Second Chance Matches | ONC 2020

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙏𝙬𝙤

★ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ★

CLAP.

The sound of the blood-red fire imploding still echoed in Sabine's ears until it was quickly replaced by something else...

Bang. Bang. BOOM.

Sabine's umber eyes shot open to find that she had been transported. She was no longer surrounded by the burrow and trees, but by an open field filled with screaming men running to and fro. They carried rifles in their hands and looks of terror on their faces. Sabine wasn't able to see the entire scene due to the thick smoke that choked the landscape, but it didn't take her long to realize that she was in the middle of a battle.

Sabine stood rooted to her spot like a tree until something big knocked her from behind and she fell face first into the mud. She would have just given up and laid there for the next eternity, hoping against hope that the bombs would miss her and that the mud would provide ample camouflage, but two rough hands quickly pulled her back to her feet.

"Get the hell out of the way, girl! This is no place for a kid!" a gruff voice yelled at her as she regained her balance. The words were foreign to Sabine but she got the overall gist of what he was saying through his tone: move or die.

The same hands that pulled her to safety shoved her in the direction of a cluster of broken buildings. She nearly toppled back into the mud but this time she was able to keep her footing and she took off without a second thought. Once again, her legs knew what to do.

It was hard to keep her eyes straight ahead towards the buildings and to not let them stray to the gutted and gory corpses lining her path. Sabine was terrified that if she looked too closely she'd see the faces of her loved ones meshed onto the bodies. Lena, her mom, her dad, her sisters...

Streaking bullets dotted the air and heavy blasts brought shrapnel raining down upon her as Sabine continued to follow her legs towards shelter. She was nearly rocked to the side after a bomb exploded thirty feet to her left but she was able to push herself back up and keep going. Slowly the cement buildings were getting closer and closer.

Sabine had to weave through one last group of surprised soldiers before she was in the clear. One of them tried to grab her arm as if to check to see that she was actually real, but she pulled away with a strength she didn't recognize and continued on. Shortly after, she heard a large blast behind her and chanced a look back to see that the group of soldiers were all now lying scattered on the ground.

Once Sabine came to the door of one of the buildings, she immediately threw herself inside and skidded across the gritty floor. A cursory glance of the tiny room told her that she was alone and that the building had been abandoned by whoever once lived there. She curled into a ball and laid there as distant explosions shook the walls and the last screams of several soldiers became preserved in the heavy air.

Was this it? Would she die here? Either from a stray bomb or an enemy soldier finding her weak and defenseless? How had she even gotten here in the first place? Once Sabine had time to calm down a little and focus, she felt something solid in her hand. At first she assumed it was still Lena's imprint, but when she brought her hand closer and uncurled her tightly clasped fingers, she found something different.

During the strange ordeal with the fire, and now the terrifying escapade across the battlefield, Sabine had forgotten that she was still holding onto the box of matches. They had been locked against her palm underneath her death-like grip. Seeing the slightly flattened little cardboard box brought Sabine a new realization: she had a way out! She had seen a miniature version of this battle when she had lit the match back in the forest and now here she was. She didn't quite understand it, but somehow the matches were magical.