I opened my eyes and looked around me; I was still in the cave, lying on my bake facing the roof.
I tried to sit up but my first attempt ended with me falling back onto the ground. I tried again, a little slower this time.
The room was silent except for a quiet crackle outside, it looked like I was the only one here.
“Jonathan.” I called as I began to look around. “Edward.”
There was no response.
“Joker.”
I continued to look around for them. But nothing; I couldn’t find anyone.
I stood in the far end of the cave, the furthest that Jonathan, Edward and I had ever cleaned out. I hadn’t found anyone; the smell of smoke reached my nose and I remember the crackling sound.
“Jonathan! Edward! … Joker!”
Now frightened I ran to the front of the cave, as I ran up the stairs in the darkness I slipped and fell on the stone steps, the rest of the steps were slippery as I made my way up more carefully. The smell of smoke was almost over powering now and so was the heat.
I stumbled out of the cave and landed in the hot ground; I looked down at my hands and saw blood covering my hands and shirt.
‘I’d slipped on blood.’
Despite myself I looked up to see what was in front of me.
Fire.
Fire was everywhere and my senses were filled with the sound, smell and sight of the forest burning down around me.
“Jonathan! Edward! Joker!”
I stood up and I saw them; they were hanging from a burning tree with a rope around their necks and stab wounds in their bodies.
I fell to the ground again feeling like I was going to throw up.
I heard a moan. They were still alive.
I ran to them and began to try and cut them down; I only made it worse, the more I tried the more it strangled them.
I cried and began to climb the tree; the bark burned my hands and I could smell my own burning flesh added to mix of smoke. As I reached the branch and began to climb out to the rope l felt the wood breaking underneath me.
“Almost there.”
The branch snapped and I hit the ground; as I looked at my friends bodies I saw that the fall had broken their necks. I was not so lucky.
Trapped under the branch I felt myself burning to death as the smoke and flames engulfed me; as I began to pass out from the smoke I could only be thankful that I would suffocate to death rather than burn.
My vision slowly failed me and I was left in a suffocating darkness.
My head jolted up from my chest, a cold sweat beading on my forehead, I gasped for air as I realised I was not dead and it was just a nightmare.
The first thing I noticed was the stiff pain in my lower back. The second thing was the numbness in my thighs and legs. The third thing was the weight of a coat over my shoulders and my brother arms around me.
I yawned and opened my eyes a bit to look around; I was still in the cave, on the ground. Across from me, on the other side of the room was Edward; sitting on a chair with his head resting on the table, cushioned by his folded arms.
To the side of me Jonathan’s head rested on my shoulder, still with his arm around my shoulder. I closed my eyes again and rather hesitantly returned to the land of slumber.
