Haze & Hellfire

Prologue: (Don't Fear) The Reaper

1978; Dallas, Texas.

The sound of the rubber soles of twenty pairs of sneakers sliding against the gymnasium floor is mixed with the muffled sound of children's bodies hitting carpets with their feet in front and then continuing on to the next part of the obstacle course. Coach Limberg shouts encouraging to all of them to keep running, take it easy and have fun.

"Speed up!"

She absorbs the words, increases the pace in front of the reuther board that will make her easily jump up on the vaulting box. She charges, makes a jump and lands just right. It hurts a little in the knees as they slide against the surface on top of the vaulting box. With her pulse racing through her small body, she jumps down on the thin carpet on the other side and runs on.

She's on her eighth lap now and it's so much fun. The fun runs around like a happy rabbit inside of her body, from her fingertips right down to the toes. Gymnastics is not her favorite subject, but obstacle courses are very fun, second most fun after ghost ball. 

She takes a few breaths to prepare for the monkey bars. Her arm strength isn't as good as the strength she has in her legs, but she's determined to make it. She gets some help to reach the bars from coach Limberg and starts to swing her body forwards and backwards, to be able to move forward like a pendulum. 

She's starting to get tired now, pants heavily as she slowly moves forward in the air. Her little arms tremble, but she won't give up. She knows that Jack will tease her if she won't make the monkey bars. But she gets past the dreadful bars and starts running towards the balance board.

Everything around her suddenly stops as if some higher power has pressed a "pause"-button. All the noise from the rubber soles and the gymnastic equipment, the cheerful children's voices and laughs disappears and there's only a faint ringing sound left along with her own pulse that beats against her eardrums. But it's irregular, her pulse runs like a freight train and doesn't have the same pace as her heart. How peculiar. Then she feels it. It's so sudden that she gasps for air and feels how her legs collapse underneath her. 

What is happening? 

The confusion turns into panic. It hurts so much and at the same time as she puts her hands to her chest she sees how the gym changes shape and turns. She hits the hard floor with a thump and tries in vain to gasp for air, struggling to call out for help. Something is wrong. Around her, in slow motion, her classmates and Mr. Limberg gathered up. Their faces are worried, scared. Mr. Limberg's big hand waves over her face and he seems to shout something at her, but she can't hear a word. She's slowly disappearing, being succumbed by the pain and a sudden drowsiness. Is this it? Everything around her, her friends, the ceiling and Mr. Limberg starts to fade away until it all disappears into a vast and dark nothingness. 

This is it, she manages to think. This is the day I die.