Consuming Fire

Chapter 24

The pain was unbearable. The smoke suffocated his lungs, the burning feeling of fire on his skin worse than anything he'd ever endured. Jack wanted to scream in agony, but he couldn't open his mouth.

He didn't want to, either. The pain was worth it for what he could see in his mind.

In the middle of the bright, burning flames that surrounded him, Jack saw a figure. She was beautiful, a goddess, encased in flames. She looked like a superhero from his comic books. Her eyes were pure white, her hair twisted in fiery swirls. In the fire she reached out for him and called his name softly, urging him to join her. He did, not because it was Hunter – though he would follow her in a heartbeat if she asked – but because the flames were painful but warm. And after what felt like forever in the darkness, in the agony and in the cold arms of death, he needed warmth again.

Jack reached for Hunter, his fingers stretching, seeing the golden, loving glow in her eyes, but then suddenly he was wrenched back into the black hole that clutched his body tightly and squeezed it.

Let me go! he screamed in his mind.

But the darkness would not let go. Not now. Not ever.

The darkness hit him with memories to remind him of what he'd lost. He saw his mother and father the day they left for their trip to France. It was the last time he saw them before they were killed. He remembered waving at them from their old apartment in Brooklyn, holding Clare's hand.

The darkness stabbed him in the back and he yelped in pain.

He saw the time he won his first soccer match for the team. Eli was there, cheering him on, and of course Clare was there too, always so supportive of him.

Again, agony sliced through his heart as if a sword had been thrust through his chest.

He saw the first time the darkness came through. It was something so simple and small. He yelled at Clare for spending all of their rent on clothes, and their television exploded. Not just exploded, it imploded. The television looked like it had been crushed by a ton of bricks. Clare never put the pieces together, but he had his suspicions.

BAM. Jack screamed internally as a force like a truck knocked him to his back, even though he was weightless in this hellish nightmare.

He saw Hunter, in the library. He remembered watching her study through the book case. He wasn't there to borrow textbooks, he wasn't even there to take Clare home. She could have caught the subway. Really, he was there for Hunter.

Yes, Jack loved Hunter. He loved her the moment Eli introduced them in the cafeteria. Even before then, he knew she was special. His life changed that night when he saw her walk into the laboratory, and prom both brought them together and broke them apart.

The darkness let him see Hunter's face just one last time before it swallowed that memory too, and he was left in complete darkness. All was silent, except for a voice.

I am all you have, Jack, it whispered. I am all you need.

It was easy not to fight the darkness, so he didn't.