Time seemed to slow down in the darkness and the gradually approaching heat, Nina felt her mind spinning uncontrollably—
She seemed to recall her childhood, running up and down in the antique shop with her uncle, "helping" yet making a total mess of everything, recalling the stories her uncle made up about those "antiques," which were all fabrications in the end, recalling her first day of school, the first time she saw a steam mechanism in a textbook, the first time she received praise from a teacher, the first time she made friends... and the first time she lost friends.
Her mind was a mess, her consciousness becoming more chaotic.
Smoke had begun to seep into the room bit by bit, affecting her breathing and her thoughts.
And all those tumultuous memories eventually turned into visions of being engulfed by flames.
A great fire... a great fire that only existed in her memory seemed to blaze before her eyes again.