Death's Feather

Chapter 2: Familiar Ghosts

The cold was everywhere.
It seeped through his lungs and it hurt his throat. His breath was like an ice mist.
His mother was floating in front of him, in the middle of two tall walls from the giant maze. She was in a dusty grey color and her beautiful face was so sad, it hurt.
Was she a ghost? Was Ignacio seeing his dead mother? How did she died too?

"Mom?" He asked again. She nodded quietly and approached him. He felt her soft and cold hand on his cheek. He looked her in the eyes, once a brilliant green, were now as dull and off as the rest of her.

"Are you dead too?" Her hand fell down and, even though it was like being close to an ice sculpture, he came closer. He didn't want her to go.

"In a way." She answered. Her voice was raw and small. "I'm the part that died with you."

He shook his head, giving a step back.

"I don't understand." He said, and then looked up to the sky.

The smoke coming from the wall of flames was still far away from him. Too far away, it didn't make sense. The last time he checked it was 30 feet away...
The ghost of his mother talked again:

"You took a piece of me when you died. Yo took a piece of your father, and Gabriella, and José. Yo took us all with you."

As she said those words, three more dusty grey figures emerged from the maze walls. His father, his sister and his brother. Just as sad and cold as his mother was.
He could barely feel any fire behind him now. The ice from the four ghosts in front of him was too much to bare. His arms were going stiff and moving slow. Oxygen turned to sharp knives going through his nose. He could practically feel his brain and mind shutting off.
A heavy sleep was threatening to take him right there. And he didn't feel like fighting it...

"Don't do it son." Said his father.

"Don't compete." Whispered his sister.

"Just come to us, and you'll be safe. All will be forgiven." Said his brother.

What?

A tingle ran down the back of his neck and he tried to turn around, but his mother's hands caressed his cheeks, holding up his face.
But before she could open her lips,Ignacio said, in a broken voice:

"But you're alive. I'm trying to get back to you. Alive."

A few tears went down her face and she shook her head. Her hands got a little stiffer and Ignacio was falling and falling and falling into the dark. Somehow, he felt happy; at peace. He was going to see them again, and they'll forgive him.

All is forgiven.

But then... Why was she so angry?
Her face contorted like a fury; her hands pressed his head hard, pushing him back to that tingling sensation from the back of his neck.
He felt a sudden hot pinch and his eyes were wide open.
It wasn't so cold anymore. In fact, he was sweating and panting and the hot pinch became even hotter. And suddenly he was burning.

The fire had reached him and was now licking the back of his neck, burning the few hairs he had. The walls behind him were scorched and ruined, falling apart like Jenga bricks.
What the hell?
The ghosts pulled back and floated away, dissolving like mots of dust. Ignacio ran through the passages, turning in any direction without thinking it through.
The only thought in his mind was the giant wall of fire behind him, eating away everything just to get to him.

That wasn't his family, then. He knew they hated him, or at least didn't missed him that much but, wanting to kill him?
Never.
That was clearly the first taste of what he was going to face in the maze. So far he was doing very damn well. He nearly became a human torch on his first encounter and got out by pure luck.
But he wasn't going to let himself be tricked again.
No sir; he was going to win that tournament.