Black Flame

Chapter 5: The Arrival

Alex sat seated on an old wooden chair. The flickering of an oil lamp's flame being the only thing illuminating the small single-room apartment in which he was staying. His hand quickly and sloppily ran the tip of his pen over the aged parchment in front of him on his desk. The air around him felt stale, the whole room reeking of old age and wood, a scent so very much like his father's Manor. His wrist burned, straining to keep up with the young man's wild scribblings. Despite this pain, he continued, not wishing to forget a single word of the strange voice which had whispered to him only moments before, which had woken him from his deep slumber. A voice so foreign to his mind. Yet so familiar all at once. His heart clenched tightly inside his chest as he wondered whether his sanity was slipping or, perhaps, there was something truly benevolent behind these whispers.

He wrote word after word, sentence after sentence, filling page after page of parchment paper. He could feel his energy beginning to diminish, yet he still refused to stop. Even when his vision grew blurry from tiredness, he didn't stop, his body forcing every stroke of his pen as he pressed the tip harder and harder against the page. Until finally... the writing was finished, his wrist burning as though it was filled with molten lead. Slowly he lowered the pen down to the desk, his eyes focused intensely on what was left of his parchment paper. His hands began shaking violently and he could feel sweat begin to form on his forehead. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he stood up unsteadily from his seat and walked over to the window, pulling back the heavy curtain. He gazed down into the dark streets below.

Without a thought, Alex unlatched the window and threw it open. The crisp night air blew through this new opening, the curtain rising behind him He stared out onto the deserted street below. There wasn't a soul to be seen. Only darkness. With no regard for his life, Alex climbed up onto the windowsill, gripping the sides for support as he leaned over the edge before suddenly throwing himself off the sill, plunging headfirst towards the cobblestones below.

Alex woke up with a start, panting hard and sweating profusely, the sheets soaked with his skin's precipitation.

Sitting up, he looked around the room, confirming that he was indeed still inside the Hotel room that the lioness and left him in the day before.

Wiping away his sweat with the back of his hand, he laid back down on his pillow, trying to catch his breath.

"It was just a bad dream," Alex reasoned with himself. "A really vivid and very terrifying dream."

Looking across the room, he saw a dim light shining through the window. It was obviously early in the morning, but with no way to confirm the time, he decided to start getting ready to leave. Tossing the blanket aside, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Walking over to his bags, he retrieved his toothbrush, toothpowder, and bar of soap before walking to the bathroom. Placing the toothbrush and jar of toothpowder onto the sink's counter, he turned around and opened the shower door, twisting the knob and stripping before stepping inside with his soap. He had learned the night prior that the Hotel had supplied his shower with two small bottles of shampoo and conditioner, however, it lacked any form of body wash, which required him to use the bar of soap that he had packed.

After taking a quick shower, he grabbed a spare towel from a rack located just outside the shower, drying himself off with it before quickly tying it around his waste. Stepping out of the shower, he quickly brushed his teeth before retrieving his items, bringing them back to his bag where he packed them away before getting dressed in the clothes which he had worn the day prior. While not exactly completely hygienic, he reasoned with himself that he hadn't really done anything the day prior to make them dirty.

Grabbing the TV remote, he sat on the edge of the bed and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels. He continued to watch TV for quite some time until eventually, he heard a knock on his door.