Rebel: A Monstercat Fanfic

073 - Abandoned

Song of the Chapter: All Alone - Pegboard Nerds & Grabbitz (Drumstep)

This one's kind of ... gruesome. There's one especially disturbing part, and I'm sorry. Torture is rough.

(Phantom's POV)

Someone comes into the dark cell hours later, bringing a water bottle, and I wince in the bright light. Sure enough, I can see my breath clouding in the air. The soldier hands me the water bottle, but my fingers are numb and I can't open it. She helps me and then watches blankly as I gulp greedily, and when I'm finished, she takes the bottle and leaves as suddenly as she came.

I sigh and ruffle my hair, noticing little flecks of frost. It's literally freezing in here. However, it doesn't stay that way for long. Slowly, it gets hotter and hotter until I'm sweating and have to take off my hat and jacket. And then I see it: a little flicker of light in the corner, just across from me.

A flame.

The flame slowly spreads across the room, getting closer and hotter, and I start to panic. I can see it all again, the house fire, my dead family, the heat and the smoke in the air. I can taste the fire in my mouth and it burns my skin, even from farther away. I press myself up against the wall, my breathing fast and hard. Not again. Not again. Please, not again.

The flames spread until the room is completely engulfed - except for a small half-circle around me. They slowly close in, and my terror seems to crush my chest. "Jensen!" I scream, my voice cracking. "Jensen, please help me!" My palms are slick and I can feel the sweat trickling down my back and face. My chest hurts, though I don't know if it's because of the overwhelming terror or my gashes. Maybe both. I can barely breathe in the smoke, and my heart is going to burst right out of my ribs if I don't do something.

I try to push further against the wall, as if I could sink right into it, but I'm dizzy and weak and can barely think. I might've been able to run to the door, but the chain rips into my arm every time I tug on it. I'm as good as dead.

"Jensen, please," I beg, starting to cry. I don't want to die. Fire ... why did it have to be fire? It's so hot, burning my throat and lungs when I breathe and stinging my eyes. There's shapes, white hot shapes swirling through the flames, laughing at my weakness. Shapes and visions that pierce into my soul and nearly stop my heart. "Jensen!" I cry again. "I'll do anything! Please make it stop!"

Some creature in the fire snakes toward me, laughing as I curl up in a ball with my arms over my head, helpless, burning, crying. "Leave me alone!" I scream at it. It laughs again and nibbles at my elbow, making me flinch and cry out in pain.

And then suddenly, everything goes white, whiter than I've ever seen, and the white gets hot and I can't even see my own hand, and then, like the flick of a light switch, I pass out as everything goes dark.

...

Something ice cold touches my arm and I wake up with a terrified gasp for breath. I scramble back against the wall, and Jensen just sits back on his heels and smiles. "I'm sorry, Nick. You were saying?"

My eyes dart around the room, but there's no trace of the fire. I'm still soaked with sweat, but some of it has frosted over, in my hair, on my clothes and bandages. I can see my breath again, clouding up like smoke. Smoke. I can't even smell smoke. Maybe I'm breathing too fast. I try to calm down, but my heart is racing and there's no way it's slowing down just yet.

"But - but - but there was a f-fire and - and - " I stutter, and Jensen just laughs.

"There was no fire. In fact, you're probably safer from fires in here than out there."