• Chapter 2

    “Damien!” I scream every five seconds as I trudge through the soot and various burning objects surrounding me.

    My mind and common sense are telling me to run away, but my heart wants to stay until I find him, even if I see him as a flaming pile of flesh.

    “Run!” A distant someone yells.
    I run in the direction of the voice, hoping that it’s Damien.

    “Run away damn it! Not over here!” The voice yells again.

    Just as I see someone lying on the ground in the distance, a huge, blazing tree falls just feet in front of me. I jump back and squeal but quickly continue running around the tree.
    Right before I reach the other side of the fallen tree, the evil bird that was in the limo flaps and screeches wildly around my head.

    “Get the hell away from me!”

    I wave my arms and shut my eyes tight, hoping that I hit the stupid bird.
    Yes! I smacked it! My eyes open, to see if it flew away. Instead, it’s making choking sounds and shaking its head. Weird, it’s almost like a seizure or something. It looks like it’s growing too.
    The bird bursts into light and I throw my arms up to protect my face. I blink several times as I hesitantly let my arms back down.

    A man. There is a man standing in front of me. A tall, slender, blond haired man is standing in front of me. What just happened?!
    He smiles, a very twisted smile.

    “Sorry about this, love,” He sarcastically remarks in a British accent.

    No, whatever he wants to do, just no. Nothing that someone who looks as demented as him wants to do could possibly have a good outcome. He probably planted a bomb in the limo! He’s the reason for all this. Ooohh, I am so gonna kick his a**. I mean, I didn’t take kick boxing classes for nothing now did I?

    “Bring it on.” I widen my stance, bring my hands near my face, and lower my gaze.
    “There’s-” I jab at his face with my left hand, making perfect contact with his cheek.
    He chuckles.

    So this is funny to him? Let’s see how funny this is…
    I fake a jab with my left then follow immediately with a powerful punch from my right. He stumbles back a bit. Aw, he doesn’t seem to be laughing anymore. Nope, definitely not laughing. His expression is more of an I’m-going-to-rip-off-your-head look. He moves forward in a blur and before I understand where he’s going, he punches me right across my face. I stand there, stunned that he hit me. I should have seen it coming, I should have dodged it. He remains standing where he threw the punch from, smirking. Close enough for an uppercut.

    “Not so-” I uppercut his jaw with my right, hook with my left and do a solid right hand punch to his nose.

    He takes a few steps back, holding his face with his right hand. Is he really that shocked that I hit him? Well things are going to get a lot more surprising for him if he doesn’t back off.
    His eyes slowly look up to mine, looking more angry than before. I brace myself for his next attack, wondering if it’s going to be as weak. Instead of coming towards me, he takes in a deep breath then blows a s**t load of fire at me! I dive to my left to get out of the way, but my lower back brushes with the fire. I roll around on the ground, wincing in pain. When I finally stand up, no longer on fire, the man is walking away.

    What the hell?

    I strain my eyes to see where he’s walking to and I see Damien lying just feet in front of him.
    No way is he touching my brother. I let out an angry snarl then shoot off running towards the man at full speed. It takes me seconds to reach him. I give one, final push off the ground and throw myself at him. My arms wrap around his neck and my legs squeeze around his stomach. He regains his balance then awkwardly grabs the back of my dress and throws me in the direction of some distance trees.

    A minute later I crash into the uppermost part of an extremely tall tree. I hold on to the nearest branch for dear life, but of course, it’s a scrawny branch that was going to snap sometime soon on its own. My eyes search for a stronger branch somewhere within reach but find none. The branch brakes and I’m sent plummeting down into a very unpleasant looking bush. I scream the whole way down. Even if it doesn’t help, it makes me feel slightly better.

    I crash into the thorn bush with my back. I don’t move. I don’t feel any pain. I don’t breath. I just lay there, staring up.

    Minutes go by. Finally, I take a breath.

    Am I paralyzed? Or just in shock?

    More minutes go by.

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m paralyzed. All I can feel is the suffocating heat of a near by fire rushing over my face. There’s no way I can fight this. And I’m so tired. It’s like the tiredness is heavily pulling at my skin and eyes, dragging me into myself. Wait, if I can feel this, I must not be paralyzed! Oh, but I’m so tired, maybe if I just rest a little….

    I’m dreaming. Michael is driving me to my first day of ballet class.
    “Just try it. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to go again,” he says.

    I glance down at my legs covered in light pink tights and my feet in pink ballet slippers.
    He frowns at my skepticism of my outfit. My eyes drift back up towards his big caramel eyes. He looks young, with creamy, flawless skin. Lucky. I would kill to have his even skin tone and complexion.

    “You look lovely, my little prima ballerina,” he tells me.

    The five year old version of myself is about to respond when everything goes black.
    Someone’s screaming in my ear but I can’t see them. There’s a crushing pressure on my chest. I moan and grunt in response to the uncomfortable pressure. Splashes of blood play across my vision. Then my whole right arm cramps and throbs. Soon there’s more blood, more screaming. An intense heat smacks into my body.. Pressure. There’s pressure everywhere, not just my chest anymore. Suddenly, it just goes black again, black and quiet.

    ***

    I wake up to the sound of a person crying, but I don’t open my eyes.

    “Who’s crying,” I whisper.
    Wait, who am I talking to? Where am I? What happened?
    “You are,” A silky smooth voice responds.

    I open my eyes to a softly lit room with purple and black everything. There’s a large window in the distant corner with dark purple drapes. It’s black outside the window, so it’s either really late or really early. I wonder how long I was asleep then.
    I can’t see the guy with the smooth voice but I bring my hand to my face, and sure enough, my cheeks are wet.