skin uncomfortably stretching and ripping open on several parts of my body. My right hand was bandaged, so I began to feel around with my left.

A thick layer of gauze covered my thigh, where I had felt the first icy pain. It was hard to see in the dark room, but there were blisters on my right arm, they looked like I had burnt myself.

How did that happen? How did I get here?

For a second my mind went blank, I could not remembering anything. Then it came back to me. The teeth I had sunken into my fathers shoulder, his frightened gaze, his death.

Everyone is dead! Panic overcame me, I tried to breath but the room got smaller and smaller suffocating me. I was gasping for air, but the walls closed in on me. I was dying.

-------

I don't know how long it took me to wake up again. I was slipping in and out of consciousness for what felt like days, but it might have only seconds.

Stay awake this time! Please.

There it was again. The voice I heard in the forest for the first time. It sounded like a female, but I wasn't too sure.

I looked around the room, my eyes had become accustomed to the darkness. The room was sparse, with undecorated walls made of cement. I was lying on a simple bed, which was firmly attached to the wall. There was no toilet, but a hole in the ground to relieve myself.

A small opening in the wall was barred by some metal, it was probably some kind of ventilation shaft. The only entrance was a heavy looking iron door. I began to realise I was in a cell and I was definitely alone.

"Who are you?" I asked into the emptiness. "And where are you?"

My name is Belana. I am a part of you.

"I must have gone crazy. The horrible things I witnessed, no! The horrible things I did must have made me snap."

There was no other way Romy. We had to kill.

"Don't say we", I hissed, "it was you! You killed everyone I loved."

No, no, no! It's not what you think!
The voice howled in my head, I could feel the distress and pain.

"You are a monster. You made me do it!", I was crying now.

A sudden rattling noise came from the door.

Kill them when they open the door! We need to get out!

I began to breath rapidly. I clearly had been captured. But they had every right to do so. I was a danger, a killer! The world would be safer with me behind locked doors.

A small flap I hadn't seen before opened in the door and some one placed a bowl of food inside. They were gone before I could say or do anything.

Do not eat it! Belanas voice commanded me. But I did not want to listen to this obviously crazed part of myself.

The food tasted strange, but I ate it all with my bare fingers. Belanas pleas to stop me from eating became slurred and seemed to come from an increasingly further distance, until I could no longer hear her.
The food numbed me and I was grateful for it, as a dark and dreamless slumber overcame me.