Phantom

Chapter 3

Fiona wakes up to the feeling of something pressing down on her head, of her nose and mouth being covered in a thick, dark, tar like substance. She feels herself panic as she flails around on the scratchy, threadbare mattress, trying to breathe again. Haunting whispers fill her brain...

I...need...your...heart...blood...kill you...Fiona...

"No!" She screams, tears cascading down her face, leaving pools of dark, poisonous blood seeping through her gown, onto her mattress, and she's drowning, drowning, drowning, drowning in the manic laughter of Phantom and her own devious hands, strangling, strangling, until her heart stops and she feels herself slip away...only to return again as Phantom rips her hands off her throat, her hot breath beating against her neck, her whispers louder than ever before...

Blood...tears...drink...them...up...

Fiona...I've waited so long...save me...

She manages to escape Phantoms vise like grip, jumping up and sprinting down the hallway, as she realizes that she is not the only one screaming.

Everyone is running around her and down the hall, their voices echoing in her head, mingling with the dull roar of Phantom. She whips around and stares, as she notices the thing that everyone has been running from--the exquisite, majestic beast of heat and flame. Fire. Where's Eva? She wonders, as she watches the fire climb slowly down the hallway toward her, gobbling up everything as it does so. Probably left with the rest of the people and her ignorant friend Arkiit... But Fiona no longer cared about Eva and her petty little problems. She watches as the hallways slowly empty around her, and now she is alone with the dancing flames. She eyes them with a fascination, admiring how they leap from wall to wall, like a swirling tornado of red and orange and white, licking at the walls and flinging small embers everywhere like small droplets of blood. It's almost bewitching--she can see shapes in them, of birds, flying and soaring, of wild cats, roaring as they consume an entire door with their fiery jaws. And she wants to be with them, be a part of them, feel the same power and burning exhilaration as she jumps from rafter to rafter, consuming everything. So she stands there, and waits, because patience is one of those virtues that she possesses from her long years of waiting for her release.

Before the fire can reach her, she realizes that someone is approaching her from behind. She slowly pivots around, expecting a crying Eva or a worried, sweating firefighter. She does not expect Phantom. Her sea green eyes, like cut out pieces of glass, light up at seeing her. Her tanned, freckled face breaks into that signature smile that Fiona hates so much--complete with the crooked, blindingly white teeth and the crinkles at the corners of her eyes.

Fiona no longer has the breath to scream as she watches the flames shimmy slowly up her gown, tearing at her skin with a smoldering fury. She can only watch as Phantom hurtles through the flames, a last howling laugh before utter silence.