fire starter | l.s [1]

sixteen

I felt a  tingling sensation on my left cheek, but everything was still black. A sound of muffled screaming slowly came louder and much clearer. They were calling my name. Calling for me to open my eyes. There was still a tingling sensation on my cheek, but it now felt more like a slap. Open your damn eyes, Amelia. With a loud gasp, my eyes shot open. The screaming subsided but the figures in front of me were blurred.

My body felt like it was on fire, every inch of it in flames. But when I raised my hand close to my eyes, I only saw a blurred vision of white. The pain was unreal though, something I'd never felt before. Not even close to the pain I experienced when a white noise gun was used on me. I heard crying, it was loud and the voice was breaking with each sob. I quickly realised the crying was coming from me. More feelings were coming all together now, both emotional and physical, the feeling of anxiety in my gut and something was heavy on my right hand. Just under my nose felt crusty but also wet. My cheeks were being assaulted by salty tears as I cried out in agony.

"Lia, are you okay? Lia?" I head Liam call but I couldn't tell from which direction.

Gradually, my vision started to clear up and I could see my friends all huddled around me in a... school? Liam reached out a brushed away a few tears from my cheeks and brought a cold rag to my forehead. I noticed that he was holding onto my hand. I also noticed Zu and Ruby in the background, frantically digging in around in a bag.

"Amelia, say something!" Chubs ordered, he was kneeling beside Liam, sharing a look of worry with him.

"It hurts," I sobbed, my voice barely left my lips as my throat felt like sandpaper.

"What hurts? What hurts, Lia," Liam asked, bringing his hand to my burning cheek and caressing it softly.

"My body. It's on fire," I dropped my head to rest on my shoulder, not having the strength to keep it up anymore.

"That explains the sweating," Chubs starts, turning to Liam who was still keeping his gaze on me, "We need to cool her down. Also, we need to clean the blood from under her nose."

Liam nods and removes his hand from my cheek but quickly returns it, holding a wet cloth again. Ruby had now appeared at my side with a water bottle and a handful of raisins. Carefully, Ruby unscrewed the bottled water and tipped it up to my mouth, letting the cool liquid relieve me of my burning throat. She then held out the raisins so I could take them and eat them. Even if eating them was possibly going to make me throw up, I still took them gratefully and shoved them down my throat.

"Why don't you guys go explore around here and see what you can find, I'll stay here with Amelia," Liam suggested, now moving the cloth down to my arms.

"You sure, Li?" Chubs asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I got this. We also need to give her some space," Liam replied, moving the cloth to my legs now.

Chubs patted his shoulder softly before taking Zu's hand. They started walking down the long corridor of the school we were in, Ruby following close behind. Liam wet the cloth again and bought it back up to my face, removing the newly formed sweat. The cloth was only helping slightly when it was actually pressed to my skin. The moment it got taken away, the burning would come back. And judging by the slight blurriness to my vision, I was still crying.

"Are you okay?" Liam asked softly.

"Mm, yeah, you can stop now," I lied but I wanted him to have a rest.

"You're lying," he replied, brushing the cloth across my cheeks.

"I want you to have a break, Liam," I explained, letting out a sigh.