Shadows (Sequel to Rip My Heart Out)

Chapter 7

Everything around me was fire. Red and yellow undulating around me, as if alive. The ash rained down, staining my hair and skin black. I could see it and I could smell it but I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel anything at all.

If I thought I was capable of dreaming, I would say it was a terrible, never ending nightmare. One with no escape, and no hope. Anywhere I went, no matter how far I ran, the scene around me wouldn't change. I was lost in this ashen, unforgiving world and maybe I deserved it. I failed at the one thing I'm supposed to be able to do. Save people.

Steve gave me a task. He told me to save anyone the team couldn't, but I failed. Maybe I should be cursed to remain here, reliving the last fiery moments of the people I couldn't save. Tears were escaping my eyes, but they boiled on my cheeks and were turned to vapor before they could fall.

"It isn't your fault." The voice seemed to come out of the smoke.

For a moment, I feared I was in another vision, another one of Loki's traps, but this wasn't Loki's voice. This was the voice of a woman I'd never heard before.

"Who are you? Where are you?" I asked, trying to peer through the flames.

"I am here." The voice said. I whipped around to find a woman standing behind me. She was dressed in yellow robes. They looked old, yet they were spotless, like they'd been constructed just yesterday.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I've had many names." She said.

"Give me one of them." I demanded.

"I'm called the Ancient One." She said.

"The Ancient One? Seriously?" I said. "Did your parents hate you, or...?"

"This is not my birth name." I think she actually smiled. Even though I'd just met her, she didn't seem like the type to smile often.

I nodded. "Sorry. I've had a rough day."

"Yes, I'd say so. You've found yourself in one of the most unpleasant dimensions." She said, motioning around us.

"Dimensions?" I looked around. "You mean this isn't like a terrible curse or I don't know, hell or something?"

"Doubtless, this could be hell. This is how it is described in western religions, I suppose. But, Emelia you are not dead. You've transported yourself into another dimension. The Land of the Unburning Fire." She said matter of factly.

"How do you know my name?" I asked. "I'm just going to table the whole 'different dimension' thing for a second here. Let's start from the beginning."

"Yes, I suppose we have time, and you are owed an explanation." She said.

"Oh, great. Yes, thank you." I said. I really hadn't expected it to be that easy. Usually getting information that has to do with the mystical and otherworldly is like prying anything with stars and stripes out of Steve's superhuman grip.

"Perhaps we could go somewhere else first? Maybe somewhere with less flames?" The Ancient One asked.

I looked around again, thinking that this is the last thing the victims of the explosion in Lagos had seen and the tears were back.

"As I said, it wasn't your fault, Emelia. Loki killed those people, not you." She said.

I looked to the woman in front of me. It's true, I tried everything I could to save those people in Lagos, and I didn't blame myself for their deaths, but that wouldn't get the images of them burning to death in the explosion any less clear in my head. I nodded slowly.