INFERNO: The Fiery Inception

CHAPTER 15 : a visit from a friend or foe

To say I was shocked was an understatement; I mean yes August did tell me that she might be a traitor. But a small part of me denied believing that she was not a traitor, a part of me wanted her to be the good guy. I knew I was being too soft hearted. I had to be stronger than this to survive what's coming. And that's what decided I will be, I will be strong.

The only face we could see was Amanda's the other two had their face covered, two of them holding swords and one holding a bow and arrow ready to kill any moment. I realized that we were unarmed. It was three against four, but it was armed three against unarmed four. One of them lunged at August but he dodged. Turns out only I was unarmed as Lucas, Alex and August had daggers with them, Alex had two. They surrounded me and started fighting almost like protecting me. And I realized they were indeed protecting me and Eric and I needed to get Eric out of here before it was too late. His labored breathing was getting fainter as he was losing consciousness. He was struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Eric, listen to me don't close your eyes okay?" I told him. He weakly nodded his head letting out a non comical sound. I started to slowly get him up. And boy does he weigh too much. I swung his hand on my shoulder and started pulling him out of there. We were almost out of the door when another arrow whizzed past me, this time living a long cut on my left arm, I let out a scream but continued moving nonetheless, Eric's life was at stake and I'm not risking it. He gave me that guilty look again, I don't understand this guy.

Thankfully I saw the eight guys I had seen earlier at the weaponry. They might have been returning from practice they had swords with them. When they saw us they came running towards us concern etched on their face, it made me happy to know they were concerned. Two of them came with us, one holding Eric and the other applied pressure above my wound. It was hurting me but Eric was in a worse situation making me stronger, giving me the will to hold on the pain. The rest of them went to help on with the fight once I told them. I hadn't even finished telling them when they ran to help them.

We entered a room with many beds some occupied and the rest empty and there couple of people here and there which I assumed were healers. I found out from Alex that they call the doctors healers here. Two of them came to us and took Eric to the E.R, while I was made to lie down on one of the beds. I was starting to feel dizzy already.

The healer started working on my wound. I would have explained how if I wasn't busy thinking what have happened in the fight, if they were okay and also the fact that I was trying to block out the pain. They gave me ibuprofen to reduce the pain. They don't actually use potions here, cue me surprised but there are medicines here that are not found in our dimension.

The pain started dulling after a few minutes. I was about to fall asleep when August and the others came bursting in. August came running to me and checked my arm.

"I'm sorry" he said.

"Sorry for what?" I asked.

"I should have protected you"

"August you were in a fight where you could get killed; you all did the best you could" I said.

"What happened there? Where is Amanda? Is everyone alright? " I asked. Lucas seemed disappointed to answer this

"They escaped" what? She almost killed Eric. She can't just escape like that.

"How did they escape?"

"We'll talk about that later" Lucas said. I noticed the guy from the weaponry standing next to the other three. He smiled at me when our eyes met

"Hi Charlie, you okay now?" he asked. I lifted my now bandaged arm and said. "Better, the pain killers are kicking in so I'm feeling better. Wait, you know my name?"

"Well it's not like August would let us not know your name, I'm pretty sure he used your name thousand times while coming here" he said a chuckle, his voice was deep. He looked nineteen maybe, I couldn't be sure.

"Oh, he is always like this" I chuckled.

"I'm Mason by the way" he said. I nodded my head; don't ask me why I just did.

"How's Eric?" I asked. I definitely didn't like the way he looked the last time I saw him.

"The healers are still working; he wasn't healed completely from the last attack, and now this. And also the fact that in both times the weapon was dipped in poison so it will take at least three weeks to heal even here" I hadn't known that the weapon was poisoned last time, he had told us it was drugged.

"But I healed completely in a day" I asked, totally confused.

"One your stronger than him also you're the heir. And to add that you were already healing you had one month outside in your dimension" Lucas explained. The others who were with Mason introduced themselves as Andrew, Jordan and Thomas, Thomas was British. They said the other four when to take a shower.

We were talking but slowly I drifted off to sleep, the tiredness of consuming pain killer catching up to me. It was silent and peaceful sleep for some time but then I was back to Aunt Marie's house's ruins. The hooded man was back now sitting among the ruins. I did not understand him, he was the guardian then why did he hurt me? Is he here to hurt me again? Or is he here to help? He lifted his head slight and looked at me through his hood but this time I gasped at what I saw for a different reason, what I saw was not a pair of rotting eyes but beautiful pair of amber eyes, almost golden. It held other worldly beauty, one moment it was here and the other it was gone. It turned back to the rotten old flesh and eyeball hanging from it. "Charlie" it's voice wasn't any better. My ears felt like it was about to burst. Fear crept in as he slowly stood up and started walking towards me "Be strong, face it, you can't afford to be weak" It said as I fisted my hair not able to listen to his voice anymore. Pieces of rotten flesh falling from him were making a wet sound as he moved. I turned on my heels and ran, anywhere I can but far from him. The recent bruise on my throbbing as it didn't heal completely yet. I ran a few steps forward and then he's here standing in front of me. As the foul smell of rotting flesh entered my nose and closed my eyes tight and I screamed out loud.

Then the nasty smell of rotting flesh was gone and I opened my eyes I was still here but the man was nowhere in sight. I haven't woken up from the dream yet. Am I still sleeping or am I really here? I looked around; there was an eerie glow to the place, the moon was full but it's presence was not calming my racing heart. I took a step forward slowly making my way towards the ruins, this wasn't supposed to happen. How am I going back?

The wall to my left burst and I ran to the opposite direction my heart beating faster and faster, but when i was trying to get away the wall to right burst and I let out a loud startled scream, covering my head with my arms. Then something caught my throat too firmly. It was him, his rotting flesh squishy but his all too strong boney fingures closed around my neck tightly, choking me. I struggled against what was left of his hand. My face paled and my breathing was becoming more and more unsteady. "You need to trust him" he screamed at my face, which made me feel like my ear drums where about to burst and let go of me.

And I woke up gasping for breath, sweating. My heart was beating frantically against my chest. I took my phone from where Alex had left it and looked at my neck. A purple bruise was already forming where he had choked me. My ears were ringing and a headache was slowing coming on. Tears formed in my eyes, streaming down my face.

"Trust who?" I whimpered sitting up and letting my phone drop.