Chapter 60Fast Forward 6 - Burning Desire

Back to being imprisoned.

All alone and lost, waiting for the sun. No more options. All solid concrete around me, nowhere to go. I briefly wondered if anyone could help me but it was almost sunrise. I knew Kryss and all his 'minions' were gone. But they'd barricaded the door. I really had no chance.

I looked up, the large chimney with a grayish morning twilight sky showing down. It was hard even standing up and focussing. The sleep was pulling at me, trying to drag me down into the welcome sleep. But what could I do. All solid, smooth concrete and too wide to use both walls at once. I walked around the room once more, calmly feeling the walls, hoping to find a weak point. No use, only the silence was my companion, the thick walls keeping all the city sounds away from my sharp hearing.

I had to accept it.

I lost.

The morning was coming and I had no way to warn the others, no phone, screams wouldn't help in this abandoned district and would die out before they reached outside. I still had some clothes with me, my coat being not as torn as I thought, and thought they might help protect me.

Prepare, it was the only thing I could do.

I pulled off everything but my underwear, as they wouldn't cover me enough if I removed them, and chose a corner. I lay down and draped my clothes over me as a sort of blanket. Curled up on my side, they covered me mostly. So hard to concentrate, stay awake, focus.

The chimney was long, and it was autumn, the sun wouldn't be in the middle of the sky. Direct sunlight might not even come here. With my clothes on top of me it might offer enough protection. Hope, all I had.

All curled up, the left side of my body on the ground, the right side up and covered by two layers of clothing, mostly. I still tried to focus, feeling the sun rising slowly above the horizon. But sleep dragged me down, made me forget, drift into the world of dreams...

Sleep...

Soft, gentle sleep...

Nothingness...

Light...

Burning...

Burning!

I got dragged back into consciousness as the light of the sun slowly got stronger. An hour or more had passed since I had fallen asleep and the light felt like a fire was being lit right next to my skin. It felt hot, but my skin didn't feel burned yet. I didn't look out from under my clothing, but the light slightly fell through it anyway. It hurt my eyelids, I didn't dare open them.

More burning! Time passed, in the gentlest pace I'd ever felt. Nothing was worse than this. Gradually being burned. A cloud in front of the sun made the burning softer but only for a few seconds. It didn't make it disappear, only softer.

Time, sometimes the greatest torturer of all.

The burning continued, my breathing was as slow as possible, half-asleep but so aware of everything. My left side was so cool, so pleasantly cool against the concrete floor. But with each passing second the burning intensified.

But my skin resisted.

It must have been mid afternoon when my skin truly burned. Red skin, blisters, black skin. I felt it all around the right side, as if I was being dipped in liquid fire. But it was painfully slow. As if it was enough to burn my skin, but not deep enough to stop the pain. Each passing second the soft caress of a white hot sheet of metal covering my body. But as soon as a piece of skin singed it was moved, never allowing me the comfort of adjusting to the pain.

Time passed. The burning very slowly faded, but my skin was still burning from inside. The heat of the day stored. I had kept my eyes closed all this time and still felt in that semi-awake state that allows you to feel everything, but not able to do anything about it.

Finally, the sweet release of sunset left me writhing in pain but comforted with the thought of no more. This wasn't a desert, never was I in the full sunlight and the blackened walls probably didn't reflect the sunlight very well. My clothing, what little there was left of it as my hot skin had singed some of it as well, did protect me.

I stood up and smiled grimly. Afentis's blood must have made me stronger. My body was badly burned, even almost half of my face was no more than a burned mess. But it was alright. I had made it, I was still alive.

Still alive...