Welcome to Trench

Prologue

I thought I was in control of the car. I was alone and I didn't know where I was going, just trying to chase the sun. Escaping the city, the people, the thoughts I knew.

I don't know when I found myself in the back seat, a hooded figure behind the wheel who couldn't quite get it from spinning out of control. Those details are blurry, but I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach about the figure, the car, the fact that I was alone and lost and didn't know where this person was trying to take me.

And then suddenly I heard a terrible noise. The car erupted into flames faster than I could process what was happening in front of me. It was like standing in a furnace, the inside of the car heating up by the second. Panic filled my chest as I tried grabbing door handles to open the doors, but none of them worked. I stopped for a moment after I realized that the driver was gone. Vanished out of thin air. Like the person hadn't even existed in the first place. I snapped out of it once the smoke hit my lungs, making me choke and fogging my brain. I started kicking at the door closest to me, hoping that it would force it open and I could leave.

That wasn't the case. The door just wouldn't budge. I really thought I had begun to lose my mind, the smoke getting worse and clouding the car, the flames licking through the A/C vents, and the sweat rolling off my forehead, and just as I had started losing hope my foot missed the door and crashed through the window.

Genius. I thought to myself. Why hadn't I thought of that first?

It didn't matter now, the smoke was pouring out of the broken window and I had a way to get out. I swung myself out, nicking my palms on the broken glass, and gasping on the fresh air that just couldn't enter my lungs fast enough. My feet hit ground, and then my knees, and my only instinct was to crawl forward to get away from the car because it was only seconds before it blew up.

I suddenly felt a burning sensation up my heels and calves, and cried out in pain as I looked back and noticed that my pants where on fire. I drew my sleeve over my hand and beat it out as best as I could. Then the car made a horrible shuttering sound.

I turned my face away, flattened my body on the ground, and threw my arms over my head as the car exploded and debris rained over me. My ears rang and my eyes were shut tight enough that I almost didn't notice the fact that something was grasping my leg and was dragging me across the pavement.

A yell left my mouth as I started thrashing and kicking at whatever was dragging me, making myself flip over so that I could face it, my eyes clouded from the amount of smoke I had been in. I could just make out the figure in front of me, and it was not letting go.

It turned and faced me, dropping my leg and grabbing a cloth from the inside of his cloak and covering my face with it. I tried to get away but he had the upper hand, and had my knee crushed under his shoe. The last thing I saw was a covered face, only his dark eyes and pale skin around them showing as he tied the cloth behind my head.

I felt myself being lifted up onto something, and then my body going numb and weightless as my brain scattered and my eyes grew heavy.