The Blaze That Started It All

I felt my heart beat faster with every breath I took. I looked behind me and saw the similar colors of yellow, red and orange, the same colors I've been running from for over a day now with smoke surrounding them. I see the edge of the forest ahead of me and I try to pick up my running pace but the smoke has almost taken over my lungs. I keep running but suddenly I fell to the ground, I try to stand up to continue running but I felt weak. I look ahead and see everyone I've met during this experience are all safe, I look behind and see the same colors blaze towards me. I try and take one last breath but the smoke continues to overtake my lungs and causes my cough to be worse, I closed my eyes knowing that my fate is sealed.

One day later
" Mum, why are we camping in the middle of nowhere," I asked, continuing to set up our tent
"Because I want us to go on a unique adventure for a couple of days" She answered, "and your setting up the tent wrong!" She walked over and helped me get out of the mess I was in "can you go find some logs for the fire while I finish setting up the tent?"
"Okay," I replied and walked further into the forest.

While I was searching for wood, I saw a strange silhouette in the distance. I don't know why but I walked towards it to try and find out what it was. When I was closer, I saw a man's back, I heard whispers but saw him alone which confused me a lot and as if on cue the man turned around and I stopped breathing, my heart beat raced faster, the sight of this man traumatized me. The man was more bear than human, with the amount of hair on him but the eyes were what terrified me the most - he only had whites for eyes with the smallest pupils. "Save yourself from the trauma of Blaze!l he squawked, what he said confused me and I had many questions.
"Who is Blaze?" I asked, curiosity taking over my words. I knew I needed to run far away from this crazy man but I stayed where I was.
"A MAN MADE OF FIRE, WHO HAUNTS THIS VERY FOREST!" The man screamed at the top of his lungs and fell to the ground coughing up blood. The sight made me feel queasy and I wanted to throw up and my head started thumping. I listened to my first instinct without any hesitation 'run'. I ran as fast as I could away from the man and back to my camping spot.

When I arrived, Mum was finishing setting up our tent.
"That was quick" She replied, turning around away from the tent. She saw the trauma and exhaustion on my face "What happened?" She asked and I blurted out everything I saw minutes before. When I finished, I saw her face darken with worry.
"J, we need to pack now and leave immediately!"
I was very surprised by her sudden mood change
"Why?" I ask, mum didn't respond and continues to pack in a rush. I decided to help her pack and started taking down the tent. That was when I first saw him, a man with hair that was actually a flame, his skin had a yellow tinge color. He wore a full black outfit with dark splashes of red, which I think might have been blood but I was not sure.
"Hello Susan," The man said, his voice was very deep and sounded like he had zero sleep.
"Clark" mum responded, her voice showing no sign of emotion.
"Mum, who is this," I ask, trying to hide the terror I was feeling. The man, Clark, turned around and faced me.
"Oh, this must be your daughter, how are you, Josie? I haven't seen you since you were a toddler" My mind was racing with questions, 'who was this man, Clark? How does he know my name? What does he mean by he hasn't seen me since I was a toddler?
"Clark, why are you here?" Mum asks, her voice maintaining her monotone tone, breaking my chain of thought.
"Why can't I come and see my younger sister?"
This confused my brain so much, sister? Mum told me I was an only child!
"Come on J! We're leaving right now!" Mum grabbed my arm and tried to push past him.
"Oh, you're not going anywhere" as Clark told us these words, a wall of fire circled us both.
"Clark, don't do this!" Mum begged him, I heard her voice change from monotone to the verge of tears in a second.
"My name is not Clark! It is Blaze!" He yelled at her, 'Blaze' that's the name the crazy man told me, Blaze was the man who haunted this forest! "Mum, what are we going to do?l I whisper to her, hearing the terror in my own voice.
"I'm going to move you to the other side of this wall but you have to promise me that you will run as soon as I do!
"But..."
"Promise me, Josie! Please" I looked into her eyes and saw tears in her eyes and her voice sounded like she was so sad that she had to do this. I took a big breath.
"I promise"
The next think I knew, I was catapulted into the air, screaming. I landed onto the ground with no pain, which I found really strange, and I did what I promised mum, I ran.

