The Domino Effect

1

I felt so cold, and yet at the same time I felt like I was boiling hot. My whole body felt like how a leg would feel when it falls asleep. Prickly and heavy. Before my eyes opened, I felt my fingers twitch as I started coming to realizing, I was still alive. My senses were slowly coming back to my body. My ears felt like they were ringing, I was having a hard time hearing anything going on around me. The senses in my nose came back and I softly inhaled...

Smoke... Something was burning.

The smell shot up my nose, my eyes opened wide, and I gasped for air. I coughed a bit as I struggled to sit up, catch my breath, and look around the room. I saw my blunt on the floor unlit next to me so that wasn't it. What am I smelling right now?! I thought to myself as I looked up to the windows and raised my eyebrows. I hissed as I pushed myself off of the ground and slowly stood up. Instantly I remembered how I ended up on the floor in the first place and it felt like someone slapped my brain out of place. As I slowly made my way towards one of the windows, my ears stopped ringing and I started hearing a bit clearer...

Screams... Something was happening.

My eyes went wide as I lightly jogged to the window, opened it and my mouth dropped open. The smell of smoke got much stronger.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed as I backed away from the window and looked for an exit. The door that was once gone, was now exactly where it was in the very first place. I didn't have time to process anything and just ran to it. It took a few twists and turns on the knob for the door to bust open and once it did, I continued running. I couldn't help but feel like everything was moving in slow-mo. I looked towards one of the paintings that I was now able to see clearly, and saw a portrait of a man looking off into the distance. I saw another one of a young woman with an angry look on her face, and I saw one of a shadow. I was confused as to why the images weren't clear before but I didn't have time to ask questions. I reached the main door and when I pulled it open, my mouth dropped.

From where I stood, I could see a huge cloud of smoke coming from somewhere in the amusement park along with some flames, and the screams were much clearer. My heart started racing once I realized that Emaja was down there and knowing her, she was looking for me. I started running as fast as I could down the hill. I haven't had to run this fast since back in my track and field days. 100 meter dash, 200, 400, I've done it all. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins as I got closer and closer towards the park. I didn't realize how far that attraction was to everything else until I looked back towards it.

I shook my head trying to get the images out of it from earlier as I finally reached it and saw people running everywhere trying to get away. I didn't even bother to look around to figure out where the fire started, everything was just foggy.

"Emaja!?...Emaja!?" I yelled at the top of my lungs and I ran behind a group of guys, literally holding up their pants as they ran towards the front of the park, with girls right along with them.

"Emaja, where are you!?" I yelled again but to no avail, there was too much going on. "Shit, she finna kill me."

I stopped to catch my breath not realizing how much I wasn't actually breathing. I looked around trying to see if I could spot her but I couldn't get my eyes to properly focus, everything was spinning. Right before I could collect a breath to yell her name again, I started hearing what sounded like my own.

"Nubia?! Nubia?! Move out of my way man damn- Where are you Nubia?!" I heard Emaja yell as loud as she could. I looked around to see where the voice was coming from as I heard fire truck sirens in the distance. "Nubia?!"

"Emaja! EZ I'm over here!" I yelled back as I jogged towards where I thought the voice was coming from. "Ema-" I started to say but stopped when we both made eye contact and ran into each other's arms.