Tales Untold

Flames

Sometimes Cinder wondered what it was like to be in love. She had never experienced such a thing, had hardly felt love. She was alone in her own little world, where the only thing that mattered was survival.

Cinder had no friends. No family. Not a single person in the world whom she even cared about in the slightest. In her world, no one was kind to her. No one noticed her. No one cared about her, and she had never known any different.

Every morning Cinder would wake up at seven, eat, dress, and leave by seven forty-five. She would get to school at eight and go to lunch at noon. At one, Cinder would go and work at her mechanics shop until six and then go home. At home, Cinder would eat, do homework, finish a mechanics project, read a book, then go to bed at eleven. She had no life.

On this particular day, Cinder was wondering if her life would ever change. She wondered if she would ever find a friend in her cruel world, or forever live in the fantasy world of her books.

The drive to school wasn't a long one, as it took only five minutes. The road was slick with ice, and Cinder began to speculate on how many car accidents there might be that day, when the flashy red car came out of nowhere.

Cinder swerved her own rusty, dino of a car in an attempt to avoid collision, but the ice kept her trajectory on track. Cinder began to panic, and time seemed to slow as the two cars collided.

The impact of the red car shoved Cinder's car off the road and down the hill on the side. She rolled for what felt like an eternity, screaming, wishing that it would just end. That she would stop. That she would die.

Finally, the car came to a stop, rolling onto the driver's side, preventing Cinder from making an escape. She let out a sob and sat for a moment, thinking on what to do next. She felt as though every bone in her body was broken, and her head seemed to be floating away.

Cinder tried to escape with all her might, but her seatbelt was stuck, keeping her prisoner. She couldn't get out. She would just have to wait for someone to rescue her. But who would? No one had ever helped her. No one was coming for her.

That's when she noticed the odd smell that seemed to be emulating from the engine, and watched, horrified, as the front of the car lit on fire. Cinder began choking, as sobs overtook her, along with the thickness of the smoke.

Smoke, smoke, smoke. It was all she could see, besides the red and orange flames from whence it came.

Smoke, smoke, smoke. It was all that she could breathe, all that she could feel. It was everything, and everywhere.

Smoke, smoke, smoke. She would die in it's wispy depths, as the light ate every inch of her being.

Flames began licking her body, beginning of her left leg, but Cinder didn't even have enough air to scream. No moisture in her eyes left to cry. This would be her end, she could not escape from this.

Conflagration began to eat her alive, as the light traveled up her body. Oddly enough, Cinder began to relax, the pain was easing, leaving her with the need to go to sleep.

Just close your eyes. Whispered a voice inside her head.

Just go to sleep. Cinder smiled at the voice and closed her eyes. She wanted to go to sleep, she would. It didn't matter anymore, the flames could eat her, filling her with it's smoke, just as long as she could go to sleep.

Bang. Cinder opened her eyes, but couldn't see due to the smoke. The sound's continued, making her wonder what was going on.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Was someone actually coming for her? She tried to scream, to let them know that she was there, that she needed rescuing, but nothing came out.

The glass on her window shattered, but Cinder hardly noticed. She was drifting away. Her entire body seemed to be filled with smoke.

Hands grasped Cinder, words filled her head, but she was too far gone to notice them. A knife was pulled out and began cutting her free.

Flames. Their beauty was beyond compare, and so was their destruction. They could easily be the end of the world. Hell must be beautiful. Cinder thought. If all was covered in the blazing orange and red, it must be something to look at, despite the pain it brought along.

The person cut the final bit of the seat belt and began pulling her from the car, but Cinder didn't care. The entire world could be ending and she wouldn't care.

Broken glass scraped her skin, as her rescuer pulled her from the destruction. She wheezed as her lungs tried to claim more than smoke. She felt light-headed as she looked up into the eyes of the person who had saved her. They were a coppery brown color, it reminded her of the dying embers of a fire.

She gazed into those eyes, so full of concern. She realized that he was trying to say something to her, but she couldn't hear. The world was ringing in a high pitched scream. Her eyes were stinging. Her head was floating. The world was ending, and the last thing she could see were those copper eyes, before the world stopped spinning.