Flesh And Fire
MICHAEL
Drowning.
Slowly sinking into the dark depths of the cold water. My eyes tight shut, my arms outstretched, and my lungs filled with water causing a burning sensation in my sternum. Before I died, I felt something colder grab my hands and bring my predicament to a stop.
The next thing that made sense was the vivid view of the night sky and the gentle sound of the rhythmic rise and fall of the water's surface from a distance. The dull moon revealed my frequent gasps for air as water oozed out from my wet lips. It took me a while to stand upright on my two feet. My hair clung to the sides of my face as I observed where I was. Also, trying to process what just happened to me.
I was barefooted and naked from the abdomen upwards. I flinched at the feel of the frigid air on my exposed skin. I shielded my body from the cold with my hands and tried sorting out ways to get myself out of this situation or to understand why I was in this position in the first place.
The last thing I remembered was having a slight headache and heading to the room assigned to me, after my victorious return, to rest. Then, I. . . woke up in this environment. The castle is nowhere to be seen.
A cold chill traveled down my spine as the familiar stranger appeared in my line of view. We were about twelve feet apart. This time, he was clothed from head to toe in a dark cloak. The only part of his body that was visible was his weirdly shaped eyeballs. Familiar eyeballs.
Our feet were dipped in the dark-brown sands of the shoreline as the stars twinkled above our heads. I held my breath at another strange encounter with this child, creature, enigma.
"It's funny how you chose to drown rather than heed my calling. It's such a shame."
My mouth parted slightly at the sound of Its voice. After so many years of haunting my very existence, It spoke.
I remained awestruck at this little mystery before me. Its head is held so high as if it has gained the whole world and is scared of nothing.
"Why did you drown?" It asked, trapping me in a complete state of confusion. Why would I purposely bring myself to nowhere to die? Or even want to die anyway? And what did it mean by I chose to drown instead of answering its call?
Which call? Am I in some kind of trance or the same sequence of nightmares that always involve this child?
"Who are you?" I summoned all the courage in me to ask, "What do you want from me?" I continued because I knew it wanted something.
The creature drew down the clothes a little to give me a sad smile. "Who are you?" Was it a reply?
I squeezed my face in confusion. Who am I? I questioned myself. What does it mean by that?
"It's such a shame that you do not know who you are and you want to know what I am." It shook its head at me in disapproval as his dead voice rang inside my ears.
Suddenly, the vile creature bent down with a small stone in its hands and began to scribble lines that connected lines on the sand. I moved a step closer but I couldn't see or understand what art nonsense it is doodling. "What are you doing?" I breathed out.
"Relax, I am not here to hurt you but to bring out the hidden potential that is attached to what you are to bring glory to my name." Its fetish eyeballs landed on me briefly with a cold look in contrast to the wide smile on his pale lips.
And what is your name? I wanted to raise so badly but instead, "What...do you think...I am?"
The creature paused with the little mischief it had created with the rock and rose to its feet with a drawled smirk. "Why don't you come to see for yourself." And it let go of the stone and moved further away from me to have a look at the weird sketch it squiggled.
After so much consideration and the overwhelming desire to know who or what I was, I moved over to have a look myself. It was an image of a very ugly representation of a man who has horns and triangular flaps at his sides that I am guessing were wings. And besides the disturbing diagram are the words; Flesh and fire.
My face paled.
"What is this?" I muttered, but the reason behind this image was gone.