I was not sure how long I was running for but I didn't care, all I cared about was getting out of this forest. I suddenly ran into someone, I fell forward to the ground with a hard crash.
"Oh my goodness! Are you alright?"I sat up and turned around to face them.
"I'm fine" I replied, trying to get back on my feet
"Let me help you" the girl replied, allowing me to hold onto her arm for support
"Thank you"
"No problem, I'm Kara" she held out her hand
"Josie" I shook her hand
"You should really watch where you're going next time" Kara replied, in a joking matter
"Sorry, I've just been running away from this crazy person made of fire who is holding mum captive in a wall of actual" and these words fell out of my mouth, I mentally facepalmed. Kara looked at me blankly and we both sat I awkward silence until I broke the silence.
"I'm gonna go because of the whole crazy man situation so, bye" I was about to run off when suddenly a wall of yellow, red and orange of heat surrounded us both, automatically I knew that it was fire and then I realized, Blaze had found me.
"Why are you running from me, little sis?" I heard the familiar voice say, I stood my ground, knowing it was useless to try and escape. I turned to Kara, seeing the horror on her face.
"What have you done with my mum!?" I yelled at him, wanting to know she was safe.
"Oh, you mean OUR mum, well after you left, I sorta killed her right at that moment" My heart beat started racing faster, Mum dead? That can't be true!
"You're lying!" I screamed at him, trying to hide the tears developing in my eyes. I saw Blaze's silhouette and I could hear his laughter.
"Oh Josie, why would you think I would lie to you? I'm sure you're wondering how she died, well I can show you what I did" as soon as he finished his sentence. I heard Kara screaming at the top of her lungs, I turned to Kara and saw her burning alive and there was nothing she could to save her. I heard Blaze laughing over Kara's screams which made me even more angry at him.
"Stop it Blaze!" I screamed at him, panicking not knowing what to do.
"Okay, I'll end her suffering" Blaze snapped his fingers and Kara stopped screaming, I turned to see if she was alright but she was not there. I looked down and saw a pile of ashes sitting where Kara was standing, I gasped in horror and looked up at Blaze.
"You killed her" I screamed at him
"She was going to die, either way, you should be glad ended her suffering early" his eyes looked directly into mine and that's when I realized how much of a monster Blaze was, his eyes were black with no sign of any emotion, he didn't care about what he doing.
He was a murder
"Why are you doing this Blaze? Why did you kill a completely innocent person? Why did you kill my mum?!" I screamed at him, feeling tears develop in my eyes and my blood began to boil with anger.
"Why do I have to tell you?" He asked, I heard his voice crack but I didn't think about it at the time, all I wanted to know was, why?
"Because I'm your so-called little sister" I replied in a mocking way
"YOU'RE NOT MY SISTER!!" He yelled, which threw me off guard, this whole time he spoke in a calm tone bit now he sounded like he was losing it "IF YOU WERE MY SISTER YOU WOULD BE HELPING ON THIS TASK!" My mind now wanted to know more, what task is he talking? Am I actually his sister because if I am he is not acting like it now
"What task are you talking about? Why would I ever help you? You murderous Snake!" I asked him, with the last thing slipping out.
"Why I'm doing this is none of your business" Blaze replied, voice cracking even more than before. This was when I did something that I never knew I was capable of, it was like I had superpowers that I never knew about. One minute I was in the wall of fire facing Blaze, the next minute I was outside the same firewall I was trapped in. I didn't know how I did that but at that moment I had no time to think about, the only thing I was worried about was running and getting out of this forest

My heartbeat raced faster with each breath. I looked behind and saw the colors of Blaze chasing after me. I looked ahead and saw the edge of the forest not that far away from me and I tried to pick up my pace but the smoke surrounding me was slowly taking over my lungs. I kept running until I suddenly fell to the ground, too weak to stand up again. I turn around and saw Blaze's silhouette in the flames. I heard his screams "I've tried to work with you Josie, but now you give me no choice but to kill you. Say farewell to your life!" I knew that there was no point in fighting him when I was this weak. I looked ahead and saw Mum and Kara safe, I didn't know if my mind was playing tricks with me but my heartbeat slowed down because now I knew that they were both safe and I would soon be joining them. I look behind once again and saw the flames were catching up to me. I tried to take one final breath but smoke ended up entering my lungs instead of air causing me to cough. I closed my eyes knowing that my fate was sealed.
"See you on the other side, Mum"