The Blaze

Eleven

Karin:

I was standing in a field of tall, blue-green grass and vibrant purple flowers.

I bent down closer and saw that they were tiny roses, growing in bunches and spotted with thorns.

I stepped carefully, not sure where I was going, but knowing I had to move forward.

The field was large, but I could see forest trees not too far off.

I was halfway across the field when I heard screaming in the distance.

Smoke began to billow up into the clear blue sky, and before I knew it, there was fire everywhere.

The sky was red from flame and black clouds hung overhead.

The roses withered and died.

A shadow... no, a monster, appeared from among the trees, huge and growling.

I was frozen as he ran for me and frozen as his jaws opened to swallow me whole...

~*~*~*~*~

When I came to, there were bright lights shining over my head and the noise around me sounded like it was underwater. Squinting against the light, I tried to sit up, not knowing what was going on.

"Whoa there, you're still in a state of shock so take it easy." A woman's voice, probably some kind of nurse.

"What happened?" I croaked, my throat feeling tight.

"You had... an episode. Don't worry, your brother is coming to get you."

The brightness of the overhead lights began to clear and I could now tell that I was lying flat on a cot in the back of an ambulance, the noise outside becoming louder as sirens and other commotion began to take hold.

Slowly, I brought myself up on my elbows and that's when I saw a man, (another nurse maybe) asking questions to a person sitting off the end of the ambulance. It took a few moments for my eyes to focus, but I recognized the guy as Link.

Just as I noticed him, he turned his head in my direction, seeing my motion of trying to sit up. He broke into a small smile and stood up, albeit not gracefully. He was wrapped in a thick blue blanket and a pair of sliced up jeans with deep, red-brown stains were in a heap near where he had been standing. His hair was a tangled mess, and I could tell he was in pain, but his eyes were still bright with a knowledge of something mysterious. He stood there just watching me and I was doing the same to him. I felt strange as something passed between us, like a line from me to him.

The nurse near me forced me to lay back down and Link, with assistance, hobbled up into the ambulance and came to sit on a tiny bench at my bedside. He was still grinning, but now he just looked like a plain idiot.

"What's that smile for? It's not like you're ok... which, by the way, what happened to you? What happened to me, for that matter?" I began to feel an ache that sprouted from the center of my chest down to my arms and legs. It was minor, but enough to make me wonder exactly what had happened before I fell unconscious.

Link held his hands up in front of him, like he was defending himself from me, which only irritated me more. It was even more annoying that, up close, he was undeniably attractive, but I could sense an air of arrogance that put me off. Link's smile broadened, nearly back to that brilliance I had first seen on him. "What, I can't be happy that we're alive? I mean, I think that gives good enough reason to be smiling." He laughed, but I saw a glint of pain cross his face when he bumped his leg too close to the gurney I was on. "Anyway, are you really saying you don't remember?"