Phantom

Haunted | N°2

At first the scream sounds strange, but then I realize that it belongs to me and stop. Or at least try, because in just this moment Joy and Keira start screaming too and that makes it more difficult for me to stop, so I just keep screaming and am unable to put my hand away. Ryan, Josh and Tyler quickly stand up and make a few steps backwards.

Joy slips away on the floor, but then falls on her back, screaming, trying to somehow get away from me.

Keira crawls on her hands and feet away. You can really grab the fear in the room. Adrenaline pumps through my veins, but instead of getting me out of my trance it just amplifies it. I can't move. I don't even really realize what is happening.

My heart skips a few beats and cramps.

And then I feel pain all over my back. It is the same strange feeling like in my neck.

It burns, it hurts and I can feel that my back is just one single wound.

The room is filled with horror screams. My neck is hot, burning, and as I remove the hand from my neck I see something dark on my fingers. Blood. Dark red, thick blood, flowing through my fingers. And there nearly imperceptible skin. My skin. A bloody shred of my skin hanging on my hand. Disgusted I shake it off and the and turn my head round to see what is happening behind my back. Fire. Huge flames which are getting bigger and bigger with each passing second, they wriggle from the bottom of the wooden door frame to the top. The heat that they scatter is indefinable. Horrified I stare at the new kindled fire and can't move. I am burning too or at least my clothes.

Suddenly somebody drags me by my wrist away from the door and the extending fire that now encroaches to the table near it, and I fall to the floor with an hollow impact. Some blood runs out the combustion on my back and lets a few drops behind on the floor. Everyone is panicked and runs into different directions; everywhere just chaos and hustle. Screams. Heat. Panic. Fear.

"Lily!", somebody yells at me and I am lifted up by Tyler. He was also the one who dragged me away from the fire and now quickly picks up a bottle of water from the floor and pours it over my burning clothes and my combustion, to extinguish the fire, before he drops the bottle. The pain I feel is massive and I have to force myself not to scream. It burns and the ache extends through each of part of my body, but at least the clothes aren't burning any more.

"Sorry", Tyler mutters without looking at me as I clasp one of his warm hands in pain. However, he still squeezes my hand quickly and then walks away, calmly, without looking back. He is the only one trying to help me, the only one who isn't running like crazy through the room.

The flames urge us more and more to the other side of the room as they eat their way through the furniture.

Black smoke fills the air now and makes it difficult to breathe. It also makes the view cloudy and the smoke burns in my throat as I breathe in. I have to cough.

The fire has now trapped us in the room, there is no escape, because they flames are now dominating more than half of the chamber. But then suddenly -

"The window!", I croak and everybody stares at me as if I would be mad. But they have to agree with me: it is our only chance to get out alive of this burning massacre. Joy opens the window and stares down. Fresh air banishes the smoke, which flees out of the room.

"It is too high!", she shouts, so that we can hear her through the loud whiz of the fire behind us.

"Impossible!", Keira screams as she looks down, "I am afraid of heights!", she cries out, but no one considers in what she said.

Joy moves away from the window.

"Who goes first?", she asks and swallows. I am scared. We have to jump from minimum four meter altitude. And how should we arrive on the ground? We will surely break our necks!