Prologue

Prologue

New York, Lake Placid;

June 1995

         There was no denying it; there was a good chance I was going to die.

         In the past, I had been lucky--if you could actually use the term lucky--but I was able to survive so many other situations more times than I could count on two hands.

         However, this time was different.

         It was then that I realized I had not given myself enough time and my entire body took it upon itself to freeze where I stood.

         The panic already had its stronghold. It was closing my throat to what seemed to be nothing more than the width of a single thread and my heart was pounding so hard, trying to escape before my brain had the opportunity to come the same conclusion for the rest of my body.

         I finally managed to turn my upper body and there it was in all its brilliance. I watched the deep flames of the infuriated fire through the sporadic gaps of thick dark smoke. I am still only able to watch everything burn around me without action.

         What was once beautiful wilted and cracked under the ferocity of the flames, turning everything it touched to ash and dust. I want to scream, ever so badly, but there is no use. My voice was lost along with the rest of my senses.

         The red and amber flames were making their way towards me, creeping its way along the walls on either side with the fluidity of lava, its heat penetrating deeper through me the closer it got. 

         "What are you doing? You have to get out of here!" a male voice called out to me.

         That somehow snapped me out of my current state. I started to run but it only encouraged it, seeming to incite in it a competitive side as to who could outrun the other. It was an unforgiving entity and it quickly closed the gap between us and came within inches, snapping and snarling. I try to run faster but I fall, quickly getting to my feet and then I fall again. I am now having a hard time staying upright.

         "Faster!"

         I could barely see the door through the smokescreen that had now completed its descent and no matter how quickly I tried to reach it, the further it seemed to get.

         "Try not looking back."

         I am now gasping for air; rattled coughing promptly follows half of an intake of breath. I am slowing down even more and I am positive now that I am never going to reach it.

         I fall one last time and I would not be getting up again. Almost filled to capacity with the smoke in the surrounding air my lungs were unable to function properly. It felt like there was a thousand pound blanket covering my body and I was rapidly losing whatever strength I had left, pushing me even closer down to the floor. I closed my eyes as I wait for the beast to devour me.

         The young man turns back. He takes me in his arms and proceeds towards the door.

         A beam drops from above, barely missing us. The fire must have escaped up into the ceiling and by the creaks and groans it was producing; it would be giving out soon too.

         The fear I felt seconds before was now dissipating, all that remained was my fog filled mind and a surprising sense of peace.

         "Hold on, we're almost there."

         As was the unconsciousness that was threatening to overtake me and I am no longer fighting it.

         The present regains its hold on me as he crashed through the door, my legs inadvertently crushed from the impact with the wood.

         Seconds later I am outside and on the ground, the darkness still trying to overtake me. He is pushing on my chest, trying to get me to breathe. Soon I feel his mouth on my own as he forces air into my resisting lungs.

         I am now breathing on my own, the coughing renewed as I take in my first breath of fresh air. It feels foreign, unnatural as it finds its way down my windpipe and into my oxygen-starved lungs. I try to ignore the fire within my chest.

         "You have to get away from here, as far away as you can."

         Confused, I said the only word that came to my mind. "Where?"

         "Where no one can find you."

         The shock of it all envelopes me. The fire. His directives. Once again able to feel the excruciating pain snaking throughout my body.

         Nevertheless, he was right. It was time to run.