The terror of WYD

Ch. 1 Alexia

Alexia

                I sat on top of the remains of one of the hotels lining Copacabana beach, surveying the land to try and scout out any potential threats. I looked at the beach, tears starting to form at the edges of my eyes as I remembered those moments. I know I had to remain strong, but I found my will was weakening under the strains of the memories. They were flashing across my eyes in uncontrollable swirls, I could see the images of people’s faces and the remains of their mangled bodies. I watched them live their final moments in terror a look of such dread and regret crossing the faces of those who know it is coming and then there are others that are so shocked about what’s happening, they didn’t even realize what was happening.

                I could smell the shrouded form of death before I could see him. It was so strong that the stench was so the essence of decay and it started clinging onto the air around those that had fallen. It was so powerful that its putrid stench flooded my senses and made me a little light headed. My head tilted back ever so slightly and I could see the edge of his shredded cloak, he was there floating above us all in the dark folds of the smoke. I snapped my head back into its previous position and then there was nothing. I was back on top of the hotel, but I felt different, it’s like for the first time the grief has actually gotten to me.

                I shook my head back and forth, it was like I was actually there again, reliving the entire thing over again. What’s wrong with me? Am I going insane?

‘No you’re not going insane, it’s just the stress getting to your head’ I thought to myself half-heartedly. I even doubted myself, there was definitely something going on inside my head and I hoped that I was able to grip on it before something happens.

                Then all of a sudden I was sucked back into my memories, they were so life like. I could feel everything that I had originally felt in those moments, but there was something off about everything. It was more lifelike than I actually remembered it as. I could feel the crowd as it pulsed around me. The feel of the individual people’s scratchy worn out clothes brushing across my skin or their sand covered arms scraping against my exposed forearm. I didn’t just see the fear like I originally had, no this was far more intense, it was like I could feel their internal struggles as well. I saw their emotions as they pushed them to fight each other to the front, fear and anger stacked high on top of everything else.

                I felt changed there in the heat of the moment, it was so much different than anything that I have ever felt before. I felt a kind of ecstasy climb higher and higher the fear feeding it until it created a bizarre high and where my real self was replaced with something far worse. I felt a new energy pump through my veins. It amplified whatever it was that I had changed into.

                It caught me so off guard. I didn’t even know that I had something like this within me, it was an intense rage and it continued to build up inside me. It controlled me like a puppet forcing my body move without my consent. I was moving so quickly now, my body and mind linked as one filled with an intense desire for survival.

               I ran past people, but I saw everything! I watched as people were trampled down when they fell, the screams of the people over top of the hundreds of explosions coursing around me. The fear was palpable and it was ripping through me stripping away everything else except my deep seeded rage. Then it was gone and I was back on top of the hotel staring blankly out across the beach partially concealed in the approaching fog. I could feel the tears pouring out of my eyes and down my cheeks.

                ‘Why can’t I stop crying’ I thought to myself as I reached up to touch the tears as they slide across my face only to fall off in a miniature show of glistening light. I looked down and my eyes went wide, I was standing on the edge of the roof, held back only by the safety rail.