Somnia Moon

Chapter 9: The Fox

"No no no no..." Alex breathed, her eyes beginning to fill with tears as she fought to keep herself from hyperventilating. "We're trapped...Zoe, we're trapped!I can't stand it...we're going to die we're going to die we're going to die..."

"Hey, it's ok. We don't know that. Holly, could you - ?"

Before Zoe could finish, fire flickered into Holly's left hand, her right still at her mouth, illuminating the room in an eerie red glow that sent shadows dancing along the walls. Zoe cautiously stepped towards the door, placing both hands on it and pushing as hard as she possibly could. It didn't move even a tiny bit. Like it was glued in place. Like it never even opened in the first place. They were trapped.

"This is your fault." Holly hissed. "Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me? If I think something is a bad idea, I'm virtually always right, but does that stop you? No, of course not, because that would be logical, and in order to be logical you actually need a brain, something which you clearly- "

"Holly, will you please shut up for once?" Zoe snapped as she rammed her shoulder into the immobile door. She did this a few times, getting more and more desperate, before sighing and giving up. "Yeah, that's not moving."

"So, have any bright ideas? Oh, right, of course, it's physically impossible for you to - "

"There was an open window at the top. If we can get to it, then we might be able to find a way down." Zoe interjected. Alex could just about make out the scowl on Holly's face in the hazy light.

As Zoe began to approach the stairs, Alex felt a slight tickling along her leg, and was horrified to find one of the bulging white maggots crawling further and further up her body. She screamed, cursing herself for wearing the short dungarees she'd taken from the clothes shop on yesterday's tour instead of the longer ones, and frantically tried to shake it off. When that didn't work, she blanched as she flicked it, squealing like a little girl. Holly burst out laughing.

Most people would have seen this as an endearing, friendly response, and perhaps joined in with the laughter. But Alex felt her face go bright red, feeling embarrassed, mocked, like one of her only friends was taunting her, using her suffering to fuel their amusement. She felt her anger building up inside her, smothering her mind, grasping her limbs, completely taking over.

"It's not funny." She growled, her voice not her own, and she ran forwards, pushing Holly to the floor with more power than even she had known she possessed. Holly's laughter was abruptly cut off as she tumbled to the coated floor. Alex expected her flame to extinguish, but it didn't; it stayed brightly alight, even seeming to grow larger...

As she watched, the fire spread. It seemed to zigzag along each individual strand of hair, and within seconds they were stuck in the centre of a relentless inferno, the fire growing larger as their chances of survival grew smaller.

"What the fuck?" Holly exploded as she leapt to her feet, swerving to avoid the hungry flames. "Why the bloody hell would you do something like that? Are you happy? Are you fucking happy? We're all going to fucking burn to death now, you fucking -"

"Holly! There's no time, get to the stairs!" Zoe yelled, dashing up the curving staircase.Holly and Alex immediately followed, the already asphyxiating air becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. The heat was almost unbearable - it felt like they were trapped inside an oven being slowly cooked, and she was beginning to become lethargic, the lack of fully breathable air causing her brain to gradually shut down. She kept going, stumbling up the stairs as she inhaled dangerous amounts of smoke, coughing and gasping and spluttering, and the stairs stretched on and on, and her legs ached, and she just wanted to collapse...