Remnant Of The Gods

Chapter 19

The scent of fire and death was all I could smell. This wasn't the smell of burning wood in a fire pit that made you stick your head out of the window to inhale just a fraction more, wondering where in the neighbourhood it would be coming from. No. This was the smell of your life being engulfed in flames as you choked on the air that surrounds you.

I trudged through the house, screaming for help, screaming until my voice was hoarse and cracked under the pressure of maintaining such an atrocious noise. I curled into a ball as the flames licked around me, the increasing heat making it unbearable to remain in one position for too long. I flinched as something stabbed hard into my side and I cried out, rolling away from the object. Just as I moved, I faced the ceiling. It was the last thing I saw before it came crashing towards me when, just before the impact, there was an excruciating pain in my arm.

Alexis. I screamed as my arm was ripped sideways, tumbling me out of the nightmare-laden sleep that I had grown accustomed to. Looking down at the source of my pain, Demetrious still had his jaws clamped around my forearm as blood seeped through. I frantically pulled my arm away from him, causing yet more pain as his teeth unintentionally dug in further.

"Let me go!" I screamed at him, relieved as his mouth widened, allowing my arm to be pulled free. The worst was yet to come as I inspected the damage, shuffling as far away from him as I could. There were four gauges where the longest of his canines had sunk, then ripped as I had tried to pull myself free. I gulped as I looked down, there were parts of my body that I had never seen before, things that were best kept underneath skin. I began to feel sick.

"Why?" I croaked, looking away from my arm to a surprising sight.

The hound was laying down now and facing me, though the majority of his body was hidden by the end of the bed. I could only make out his shape when he back away further with my question. The blood was pumping out of my arm quickly. Going simply on what I had learned from Simon's movies, I grabbed the nearest piece of fabric- a pillow - and ripped the cover off of it. Luckily there was already a tear which I stretched with my good arm, making a rough tourniquet and began to wrap it around my arm tightly as he responded.

You would not awaken. There are certain individuals who can access the other planes that used to exist. I heard you. When I returned to this plane I realised that you had been caught.

My back straightened as I looked at him "Caught? How?"

In-between planes. He rose now, his head cocked. What is it you remember?

"I remember the smell of fire... It" I cast a panicked look towards him as it clicked, " it was Hell wasn't it?"

The thought of it seemed impossible though, looking across to the hellhound in front of me, I again mentally noted that the impossible was no longer so far fetched.

Yes.

I shook my head trying to regain my thoughts as the dull throb of my arm made me realise that the bed sheets weren't the most hygienic option.I remembered the mini-bar and I hoped there was some form of alcohol there as I tried to get up, though with my body feeling like I had just run a marathon. I wasn't going anywhere.

Though I have no idea how you were - What are you doing? He came around to me cautiously as I collapsed onto myself as I tried again to stand.

"Alcohol," I huffed impatiently, "I need it to clean the wound. There should be some over in the mini-bar."

He stalked off and due to my location beside the bed starting at the wall, I couldn't even tell if he knew where he was going.

"It should be a clear liquid hopefully, 'Vodka' if you can read... can you read?"

His indignant snort and disapproval swelling in my chest was all I received as an answer as a bottle dropped above my head. As I unwrapped the sheet I hissed in pain, some of the skin was flapping, connecting the delicate tissue of my arm to the cloth. A low sound came from the room though when I looked up, Demetrious was once again half-hidden behind the bed.

I poured the entire bottle onto my arm, biting my lip hard enough to bleed and closed my eyes once more as a scream threatened to escape from the pain. Swallowing hard I tried to fan the heat away from my arm unsuccessfully and instead looked like a fool, swatting my good arm back and forth trying to make a breeze as a black haze started to cloud my vision.

By the time I opened my eyes there was a clean cloth in front of my face, one of my few items of clothing left that Demetrious had gotten for me. The word fetched came to mind and I had to suppress a smile. I managed an appreciative nod and wrapped the cloth it around my arm tightly like I had with the last one, tucking the end into itself.

A rustling sound came as he had grabbed food from the mini-bar as well and dumped it in front of me, nudging it towards my hand.

You are weak.

I smiled up at him as I picked up the first chocolate bar and he sat silently watching me with an indecipherable look in his eyes. When he caught me watching him his eyes flickered down to my arm and back to my face again, he rose and backed away slowly, returning to his resting place slightly behind the bed. His movements seemed off and I sighed, registering what I had been missing from the hidden body language and the heaviness of my chest. He felt guilty?

"It's not so bad after all, you know," I said to him, hoping to coax him from his hiding spot, I didn't realise how out of breath I was and I struggled to control my breathing so the words wouldn't sound off. "It should heal up in a few days." It seemed better to remain optimistic even though my eyes began to darken again and the world looked like it was beginning to look like white noise on a TV.

I was awoken this time to the feeling of heat and pain to my side. I appreciated anything over the nightmares resulting in the last wakeup call I received. Heat was emanating from my arm in waves and I looked down to see I had created a small sheen of sweat over my whole body. There was a low hum in the room that I couldn't quite make out and I turned to see Demetrious beside me, closer than he had ever been voluntarily. We were also around the back of the complex now.

A human came. His grip loosened as he looked around us, surveying the area while I tried to see through the haze that my brain had created. He called for more humans when he saw you.

"We... Need to Find" I huffed, gulping in air in between words when I could, "... Somewhere with... No-one around." It was getting increasingly harder to do anything, and all I felt like doing was ripping off this bandage and let my arm sizzle on the cool cement underneath me.

I have reached such a place though it is not sheltered. The small amount of relief I felt allowed me to now welcome the darkness once more.

Time passed without my knowledge and I was roused once more when I was jolted to a stop.

There is safety here.

I roused sparingly over the next few days.

Eat. I ate.

Rest. I closed my eyes.

My rest was dark and filled with nightmares with each of the people I loved dying all over again, the only thing my mind could play, repeating itself with each rising to fresh pain in my side, my back, my arms...

A man entered once through the haze of my nightmares with power, demanding even my weakened eyes to flicker to watch him. I could make out the span of shoulders and hair that seemed to move on its own without even the faintest breeze. The man turned just as my eyes grew too heavy move until they lolled, exhausted, back into my head.