Intro
1537 Words
A scream in the middle of the night.
A sharp pain, ravaging my body. t*****e I can’t handle any longer. I cry out, scream, beg for mercy. I beg her to leave me alone. But she doesn’t stop. The poison is spreading like darkness inside me. The darkness takes over me.
Let me out. Let me escape this hell…
“Is she awake yet?”
“She struggled earlier, but we think she is hallucinating…”
“How is her dosage?”
“We keep putting larger doses, but it doesn’t have much effect…”
Someone sighs.
“This is a tough one… Poor girl. Even if she wakes up…”
“Doctor, what should we do? It’s already a miracle she is alive, with what happened. It’s hard to think she might wake up at this point…”
“Well, we can try a bit more. I do feel bad for her, but this is not our decision to make. Her family signed, and it will be bad for us if we don't comply with their demands.”
“Understood, doctor.”
Several steps. Voices, whispering.
I open my eyes.
Above me, a bland ceiling. I sit up, completely disoriented. No, I have no idea where I am. What is this… Machines surrounding me, and an empty room. Is this a hospital? It smells like medicine and cleaning products… I don’t like any of that. Moreover, some beeping is annoying me. I want to move, find a way to make it stop, but I’m bound by something.
What are those? Handcuffs? Why would I be chained to a bed! And my ankles too? I struggle, trying to get out of these.
“Aoutch!”
My wrist… When I take a closer look, both my wrists are bandaged tightly. I’m injured? I bend over and grab some of it between my teeth, pulling it away so I can see what they are hiding. …What are those? It looks so deep and red… Who did that to me?
“Oh, my goodness!”
A woman, dressed in a white blouse, just walked in without warning. She is staring at me with those big frightened eyes.
“She… She’s awake. She… Doctor! Doctor!”
I hear her screams echoing as she runs away, shouting like a madwoman. What the… I can’t waste time on her. I go back to my cuffs, and how am I going to get out of it. My wrists are thin, yet there are so tight I can’t even move in it. I struggle again, and one of the cuts reopens, a thin red line staining the bandages.
I should just burn it. Right... Let's do this. But how can I, exactly? It’s not like I have a lighter or something here. I'm missing something. So annoying. I force again, but before I can do anything, running steps are heard from outside. In a few seconds, a whole bunch of people appears at the door. It was high time!
A man and three women are all staring at me, their faces torn between surprise and something akin to fear. What is wrong with them? I growl.
“Untie me.”
My own imperious voice surprises me, but it seems right in that situation. Who are they to keep me chained like this? The man walks over, a bit hesitant. Is he a doctor? He is short and bald, with small glasses and a dull face.
“Miss, are you alright? How… How do you feel?”
“Didn’t you hear me? Untie me now!”
He jumps when I yell and violently pull on the handcuffs, but I don’t care. He hesitates, and shakes his head.
“I’m sorry, we can’t do that for now. Can… Can I examine you? It seems you just woke up. Are… Are you in pain anywhere?”
In pain? Now that he mentions it, aside from my wrist, my legs are… I wouldn’t call it painful, but they certainly don’t feel good. I could look at them if it wasn’t for those stupid cuffs!
“What happened to me? Where I am, and who are you?”
He looks even more surprised now. I see the bald doctor exchange a glance with the women, visibly hesitant. When he turns back to me, he is fidgety.
“Miss Garnett, you don’t… Remember what happened to you?”
Miss Garnett? Who is that? And what am I supposed to remember?
I… I don’t remember anything. I try to think, long and hard, of any piece of anything I could find, but it’s a complete black hole. I have no idea. Who I am, what am I doing here, or what happened?
“Miss Garnett, you look very disturbed. Do you want us to…”
“Don’t call me that!”
“But it’s your name. Miss Clarissa Garnett.”
He’s wrong. I know it. I shake my head, trying to remember.
“No. My name is... My name is Mara.”
“M-Mara? You must be confused. I can assure you, your name is…”
“My name is Mara!”
I yelled my lungs out, and they all scream in fear. Not because of my voice, but because of those red flames that just erupted in my hands. How fascinating…
“Oh my god! Someone call for help!”
“Fire! She… She… She just lit the fire!”
While they are all panicking, I’m absorbed by the little fire dancing on my hands. It’s so warm… It dances on my fingers in shades of orange and red, and suddenly catches the cuffs that were restraining me. A smell of burnt leather comes up, and I watch as it slowly consummates my restraints. It spread slowly, the bedsheets are soon caught in the fire too. While they are eaten progressively by the flames, I can finally see my legs.
What is this…
Red. They are of a dark, disgusting, and pitiful red. The burnt scars run from my feet to half of my left thigh, while on my right, it went as far as my waist. My flesh was devoured deep enough to leave hints of blood in some places. There is something repulsive about it, yet I can’t stop watching. Those two remnants are my actual legs… Are they even of any use in that state? Surprisingly, I can move them just fine. They still hurt a bit, though.
One of the women suddenly returns in the room with something silverish, and she runs to me. I don’t react, but she unfolds a cover and puts it over the fire to smother it. Within seconds, the little flames die out. They are all acting crazy and yelling about smoke or water, but no one is answering me. So I look for the man and stare at him to ask again.
“What happened to me?”
“You… Did you just do this? The fire?” He mumbles.
“Not that, my legs!”
Why does he have to be so slow to answer! Who cares about that fire! He wipes off some sweat from his shiny forehead and looks at the nurses again, completely helpless. Finally, a woman behind him answers.
“You were severely burnt, miss Cla… Mara. The firefighters came too late, they found you already unconscious and in… That state.”
She is not hinting at my legs but my overall body. What… Now that my hand is free, I pull up the odd clothing I’m wearing, some sort of blouse.
I was wrong… The burns are not only on my legs. New red flesh flaps appear once you look under my clothes. A large area on my left side, breast, shoulder, and arm is also in the same wretched state. How did that happen… I look at my hands. They are fine. This red fire doesn’t burn me… That one earlier didn’t. I stare at my fingers, but nothing else happens.
“Miss… Mara?”
The nurse took a step closer. She is the one that looks the least afraid of me.
“We need to examine you… Can we? Then you can ask us questions, alright?”
“Why did you handcuff me?”
She hesitates, but after a few seconds, answers with a very serious face.
“It was for your safety. We were afraid you would try to harm yourself.”
“Injure myself? Why in the world would I do something like that?”
“But you did, miss. Those scars… You did all that to yourself.”
- Writer
