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. No thoughts--- no feeling. My body was numb, but my hand defied that notion, 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 my brain 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 while my body yearned for peace and quiet. 

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. I balled my fist, causing my nails to pierce into the palm of my hand. The pain made my eyes shut again. Blood dripped down my arm, but 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 was still cloudy but the numbness had subsided. I was standing now, my head turned to my right. The blazing inferno blew an endless river of smoke into the sky and I could feel it 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 into 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 my palm caused my eyes to open wide. I quickly held my hand flat expecting to see that the fire had finally pierced through me! But it was the opposite. The small holes that my nails had left were closing! Threads of fire twisted into my wounds, one by one sewing themselves shut. In a few 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.