On a String

Chapter 20

"Answer our call in desperate hours.
Shelter our fall from earthly powers.
Temper our souls with flame and furnace.
Bear us toward a noble purpose."
Take Me Away' by Globus

Flames. Flames. Flames.

"It's his turn to die, Fireboy. You always knew you couldn't save him-"

(Burning...)

"Yeah. You were never strong enough, never fast enough- it's just like with Clarissa, isn't it? You could always save your own life, but not theirs,"

[Never theirs]

"Such a selfish pig!"

(...to ashes...)

"-And soon Cole's body will be hanging from a string! Aww, poor Cole- we're so very sorry that Fireboy couldn't save you. He's really just so useless, isn't he?"

"Wait, Connor, what do you mean by 'hanging from a string'? I thought we used rope for hanging..."

"Boss's orders. Our specially reinforced string cuts so much deeper than rope. Smaller surface area, you know? It's like using wire,"

(...to dust...)

"Hey, why don't we do that then? We so should use wire... then we could like, electrocute them while we drop them!"

(...to Death...)

"That's not very traditional, Brennan. Besides, it's not much fun if they die before they reach the bottom. Sort of misses the whole point, really. And there's another thing... don't you realize how messy that would get? The wire could actually slice through their-"

(...in this Hell.)

Kai woke to the sound of screaming, but it wasn't until his lungs started straining for air that he realized it was his own. And even as that thought consciously registered, his teeth were already clamping down, down, down, trying to kill the noise as it escaped to warn the enemy (because the enemy was always there. Always), and then he was trying to breathe it back in and swallow it away from the light of day, because screams were like secrets (his secrets) and no one else deserved (wanted) to hear tales of burning to ash and burning to death and burning in this hell and, and, and-

Like a wave, reality eventually rolled back in; breaking with a foamy crash as he realized he was trembling. A sweaty, shaky mess of fear and anger and regret (but was that anything new?), already drunk off the adrenaline of his own nightmare.

Beneath him, a mattress creaked softly, and the sound managed to draw his mind away from its self-analysis long enough to recognize he was in the Bounty's bunkroom. The discovery was slightly disconcerting, as the last thing he remembered was falling to his knees and sand running through his fingers.

What had happened?

... Hadn't someone been screaming?

...Hadn't someone been lying?

Kai didn't understand how he'd gotten here, either. (And wasn't that a terrifying thought?). He'd lost control. Anyone could have done anything to him... it was eerily similar to the way things had been while he was captured. Except there were no bars or cells out here; no blood or ropes or flames... and yet he was still... vulnerable.

(NO!)

He had never felt so weak.

(You fool. You poor, weak, powerless fool.)