City on Fire (Random Drabble)

*Inspired by this song:

Running, her feet ache. The rocks have torn through her skin and she can feel the burn from the cuts but she can’t stop. Her lungs burn and ache from the amount of smoke she inhaled and it feels like it’s only gotten worse with the running. The fire behind her is catching up to her until it’s surrounding her and causing her to stop in her tracks.

So she does.

The fire reaches out, attempting to her skin, trying its best to get as close to her as it can but it’s as though she’s out of it’s reach even though she could touch it herself if she really wanted to. For heaven’s sake, she can hear the crackling as the flames ignite and eat everything around her.

It’s all devoured.

She looks to the top of the hill and there lie towers, burning from their tops on down. Her nose scrunches up at the smell of whatever it is that’s burning near her. Something close.

It has to be the smell of burning flesh.

It can’t be hers. She doesn’t feel anything at the moment. The fire in her lungs isn’t there anymore and the throbbing in her feet isn’t as strong. Nothing hurts.

Not physically.

Deep in her chest, as she catches sight of everything just burning slowly around her, she feels a deep pang that she can’t quite describe.

The air around her is full of embers and ash and she isn’t sure what she was expecting to see or feel or smell as she stood at the bottom of the hill. The same hill that holds all the memories she was trying so dearly to hold onto for so long. What’s worse, what hits her much stronger than anything else, is the figure at the top of the hill.

It’s an all too familiar silhouette that she just can’t reach. They stand just as untouched as she but even more so. No scratches and no burns. No bleeding. No sign of a fight.

Even from where she stands, she can see their smile and it makes her legs feel weak.

She begins scratching at her arms, deeply. She wants to feel something. She’s begging the flames around her to swallow her whole, to consume her along with everything else so that she can finally disappear. She wants this nightmare to end. There’s no denying that it’s just so taxing to be in the same position every single time and to not be able to do anything about it and to end up feeling so empty and out of touch with it all.

Her arms drip down to her palms, skin buried under her nails. The pain of it all still hasn’t hit yet unlike the smell of her blood and the glowing body surrounding her as it feasts on what once brought her joy. Her cheeks feel warm and she knows where it’s coming from, what the cause is, but she’s frozen in place.

As she springs up, eyes wide open, she immediately looks down at her sheets, greeted by the unsurprisingly familiar trails of crimson dancing on her sheets and pillows and nightgown.

Turning her attention to the foot of her bed, left corner to be exact, that same haunting smile she’d just seen only moments ago floats amongst the shadows. She’s not supposed to be able to reach for the outstretched hand in front of her; she was never supposed to. The day she did, she was already at a disconnect with the world around her. Ever since that day, the lines have only continued to blur. She feels more at home in the dark and they feel more at home in her dreams.