Spellbound (A Soul Eater Fanfiction)

Chapter Two

I had set it all on fire

The heat scorched at my skin, bit at my face and hands and feet as I ran disoriented through the halls. It was everywhere, a red haze as far as the eye could see. Then there was the smoke, the suffocating grey ash felt as though it was tearing me apart. It settled in my lungs, coating my throat. At some point I had bitten my tongue and spitting to clear out my mouth revealed blood that was several shades darker than it should have been.

I'm burning.

My lungs ached, my eyes watered, my entire body ached after months of disuse. Muscles that had begun to atrophy were forced to move and I wanted to scream. There was no relief and my blistered feet ached painfully as I ran barefoot down the hall. The broken metal links attached to my ankles caught on the uneven ground as I stumbled, tearing through skin and staining the floor with fresh blood that was red, so red. As red as the fire around me. I was leaving a trail. One easily followed; it was a moment of panic-induced clarity and the thought was more than enough to spur me on, renewing my efforts.

I continued to run, ignoring the hands that reached out to me from bared doorways, their cries of fear – for help – falling on deaf ears. Just like mine had. If I made it out of this alive, I knew I would regret not stopping. The sounds would haunt my nightmares because I would feel guilty. Always so guilty. But the fire was spreading, and the building had begun to groan under its own weight and I still wasn'toutside yet. So, I told myself I could drown in that guilt later.

I could help no one now.

Adrenaline might have kept me moving, but I felt as though the fear was what was keeping me alive. I never thought she would take it this far. That she would do this.

I had planned everything so carefully, mapped it all out, double-checked every last detail – and somehow, she was still one step ahead of me. And yet...

As I passed my own cell door – the only one open, the only one empty – a small vicious smile curled my lips, my teeth as red as the blood I kept dripping onto the floor. I looked down at the wrapped-up secret in my arms and even through the cloth, the edges dug into my arms from where I had begun to grip too tightly. I had risked everything to get this, everyone, really.

Another keening wail and I wanted to close my eyes and shut out the sound. Your fault, it seemed to say, mocking me. Like I didn't already know. Your fault alone.

Which was a bit unfair, I admit. While I had been the catalyst, the actual execution had involved far more than just myself. But that sentiment stemmed from later, when I would find out that I would be the only one that mattered to make it out alive.

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. But it did. I could hear her laughing at me. Could feel an echo of hundreds of small legs dancing over my skin. I shuddered. I just wanted the pain to stop. It won't. Not ever. Not for you.

It hurts.

The footsteps that had been a constant and steady background noise during my current race to freedom sounded closer and closer behind me as I swerved, hitting a corner roughly and tearing at my shoulder, bruising the skin. This place was a maze.I didn't stop, and I could hear my blood fizzle behind me as the fire underneath my feet consumed what fell from a seemingly unending number of wounds. I could hear words in the anguished cries again, coming from outside the stone walls, shouting my name – blaming me, and my grip on the bundled package in my arms became slippery with sweat and blood. But no tears.

No. I did not regret what I had done, I had only sped up the inevitable, not started it outright. I tightened my grip. For so many, it was already too late. It was too late for me.