Kismet: The Fire Within

Chapter 5

"Get him", orders my father with all the cruelty a man can summon. It's a true sign the monster has arrived.

 I plant my hands on the ground and try to push up. My efforts make my arms tremble. Sweat falls down on the floor like water being wrenched from a towel. My fingers curl under my hands dragging themselves closer to my palms. They scrape against the sandstone floor. Stinging is the only sensation I feel; tears drowning my eyes, muscles beyond tension begging to snap and knuckles being grinded to nothing but bone. To top it all off, the dryness of my mouth adds a fitting touch to the hopelessness of the occasion.

 But one last push has managed to tilt to me my side. Have my instincts kicked in or has my predicament been determined by good luck? It doesn't matter, as everything feels unbearable.

 It's all forgotten with one sound; a screeching whirr which almost pierces my eardrum. Someone must have hijacked the teleport pad to the stage.

 The scuffs of hurrying footsteps are quickly approaching me. They're coming from the direction of the teleport pad located at the rear left of the stage. They end when a vicious stomp lands on my midsection. I gasp for the air that has been stolen from my lungs. The impact slingshots me off the floor. It forces me to sit upright face to face with my attacker.

It's who I expect. I knew the monster's servant would eventually make an appearance.

"Surprise, surprise little boy", she says with a sadistic smile stretched across her face.

She reeks of evil intentions. The performance of the caring mother is no more.

Despite the fatigue, I manage to my raise eyebrows at her.

"It's about time you showed up. "After all, you did say you would meet me here." My sarcasm falls flat as each word is followed by a worn out breath.

 She stares at me blankly; glassed eyed and unmoved by my actions. Then suddenly she wakes up.

  I'm grabbed by a chunk of hair. She drives her knee underneath my chin. It throws me backwards ripping roots from my scalp. My teeth chomp down on my tongue. The impact sends my head into a spin. Inside I'm screaming but it's translated into a gurgling whimper. I roll onto my side and open my mouth. A stream of blood oozes out drawing a clear line amongst the tan. The ever growing divide between my mother has no end.

 A small section of the crowd yells a hurrah. They must be friends of my parents, as her actions wouldn't be deemed acceptable by most of the Inferno.

"You can't get up can you weakling?", she says behind my back.

 Of course she knows I can't. The poison turns your limbs to jelly. It leaves you helpless and unable to move. If I could fight back I know what I would do.

I would roll onto my stomach and raise myself on all fours. I would gleam at her with my bloodstained teeth.

I would propel myself at her without warning as if I was flung out of a slingshot. My shoulder would smash into her abdomen. She'd be lifted into the air.

As we reach the floor beneath us, I would stare at her face. She would be stunned: her complexion paler than ever before, her top lip quivering and tears teaming from every corner of her eyes. Is she pitiful for her situation or for how she could have prevented it from ever happening in the first place?

It would end with us landing into a pile of mangled limbs. Lucky for her she won't have to face this wrath today.

 'You've got me just the way you like me don't you Ma?, I slur. The throbbing of my tongue makes it unbearable to speak but I force myself to push on. "You're a coward. Now that's something the Inferno hate the most."