Dark Hazard

Chapter 1 - Nightmare

"Get out of here now!" Isaiah cried out.

I hunched over leaning against the stone wall. I couldn't see him anywhere, everything so dark and heated it was impossible to get a hold on my bearings. The alarms outside echoed throughout the halls sending every part of my body into a frenzy. Lights flickered in every direction, yet all I could see was dust and rubble strewn everywhere.

This wasn't meant to happen, none of this makes sense.

"No." I rasped out, struggling to keep the dust out of my eyes. My body feeling heavier as the minutes go by. I started coughing and spluttering uncontrollably. How could everything go so wrong so fast?

"Ariah! You need to go now!" Isaiah protested, just a few metres away from me.

"I'm not leaving you. This is all my fault!" My voice barely audible at this point, I couldn't risk removing my shirt sleeve from my mouth, feeling I could pass out at any second.

Suddenly I felt Isaiah grab ahold of my shoulders, his figure blurring in front of me.

"Please Ariah." He said distinctly, unaffected by what was happening around him. "I don't want to lose you."

Through my vague vision I saw a tiny glint trickle down Isaiah's cheek, it could've be a trick of the light, I've never seen him cry before only when he thought I was going to starve to death.

"Isaiah," I croaked out "you have to come back with me." My lips trembled as I wiped the moisture from my dirt covered face. "Isaiah."

I attempted looking at his face but tears clouded my sight, even with the lights flashing everything seemed distorted and unreal.

This isn't real.

It's all a dream. How can I forget? I've been having this strange nightmare for the past month.

With everything so vividly clear my mentality gets sucked back into the dreamscape without a thought.

I find myself trying to remember what Isaiah looks like, as if when I blink he will be gone again. His hazel eyes filled my mind, unlike mine his always seemed to be filled with determination, even our jet black hair is so similar in colour it's not hard to see we were brother and sister. Yet, Isaiah had something that only really belonged to him, a wide cheesy grin that was constantly plastered on his face, even through tough times.

Times like now.

I squeezed my eyes shut, blinking out the tears, willing myself not to cry so that I could look at Isaiah in 'reality'. With the light pulsing and fumes disorientating my sight it felt like I was hallucinating or watching a nightmare come to life.

This part I hated the most.

Nothing in the world seemed to exist at this very moment.

Everything moved in slow motion. The light from an unseen window illuminated the dark room around us, the light creeping up the walls, igniting clouds of smoke. When I finally focused in on everything and saw Isaiah for the first time in what felt like a century, my breath hitched painfully in my lungs.

The Isaiah I was staring at now was not the same Isaiah I knew before.

His face ice pale, so smooth and perfect, his features displaying no sign of dirt from the ruined building.

No this wasn't Isaiah. It couldn't be, it just couldn't. But everything about the perfect statue before me looked exactly like him.

But didn't.

Suddenly it was as if a ton of bricks were crashing down on me. Isaiah showed no smile, only sadness with his brows furrowed in grief.

I wanted to sob my heart out at this moment, confused to the point where I wasn't sure if this was truly him, my brother.

With his eyes shadowed in darkness I felt myself reaching out to touch his face in reassurance, but I came to a halt as a biting cold hand wrapped around my wrist.

Slowly Isaiah pulled in closer and I took in his face completely.

Sharp red daggers stared straight into my soul. Isaiah's brown eyes swallowed up by a demon.

Fear washed over me like a raging river.

"Not Isaiah." I whispered to myself. "This isn't him." I could feel the nightmare slipping away.

"Not him." I murmured, thrashing wildly. "Not him. Not him. Not him." I repeat over and over.

—————