War of Faeries

Chapter 41

I was trapped, fire and smoke was at each and every turn I took. I tried to get to the window, but I had inhaled too much smoke already. I could only keep coughing, and coughing. Soon enough I found myself on the floor trying to get a breath of air. All I needed was enough air to get me to the window.

I could see the flames growing and making their way towards me, the fear of being burned alive made me move. It gave me the energy I needed to crawl over to the window. I reach a hand up to turn the knob, but my arm was too short. I couldn't reach the handle. I turn around and see the flames are almost to my foot, the heat making my skin boil and blister.

I try the knob again, and this time I reach it. The metal door knob burns my flesh, but I don't care. I can deal with the pain, and the wounds that will be left after I get out of this room. I turn the knib and push the door open. I fall to the ground once more, leaving flesh on the door knob in the process. A cry leaving my lips because of the pain.

I cradle my arm to my chest, careful not to let my skin touch my clothes. I army crawl with one arm out the doorway to the balcony. I keep crawling until I am at the side of the railing, I have to get down from here. I cant be here when the flames eventually make their way outside.

I look at the vines that are growing on the side of the palace, and know they are my only hope of getting down alive. I hoist myself to my feet, now having enough breath in my lungs to do so without hacking. The pain in my foot makes me whimper, but it makes me keep moving.

I reach my uninjured hand out to grab the vines. I dont think about it as I launch myself over the rail, straight to the vines. My grasp holds, and I slowly start to climb down, but between the pain in my feet and only having one hand holding the vines I slip.

I slip and fall.

"Valarie! Someone wake her!"

I am still falling, waiting for the moment my back will hit the pavement beneath me, and I die. Waiting for the sweet relief of death to greet me for once and for all.

"Throw this on her."

"Will it work?"

I feel it, the cold wet relief of... water? I gasp and take in a mouth full of water, I am in the middle of the sea. I swim up to the surface, only to wave a wave crash over me. I swim to the surface once more and spit out the water, taking a quick gasp of air before being thrown under once more.

"Try it again."

The pain in my hand and feet has been reduced to throbbing, the heat and flame now gone, but the salt now soaking the wounds. I swim to the surface once more, and this time I don't get pushed down by a wave. I take the time to look around, and realize I am all on my own. There is no land in sight, no boat in sight.

Thunder cracks over head, and the rain starts falling harder, making ripples in the water around me and making it hard for me to see. I keep treading water until another wave washes over me, and pushes me down. Once I am released from the intense power of the wave I swim in the direction the wave is going. Hoping it will lead me to land. Or maybe a boat.

But sooner rather than later I have to go up and gasp for air once more. The thunder and lighting strike once more, and I duck under the water just as another wave is about to crash down on me. But the wave spins me around deeper under the water, and I cant get out of the hold the wave has on me.

"She is turning blue!"

I cant get the air I need once more. This time the sweet relief of death is going to be drowning, which I guess is a better way to go. All I have to feel is the burning in my lungs begging me for air.

"Someone do something!"

I close my eyes, ready for the end. Ready for whatever is waiting for me on the other side. But when I open my eyes I am in the desert. Sand blowing around me in every direction, making it impossible for me to see. I bring my hands up to my face, shielding my eyes from the sand.

Lighting once again cracks over head, and I begin to move. I start walking towards a building off in the distance, hoping I can get to it before too much damage is done to my skin by the sand and wind. But with each step I take it seems like that hope is slowly dissolving.

The sand scratches my skin, leaving cuts on my legs and arms, my neck as well. But I keep pushing through the pain, until I loose the house I was walking towards. The wind had picked up so much the only thing I can see is sand swirling in front of me. And the only thing I can hear is the thunder booming every other minute.

"No! You'll-"

Then the worst thing I could think of happens to me. I fall. I fall and I cant get up. The wind is holding me down, and the sand keeps hitting my skin. I lay my face in my arms, hoping to protect my eyes. But it is getting hard to breathe, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

The air changes, a electric taste coats my mouth. I try to crawl, not knowing what danger is coming my way. But that doesn't stop the lightning from striking the ground several yards in front of me. I back up trying to get away from that spot, but lightning strikes the ground next to me. Closer than the time before.

Noise, uncontrollably loud noise floods my ears. I shut my eyes and cover my ears, trying to block the noise. But it wont go away, and neither will the lightning. Every time it touches the ground next to me I can feel the electric charge.

And then it all stops. Or so I thought.