Down the Rabbit Hole - Book Four

5. Damn It All Down

"Vyndren! Vyndren, wake up!" I'm vaguely aware of something patting my face, it feels smooth and silky against my burnt, charred skin. Burnt...? When did I get burned? "Vyndren, klup it all, wake up!" Whisper suddenly smacks me with her claws out, the sting is enough to somehow convince my eyes to open. When they do though it's like I'm waking up in the middle of a nightmare. Our cell is on fire.

Fire.

I sit bolt upright, fear spikes through my body's every system like an irate lightning storm. I feel like panicking, my chest is tight, the corner of my vision is blacking out and my heart is beating entirely too fast, sending my blood hammering through my veins painfully. If there's only one thing I'm truly afraid of...it's fire.

But panicking is gonna have to wait.

I fly up to my feet -with more energy than I've ever been able to summon since I've been here- and swiftly seize the chain that keep me shackled to the wall. I pull it tight till there's just one link left in the loop and use the rest of my excess chain to keep brutally striking the link, sparks fly up as the metal clangs together aggressively. I gotta break this chain!

Whisper and I are both choking and coughing as the funnels of smoke rise above our heads, nearly hiding the savagely dancing flames that crackling deafeningly around us. The chain holding me to the wall finally cracks in half, I anxiously rip it free as more fire springs up around me, the flames stand as tall and taller than me now.

"The door!" Whisper coughs. She keeps thrusting her little legs between the bars but her huge collar keeps her from escaping. The burning rafters above us loudly groan and suddenly two come careening down.

We're thrown to opposite sides of the cell as a shower of embers and splinters fly up into the air.

I shakily rip a piece of fiery wood from my shoulder and hurl it aside as I glance back up at the remaining rafters, an idea quickly forms in my head. I kick the side of a fallen rafter, cursing with effort as I keep pushing it against the door. I scramble back up to my feet, panting as I toss my wet, bloody hair out of my eyes, and now focus on one beam in particular above me.

"What the klup are you doing?!" Whisper demands as I toss my chain over the burning beam. "You'll bring this whole cage down over top of us!"

I don't waste precious oxygen to retort and instead catch the other end of the chain, wrapping it around my arms again and again and now pull. The fire bites into my legs hungrily, the scorching tongues stab through my flesh and seemingly singe my very bones. I curse with pain and effort as I keep wrenching down on one side of the weakened rafter blazing over our heads, the chains dig more menacingly into my blistering flesh, it feels like they're clanking against raw bone now.

Suddenly the rafter finally breaks loose in a burst of embers and comes toppling down directly above us. I just manage to throw myself out of the way as the beam crashes on top of the one wedged beneath the door. In a blaze of roaring fire and flying splinters, the metal door is elevated off the ground, creating a small opening between the door and the floor.

Whisper scrambles out beneath it and stands panting in the hall beyond, her white fur  is now blackened with soot.

I try to leap up to my feet but I'm instantly yanked back down. My chains! They're trapped under all the fallen rafters. I give a strangled cry of fury and desperation. After everything everything I die while chained down in a fiery cage?! Seriously?!

It's a ditch effort for sure but I seize the blazing rafter in my hands and strain to lift it off my chains, it's feels like I'm lifting the entire damn building, my whole body is shaking with effort as I struggle to lift it, fire races up my arms and claws at my chest. I'd sure kill for an ounce of my Vampire strength right about now.

Suddenly a small white object darts forward in the corner of my vision and dives beneath the fiery rafter I've managed to lift only inches off the ground. Whisper races back out with my chains in her tiny jaws. "Let's go!" she manages to snap as she races for the door, dropping my chains as she slides out to freedom once more. I hurl the rafter away from me with a ragged cry and now throw myself to floor to roll out beneath the door, dragging my chains with me.

I roll to a numb halt outside of the burning cell, my body doesn't even feel like it's under my command anymore... My flesh is too badly burnt to even feel pain and yet everything feels like it's been broken. I shakily exhale with exhaustion, smoke rises from my cooked lungs, my eyes roll back in their sockets.

I can't even remember my own name as I pass out.