burning red

- 13 -

Lilly found herself back in her old house, pale white walls all around her. The hallway she currently stood in went on and on to no end, and the more she walked down it, the longer it grew. Her footsteps pounded in her ears and she felt as if her legs were jelly, but she just couldn't collapse onto the ground. How her legs burned!

"Lilliana!" She heard a voice call. But unlike the last time, the voice sang in a childish tease. It made her turn red with irritation; if that voice could just stop!

But Lilly recognized the voice immediately. "Albert?"

"Lilliana!" The voice grew louder.

She tried to run, but she couldn't. "Albert?!" She called back, stumbling down the hallway as she held the walls for support.

"you could save him!" She heard a little boy cry.

Race.

Where did he even come from?

"Lilliana!" It turned into a full on scream that was aggressive, the voice was coarse.

"Albert?!" She called once again, looking around the slim hallway. "where are ya?" She suddenly felt a firm hand on her shoulder before she was forced to spin around.

"help me!" He begged, his voice filled with desperation as he gritted his teeth together, his veins popping out of his neck. He was crying, but they weren't tears coming out of his eyes.

It was blood.

"Albert I- I-" His grip on her shoulders became tighter and tighter, until they started to hurt. She tried to twist out of his grip, but he only held her tighter. "you's hurtin' me."

"ya got'a help me." He frantically shook his head, his face staining red. "please." His voice twisted into a distorted, low growl.

"of- of course." Lilly reached up to hold his hands on her shoulders.

He looked around, the walls closing in on the two. "you can save me, you can save us all!"

Lilly's breaths shortened and she felt as if her heart was about to beat right out of her chest. "how?"

"you have ta-" He let out a gasp, one that indicated that he's been badly hurt. He held onto Lilly even tighter.

"Albert? What happened, Albert?" She felt tears run down her cheeks. The walls continued to close in and Lilly felt like she was about to suffocate. Albert's grip loosened as he slowly fell to the ground. She looked down at his chest to see that blood had began to spread on his shirt. "no, no, no, Albert!"

But by the time he got to the ground, there was nothing she could do. He was dead.

She heard her uncle speak in a sickeningly calm demeanour. "you could've saved him."

With a gasp, Lilly shot up in a cold sweat. She took deep breaths, clutching onto one of the posts of the bunkbed as she tried to calm herself down. Her mind wandered from Hot Shot, to Albert, to Hot Shot, to Albert. She could have saved him, she could save him. She could save them all.