Bound by Hellfire

Chapter 1

Thousands of stars winked at me as I laid on the warming asphalt road. Specks of smoldering ash danced around my peripherals as they joined into the constellations. My eyes hung open, trying to lock onto something--- anything, but they couldn't. Instead, they stared hazily into the night sky as smoke rose around me, blotting out my new twinkling friends with each passing second.

This is where my memories begin. The life I had lived before now was merely a dream. A fading memory. My body was numb, but my hand defied that fact, moving ever so gracefully in front of my face. My brain desperately tried to comprehend what I was looking at. Is this me? Is this my hand?

"No..." I thought to myself

But reality convinced me otherwise. 

I turned my head. My back, still flat to the ground. To the left of me, a wall of dark trees that stretched down an endless paved road. To the right, a blazing fire spilled from twisted metal carnage. My eyes watered as the smoke seeped into my lungs, and yet they persisted, looking on at the wreckage that burned just a few yards away.

More questions flooded through my head. Where am I? What happened to me? My brain felt like it was separate from my body as it rambled through unanswerable questions.

My senses were slowly coming back to me. The pain in my eyes caused me to finally blink, sending streams of tears down my soot-covered face. My hands ached and tingled as the blood flowed into each finger. A sharp pain shot through my right arm as I lifted it from the ground. Blood pooled at my side; flowing from a chasm of crimson that stretched down my forearm. The sight was horrific, but in that moment I felt relief. Relief in knowing that I could feel anything at all; that I wasn't gone from this world.

I pushed myself to my feet. My head, still cloudy, but the numbness had subsided. My head turned to my right where the blazing inferno blew an endless river of smoke into the sky. It's crackle whispered to me, calling me into its midst. 

It was a sensational beauty. The sting of heat on my face. The dancing of the shadows on the leaf-littered road. The cool fall breeze, blowing my hair effortlessly from side to side. It could have been a dream, but once again I convinced myself against that thought.

That urgency that pushed me to my feet continued. Slowly, I began to move, one step after the other. It didn't take long before I stood just a few feet from the flames. The heat was intense, but still, I walked. Feet turned to inches, and inches to centimeters. All the while my brain scrambled to find a reason to stop, anything to prevent me from going closer, but it couldn't find one.

Before I knew it my hand was out in front of me and into the raging blaze! My sleeve turned a vibrant orange as it burned to ash before my eyes. My heart rattled in my chest, preparing for the warmth to overtake my supple skin, but it never came. In fact, I felt nothing at all.

My brow twisted with confusion. 

"Is this my hand?" I thought once again.

A slight sting on forearm my caused my eyes to open wide. I quickly spun my arm, expecting to see that the fire had finally pierced through m, but it was the opposite! The large hole in my forearm was quickly closing! Threads of fire twisted into my wound, sewing it shut in a matter of seconds. I was healed. The only thing ablaze now was the dried blood on my arm and my singed sleeve.

I pulled my hand away, slowly bringing it to my face. My hand was completely untouched by the fire despite my unconscious action to plunge it in. 

I looked into the sky--- questioning myself.

"Was any of this--- real?"

 A friend had somehow pushed through the clouds of smoke. Its light was calm and refreshing. My head had finally cleared its haze and I felt that longing sense of peace wash over me.