Hell Fire

Maybe I'm a little screwed up...

The ocean was wine dark and sloshed onto the raft with vengeance, like it was reaching towards me, trying to grab and drown me. One wave and the raft would capsize and the ocean would have me, I'd drown for sure. I could see land in the distance, a strip of thick jungle with trees that reached to touch a pinkening sky. I reached my hand into the water to paddle forward. The water burned my hand but I kept paddling nonetheless. I paddled forward as hard as I could, desperate to reach the shore, but I never made progress. Everytime I swiped at the water to move forward my raft was blown back twice the distance. I tried turning around and paddling out to sea, but it went the same direction as I was paddling, something was keeping me from safety.

The wind began to rise from a light breeze and become more violent, but it wasn't blowing me in any specific direction, it was like it was trying to push me off. It carried a strange whisper, a whistle lost in the roar of the wind... "home... home" it muttered over and over as it buffeted me, skidding me along the wood.

I pulled my hand out of the water to help me cling to the raft. I grabbed the edge, but didn't feel the wood against my skin. Where my hand was... the skin was falling away slowly, peeling down to the bone. My shock was enough to let the wind send me tumbling into the corrosive water. I tried to hold my breath but it invaded my lung the moment I went under, weighing me down. The dark water became darker and darker until---

The scene jumped

I was still wet, but this time it was not from ocean water. I was drenched with sweat from unbearable heat, my skin glowing red in it. I was in the center of a wall of fire, raging and wild, and I couldn't breath. My mouth would not open to allow me to. I took a step forward and was forced back by a new column of flames. The fire took shape, it started as little humanoid devils poking and prodding me, laughing. The kicked me forward to a especially bright flame, one reflected like glass. When I got near it, it didn't not reflect me as I was, however.

It showed me me as a girl, except I had no expression on my face, I had no lips, no nose, no eyes, but I knew it was me. I knew it was me the same way that I knew that those were my parents busling around the background, grabbing weapons and provisions, even though they too had no faces. I knew exactly what was happening, soon the mirage of this life would burn away, it would be taken by a demon that no one believed existed, and I would turn into who I am now. I didn't want to watch but the devils help me in place, and my eyes wouldn't shut. I sat their and watched as the fire turned to smoke, and the smoke wafted towards me. I could only breathe it in, I couldn't cough it up. It stunk like burning hair and outnumbered the oxygen.

For the second time in my life I watched my father die as I choked on smoke, and for the first time, I watched as my mother was tackled by the demon and killed as well. I wanted to scream, I wanted to douse this fire, ignore the reality, but I could do nothing, even as the little devils turned to smoke and joined the noxious gas.

I passed out and woke up to another scene.

People of all ages, dressed in their finest clothings. Demons of all kinds waited through the crowds like they belonged among the nobility. Women were weighed down by jewelry and had their hair done so that hung elegantly around their shoulders. Men's faces were red and they clapped each other on the back in congradulations. I saw not a face among the crowds, yet they still seemed to falter and sneer as my presence was made known by an announcer. People and demons alike turned to me, demons yowled, people didn't make a noise.

One woman had a face, a face strangely familiar. She brushed the the crowd shaming people for not treating me with respect, her niece would crush the like glass beneath her feet. She looped an arm through mine and lead me through the crowd, their heads turned to follow. Through the crowd and to a large banquette table, where the largest horror I had ever seen laid.

Charles, served like food, dead. My only friend dead.

The woman grinned, the sugar sweet fraud practically dripping from her lips, "Go on dear, it is your party, isn't it. I kill, you carve." She handed me a pair of knives.

***

I woke up like I would normally, lolling my head over and coming to terms with where I was. It was not until I recalled the dream that I bolted upwards, or at least tried to. There was a large mass pinning me to the bed.