Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire- Chapter Fifteen

Getting slightly closer to finishing this, thank God. Not that I don't enjoy writing it, which I do, but it would be great to actually finish a book/story for once. I think I should be able to get this finished by November 30th, because that gives me about eight weeks.

Voila! Feast your eyes on the latest chapter of Playing with Fire!

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My eyes opened to darkness. I bolted awake, gasping for breath that didn't want to enter my lungs, reaching out into the black for a sign that everything was alright. The air was chilled, giving me shivers as it brushed against me sweat-soaked skin.

I sank back into the hard wooden chair, still unsure as to where I was. The darkness around me merged with my thoughts and became the dark cell. My eyes were clenched shut, unwilling to stare into the void that confused my mind and muddled my perception.

Images flashed across my eyelids, prompting me into letting out a quiet moan. The pictures just kept coming, getting more and more grotesque and horrendous.

"Reiara?" I flinched at the noise before realizing that the speaker was Hayden. His voice was worried and echoed in the darkness, reflecting the anxious hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

I sat up again, shaking my head as the final dream images floated away. Light flooded my vision as a candle flame burst into existance at my left. Hayden's face was flickering; the light patterns accenting his anxiety.

"Nightmare," I murmured, taking a deep, shuddering breath before speaking once more. "I'll be fine. You didn't have to get up." Hayden settled himself on the chair next to mine, grabbing onto one of my trembling hands and squeezing it in his own large grasp.

"Yeah, I kinda did," he smirked, worry still clear in his icy blue eyes, but his normal demeanor returning. I smiled back at him, shivering yet again when he gave my hand one last squeeze. "Are you going to be alright now?"

My chin bobbed in a nod. I leaned back into the chair, watching Hayden place the candle on the table carefully.

"The Guards are still out there," he commented. "And the sky is still light from sunset. Let's just wait a couple more hours, and then we can go out there and find the old man." I murmured a brief agreement and let my eyes flutter closed, too tired to even say goodnight before I drifted off into dreamland.

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Warm light pierced my eyelids, colouring them a bright orange and waking me from my stupor. I groaned and opened my eyes, squinting in the candlelight, to see Hayden hovering over me once again.

"It's dark enough now," he announced, shrugging his backpack onto one shoulder.

My muscles complained as I lifted myself from the chair, still sore from my escapades the other day. Well, I should have been expecting that. I had jumped out a window that was several stories tall, after all.

"Let's go," I whispered, straightening my tunic where it had rolled up during my nap. The first thing I noticed when I pulled my bag onto my back was that it was considerably lighter than it had been earlier. I whipped my head around to see that Hayden's bag was lumpy and deformed, stretched out of shape by a large, chunky object inside.

"I could've taken the Pearl," I muttered. Hayden rolled his eyes, ignoring the comment and opening the door to let me through. We exited the hotel into a dark night, the only light coming from a sliver of a moon that was filtered through the clouds.

Masses of dark red troops tramped through the streets, boots clicking against the cobblestone. The two of us crept across the darkened city, ducking into alleys and behind carts whenever necessary. When we made it to the industrial district, we climbed onto the nearest factory and covered ground through the use of the rooftops.