Forever Inflamed (Working title)

Prologue

Craig looked longingly after his wife as he watched her run out the front door of their house. She stopped on the front lawn and looked at him, her jaw shuddering and her eyes streaming tears. Then she stared up at the second floor clutching at her mouth, her face lit up with a bright orange glow.

Craig turned around and followed her gaze up the staircase, seeing the same orange light, as well as smoke billowing across the ceiling. He ran up the stairs, feeling the surrounding temperature increase as he drew nearer to the blaze. Smoke stung his eyes and lungs, but he had a mission. His daughter was up here.

He squinted through the quickly spreading flames to Isabelle's room, to which the door was closed. The walls around him burned brightly, and the sound of crackling wood surrounded him. Craig rushed towards the closed door, but was stopped halfway down the hall when a chunk of burning ceiling fell down in front of him, spraying sparks into his face. He fell to the left, gripping the banister beside him, which was also on fire.

"Fuck!" Craig said, pulling his blistered hand away from the flames.

He glanced around, noticing how much of the house was actually on fire. It was spreading quickly across the ceiling and walls. A bright glow illuminated the doorway leading to Isabelle's room. He rushed over, with his sleeve over his mouth and his eyes watering. He gripped the door handle, then recoiled when it burned him.

Craig heard a faint, shaky voice from the other side of the door.

"Daddy?" It was Isabelle.

"I'm coming baby!" Craig said as he looked at the door, deciding how he would get in.

"Daddy hurry!" her voice wavered.

Craig became more frantic. He took a step back from the door, then thrust his foot towards it. The door flew off the hinges, and he stumbled into the inferno. Everything was on fire. He watched the curtains and bed that they had bought for her when she was younger burn up. A fiery pile of clothes divided the room in two.

"Daddy it's too hot!"

Her voice was coming from the closet, which was on the other side of the room. The other side of the massive fire. He ran over, then jumped over the clothes. He felt the flames lick his legs and feet. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he opened the closet to see his eight year old daughter Isabelle cowering on the floor. Sweat soaked her clothes and tears made lines in her sooty face. Craig scooped her up in his arms, squeezing tight. She sobbed in his ear. He held her high as he jumped over the large fire, successfully clearing the gap again. More ceiling fell around him, but Craig was now home free. At least that's what he thought.

Just as he was about to run through the door, something slipped around his ankle and yanked. Craig's feet were pulled out from under him, and Isabelle was flung forward out the door. The thing around his ankle pulled him directly backwards, through the fire and towards the wall opposite the door. He screamed in agony as his clothes caught aflame, burning the skin underneath. Suddenly something else wrapped around his neck and yanked him up. He hit the wall with a thud, and desperately grasped at the tendril around his neck. It felt slick, warm, and fleshy.

Isabelle squealed, and went to run back into the room, but the door slammed shut in her face. Craig called for her and she yelled back, her voice anguished. He sputtered and looked around the room, which was becoming more engulfed in fire by the second, for anything that would help him escape. He tried to yell for his daughter again, but the tendril became tighter, and the words gurgled in his throat.

Craig heard small hands banging on the door, then a shrill shriek when it abruptly burst into flames. His vision started to get spotty, but he kept grabbing at his throat to loosen the bond. Then he saw something hanging. From a hole in the ceiling, just in front of the door, several bloody tendrils hung. More of them began to drop, then more. Suddenly, a figure fell through, landing hunched over in the fire. It looked like a man, but something was off. The thin figure rose, arching its back and craning its neck into the air. As it stood, it began to grow, becoming taller and larger. It snapped a sharp set of teeth, and settled its gaze on Craig.

He couldn't quite ascertain the full figure of the beast, what with his blurry vision and all the bright light around him, but it hulked high above him. Its head sat a foot below the eight foot ceiling, and the tendrils writhed behind it. Bloody, tattered clothes clung to its large skeletal frame, and it had red, blistered skin that looked like it could fall right off the bone. But what frightened Craig the most were the bright yellow eyes, which glared at him with a threatening ferocity.

It advanced slowly towards Craig, snapping its jaws. Long, slender strands of hair hovered around its scalp unnaturally; they were ghostly in a way, not obeying any law of physics. Thick yellow-red slime oozed between its jagged teeth and onto the floor, leaving mucousy trails hanging from its jaw.

Craig tried to scream, tears forming in the corners of his eyes, as the beast lunged at him, swiping his torso with its clawed fingers. He felt nothing for a moment, then searing pain swept through his gut as he heard a thump underneath him. He managed to look down, his vision still impaired, and saw a conglomeration of tissue and blood. He felt his body slump, and his vision went black as the door in front of him opened.

The last thing he heard before he died was the agonizing scream from his daughter.