The Burning One

Chapter 1

Rain.

Each drop sent a new wave of anguish to shudder through me. My whole body tremored as another wave of anxiety crept up from behind and smothered me. A single tear shed from the corner of my eye and I didn't even bother to wipe it away. Let it get washed away in the rain, like everything else, I thought bitterly. 

My hiking boots dug through the muddy surface and I sprang forward, with each step urging myself to go on. One, two, three, I chanted into my head. "Where is it"?

My eyes swept past the trees, looking for the place I knew my comrads would be at. Except, no one was there. 

I gasped, "No, this can't be happening". "Not again", I whispered. But the reality of it all, it was happening. My greatest fear, my worst nightmare now reality. 

I was alone.

The lone willow tree swayed in the breeze. It was surrounded by an eerily calm clearing and I circled it hesitantly. The rain pelted down from the earth and soaked through my clothes. Rain.

The wetness that clings to your skin, soaks through your clothes, and drips off you, falling freely to the earthly ground where it once again remolds into one single drop. 

In one simple word, it is indestructible, it has no weakness. You freeze it, it melts and once again slithers like a snake towards you. It is acid.

The water burns my skin, not literally but close enough for me to feel the tickling running down my spine. Not enough for me to feel pain, but the pain of knowing that I was weak. Rain is my weakness.

Rain is a signal, that something  bad is about to happen. Something that I will never be able to control or fight when it rains. The only think I can do is run and never look back. 

I knew I should be running, keeping the distance between me and the hunters but I cannot bear to think that I could be leaving someone behind. Someone like me. Either way they were a human being, not a science experiment, not one of them.

I stealthily ran between the trees, making sure there were no threats or signs of a struggle. The earth was undisturbed which meant no one had made it. 

Unless they were still coming.  Hope raised in my chest and I slid to the base of the willow tree. I would wait. For now.

I glanced back and forth, scanning the forest, looking for any movement or signal that they were coming but there was nothing and I knew my time was slowly ticking away. 

I fidgeted nervously with my fingers and studied the base of the willow. Carvings were etched into the aged wood and wound around the base of the tree. My eyes searched for one particular one and once I spotted it, I allowed my fingers too lightly trace over it. SB, Sera Blaze. 

Who am I?

Sera means burning.

I am the burning one.

Tick, Tick, Tick, the sound infested my mind and I could only see the ticking of a clock. I could feel each second passing and I knew that with each moment, more hope was lost. My hands fumbled into my small pack and I grasped the watch tightly. I had been waiting for 10 minutes and I knew that a minute, even a second could save your life.

My eyes blurred from the water that still managed to find room between the thin leaves and I blinked rapidly so I could clear my vision. I could feel my teeth grinding together from the constant chattering and I silently cursed the cold air. It was as if it was wrapping it's cool hands around my throat and squeezing the air out of my lungs.

I extended my arm out and gently folded the soaked sleeve of my shirt up so it revealed my hand. I flexed my sore fingers and slowly snapped them. Nothing happened.