The Chosen: the Age of Corbin Tyler the Undying

Chapter 9

I gripped my chest. 

"You will die the death that so many before you have shared," a new voice said. 

I stumbled out of the bed. Was I dying? Here? Like this?

I stumbled to the door and hit the wall. I felt something grab me from behind. I spun around and threw my hand out to protect myself. I watched as sparks flew from my hand, and then erupted into a whirl of flames, surging from the palm of my left hand.

I turned and opened the door, stumbling down the hall. I wasn't sure where I was trying to go, I suppose I was trying to get away. 

I stumbled into a couch, knocking it over. I felt a pair of hands on my back. I threw my hand behind me and heard a huge explosion and the crumbling of bricks and stone. 

I struggled to my feet, the pain in my chest only increasing. I couldn't stay upright. 

I fell to my knees, gasping, struggling to breathe. 

I looked up at the ceiling. I shouted at the top of my lungs and then, blinded by pain, plunged my hand into my chest where the pain was coming from. 

Behold, the original pain subsided. Or was it overtaken? I wasn't sure. But I did know that there was a new flood of pain. 

I cried out again, the floor underneath me cracked, the walls shook, and dust fell from the ceiling. Then I fell forward on my face into a pool of my own blood as my vision went dark.

-

I lay there, feeling the pool of blood expand. I saw nothing, heard nothing, smelled nothing. Then my vision began to come back, and it was bright. I felt something too. Something rough. I blinked and saw that I was laying in the middle of a desert. I tried to get up but couldn't. 

I tried to claw my way forward, but something dug into my back and kept me from moving.

I lay there, trying to think of a way out. I had tried to pull whatever was on my back off but was unable to. I was stuck. 

Then I heard something shifting the sand. It was coming from the direction my feet were facing. 

I tried to look at what was making the noise, but it was just out of my view.  Then I saw a pair of bare, bloody, and raw feet. They were chained with black iron shackles. 

The feet shifted some more, and I saw a long piece of wood dragging through the sand behind the feet. and behind the piece of wood were more chains with stakes at the end, digging into the sand. 

The feet stopped next to me and shifted to face me. Then a kind voice said, "well, look at this."

I tried to look up and see their face, but I couldn't. 

"Would you like my help?" He asked. 

"Please," I pleaded. 

He reached down and I felt something being pulled out of my back, and then a massive weight get lifted off of me. 

I sighed in relief. 

"Now come on, if you stay down, you'll end up like that again," he said. 

I pushed myself up and saw the face of the man who had just helped me. He had dark hair that fell to about the middle of His neck. A patchy beard, and where the bald spots were, there was blood. His eyes were brown and kind. Shoved down on the top of His head, and where a majority of the blood on His face was coming from, was a crown of thorns. 

He wore nothing but a loincloth, and on His back were countless bloody stripes. Over His shoulder was slung a cross and attached to that cross were countless chains with hooks on either end: one that was stuck in the cross and the other was digging into the sand behind Him.