A few days had passed and while it could be the stale environment that we've all grown extremely bored of, Silva seems particularly aloof today. With the lack of adequate nutrition lately, I've been all but scarfing down the little amount of food on my tray but Silva has been consistently pushing the food back and forth on her plate for the two meals we'd been served today. While that wouldn't normally give me reason to be suspicious, I couldn't help but over-analyze every little event going on these days, given the lack of entertainment.
Wrestling with my own mind for what seemed like hours, I decided it would be better to be worried over nothing than ignore something important going on.
My knees cracked as I stood up from the stone floor for the first time in the hours since our lunch was delivered. When I reached the side of the bed that Silva sat on, she was hesitant to look up at first. I saw her eyes shift between looking at my legs and back to the ground. Unsure of whether she would say anything, I tried to coax her to confide in me.
"Is something wrong?"
Despite her head being down, I caught the way she sucked her lip in between her teeth. The air was silent, and it seemed like it would last forever, but she finally did something. She looked up at me. Her smile was small, but it was there. I raised my eyebrows in question, and she opened her mouth to speak.
"I-"
I began coughing. Something obnoxious was scratching at my throat. Instinctively, I covered my mouth and nose with the sleeve of my shirt. Despite not knowing where I was, I felt that there was something I needed to do, there was a reason I was here and I needed to find it.
My eyes widen, almost unconsciously. I quickly close them when I realize that whatever is affecting my throat is burning my eyes too.
"Sira! Uraias!" A muffled voice calls. I look all around but no one else is anywhere to be seen. Was that my voice?
Suddenly I feel a gust of heat. When I open my eyes, I see the red, hot flames rapidly moving towards me. The room I'm in is pitch dark and there seems to be no escape. Removing my arm from my mouth and nose, I close my eyes and feel around the ground and the walls, to no avail. There's no door, no window, absolutely nothing around me at all.
There's nothing I can do but sit and let the fire take me. I sit on the ground and curl up into a ball, watching the flames approach me through my fingertips. When it reaches my body, I don't feel anything. I've been burned before by scorching hot water, by ashes, and nothing ever felt as peaceful as the way the orange heat danced around my body.
It felt like I was falling—no, flying. I hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing. Just utter serenity.
⇎ ⇎ ⇎
I hadn't realized I had woken up until I sat up and saw my reflection in the mirror. Well, not my reflection, but the reflection of whoever's form I was taking currently. My memories were hazy and I hadn't even realized what had happened just moments before until I recognized the familiar smell.
Smoke.
When I stood up, frightened all the same and looking for an escape, I noticed my unfamiliar surroundings. As I turned around, my reflection was staring back at me from all directions. As I circled around, I noticed one particular reflection changing. The person in the glass surface turned around, and when they looked back their face was completely paled. When I tried to look closer, they burst into flames, causing me to jump back into one of the mirrors behind me.
The sound of blood rushing in my ears gets louder as I watch each of the seven surfaces play the exact same scene for me.
Doing everything I can to calm myself down, I place my hands on the mirrors and try to find my way out. The glasses with their reflections engulfed in flames are hot to the touch, despite the fire being illusory.
I weave in and through hidden pathways, not quite sure if I'm getting any closer to an exit than when I started. For all I know, I could be looping back and forth in circles. This could all be one big trap which I'm doomed to be forever stuck in.
The familiar tickle of my throat returns and only worsens by the minute. When I reach a corner, I'm taken aback as there is yet again another fire engulfing everything in its pathway. This one isn't an illusion or my imagination though. I can tell by the way my arm begins to ache as I reach toward it.
I wince and cover my ears at once. All of the glass around me breaks and the fire disappears, even though I can still feel the burn of the heat in front of me.
"Silva."
I'm being called but I don't want to open my eyes. My hands find their way over my ears and I crouch into a ball, rocking back and forth to get away from it all. Whatever 'it all' is. But the voice just grows louder and louder until it's directly in front of me.
"Silva!"
"Silva!"
When I finally open my eyes I see him. Him. Standing with an arm outstretched toward me where the fire had once blazed. One of mine reached forward and I let our fingers touch. he grabbed ahold of my hand and pulled me up.
The sudden jolt forward made me feel sick to my stomach, as if I had been on a rollercoaster or something. I turn around from facing Silva's bed to try to run toward the bathroom, but I stumble.
It all happens so fast. I feel as if I'm falling and then I hit a hard surface, although not as hard as the one I expected to hit. Blasius's chest.
He lowers me to my knees and nudges an empty tray in front of me and before I can even realize what is happening my lunch appears on it, although not quite in the way it was served to me a few hours ago.
Despite the sickness I feel, I can't help but feel embarrassed of the fact that I just threw up in front of the three of them. That should've probably been the least of my worries, though.
I sat back on my knees and took a few deep breaths in order to gather my thoughts and attempt to push any more sickness down. A large, comforting hand finds its way to my back, rubbing a pattern gently into it. Blasius knelt down and out of the corner of my eye I could see the way he eyed me with worry.
When I finally calmed down, I told them about the vision I had. I recalled how I had seemingly been in Silva's body during the unexplainable memory. They all listened intently, especially Silva, who seemed to react at even the smallest of details.
"Sira and Uraias are my siblings," Silva revealed, "or were, I should say. When the king was elected so many people rioted. They finally had a reason to get rid of everyone that wasn't human—and he encouraged it."
"And they set your house on fire," I filled in.
She nodded, "My siblings were 4. I tried to find them but I could barely take care of myself. My dad got home from work just in time to get me out. He tried to go back in for the others but it was too late, my siblings inhaled too much smoke and my mom had such bad burns that there wasn't anything anyone could do."
"I'm so sorry Silva," Menas lamented. Blasius and I pitched in too with our words of comfort. That evening was spent in equal part consoling Silva and trying to distract her from the sorrowful memories of her family's fate.