mrsimple

This chapter was tricky. I originally wanted to keep Clint on the move, which I kinda did, but I also wanted to show off the realm he had entered. The issue for me was establishing the fact that we don't know how much time had passed. He could've been in that realm for hours or days...

I'll let you all imagine how long he had been enduring all that he did. :)

Enjoy! :D

Chapter 3: The Uninvited

I was wrong about the darkness, rationalizing it all, for there had to be light for me to see.

Like a fire that glided over water was what the sky of darkness appeared to be. Not a void. All of that which could burn was scorched black and the very dark ashed remains continued to fuel the flames. How it traveled -- the fire in the sky -- was incredible. Violent, but at the same time, serene. A storm that I had yet to not experience and hope that I never would. Nothing would survive this impossible fire. How I could still breathe amazed me. No matter where I looked, it burned. An endless black fire across the entire scope of the charred Heavens.

To lower my gaze was to see the oddities either grown or sculptured from the ground. Horrifying fascinations of pulsing earth rolled from one side of a hill to the other. Not like it had something alive beneath the dirt, but that the very ground was alive. Each speck of dust was a part of that fluid motion across from me. It caused the sprouts of oddities to twist and turn as if disturbed from their slumber. Roots of stone that were white as bone shifted their angles as if to face me with curiosity.

Shaking out of my stunned fascination, I ran. Each barefooted step burned away at my exposed soles. I was beyond blistered in only a few minutes. The only reason I managed to tolerate this was because of a protective layer of dirt and ash formed on the bottoms of my bloodied feet. That temporarily took care of what was below me. Up above was another matter entirely.

Hanging cliffs that tried to reach up to the fiery darkness were melting down droplets of steaming sap. Their cacophonous splashed landings echoed loudly, crashing and hardening into shapes reminiscent of trees with a hot hissing so very like the seasonal Autumn winds rustling a cluster of leaves. Their limbs curled and folded around one another's trunks in a loving embrace. Beyond the fallen woods were the sounds of those trees flaking their resin coat from branches to be carried in a hot breeze like leaves in our Autumn.

Fiery leaves. I had to bar my face with my arms -- seeing through the slant between my forearms -- as I braved the conflagration of the ardent winds.

As I watched the black and orange shower transform into a blizzard upon my approach, it burned. A flinch, at first, against the boiling hot splashes of sap hitting the tops of my feet and ankles like the heated pot of water on the stove sprinkling down on my exposed skin. Even through my pants, it burned. But it wasn’t until I had entered the blizzard that I knew what it was to be branded. Each burning leaf that grazed me left a whipped welt. Those that stuck to my skin, on my shoulder, chest, stomach, and all across my now tender and sore back, were causing burns. Needles of tingling acute pain shot through me with a simple breeze.

I couldn’t run headlong after Dad anymore. Caution and care were required if I was to survive.

When my bare foot flattened onto the fallen resin, like slush that was much hotter, it was as ash, powdered and now smeared black on the bottom of my sole. Farther and farther I carefully walked -- too aware of the possible dangers around me to run -- in my observant hunt. More curiosities rose and fell from the living earth. All was immolated by the burning heaven. If these oddities somehow survived -- in a sense of not just turning into ashes -- they’d drop, mutilated, and disfigured. Always, they appeared, risen again and against that which prevented their ascent.

Just walking wasn’t enough to keep from the dangers. One step after the other, I felt the ash gradually rise around my feet and ankles. In one step, I plunged face first down into the cooking oven of blackened particles. Coughing and retching, I scrambled to find a solid purchase to get up. Instead of hard ground beneath me was a sinking sensation. Dropping lower and lower,I floundered towards an impending doom to drown in searing hot ash.

Within my jerking sobs, I gulped down the last bit of roasted air before I was swallowed up.

Something grabbed me. I didn’t know if I should have reached out to hold on or to fight it off. Because what was it that had me? It felt like a strong heat, not like the burning brand of the ash or sap, but a comforting one from another’s body. Embraced in this hot hold, we were somehow dragged up together to more solid ground. Coughing and spitting the ash from my mouth wasn’t enough to remove the bland, gritty taste. At least I could breathe.

One look around me showed no sign of my savior. It was as if they were caught up in the wind and flew away. It didn’t matter. I had wasted enough time swimming in the depths of this pit of ash. Dad had to be out here somewhere and I was going to find him!

I had expected to smell smoke. A sense of burning. Instead there was a heady scent that made me dizzy. The longer I inhaled the atmosphere -- and tasted more than smelled the aroma -- the difficulty of my obviously suicidal quest increased. It was as if the very air was trying to breathe its breath into me. Like mouth-to-mouth. Being absolutely plastered in soot and ash with only my open eyes and the smallest rivulets of sweat showing skin, I could barely tell if I was being kissed even if I touched my own lips.

Softly to myself I spoke to find an answer to, "How will we go back with the window shut?" How I wished that me being here were my only worry. I had to find him first. My strangled voice croaked, “What kind of condition is he in?” A future worry that could be set aside until I found Dad. Coming here with purpose was all that mattered and what drove me on. I resumed by clearing my throat with a shouting, "Dad!"

Searching one alien corner had led me to the other foreign side. Unlike the living ground, this was more like concrete and spanned in a way to appear ruined. Blackened like ingrained soot from towering smokestacks on the outside walls of buildings in my industrial hometown. A blistering hot heat wave of glowing dark red pulsed and passed by me. Moments after it had gone, it returned. Approaching closer to the source revealed a galvanic chain that stretched farther than my eyes could see, lit up like a conduit of smoldering crimson-red electric current!

When the resin dropped from the sky to hit the smoldered links, a burst of oily flame dribbled down to disappear into the cracked-crete below. Much like how weeds grew from the divided sidewalks and fissures in the streets, so they did here. They radiating a contrasting scorcher against the hot air. Each of their blossoming and bleeding heads raised and faced me. With extreme caution to avoid them with my feet, I followed the chain.

Turning from the chain, I caught on that this was one of two chains. Far from me was another that traveled parallel across this vast broken expanse of concrete. I was walking a lane. "To where?" Looking ahead of me provided no answer. Whatever lay beyond here was still too far for me to observe from a distance. "Only one way to find out." 

I kept moving...

Adrenaline from all the pain I was in, loss of my dad, this alien world, and no way back were all wearing me thin. My mouth was devoid of refreshing moisture. I was tired. It was impossible to keep track of time here.

Tilting my head with a nod, I laughed out with, "I could start counting?" Shaking my head, I knew that would distract me from my questing after Dad.

Descending my spine was a tingling brush. There was now a cleaned path through the caked ash on my back.

Whirling around and walking backwards, in a frantic panic I searched for what had touched me.

Subtly beneath the line of my jaw was a sensation of someone’s palm coming up to cup and pull me to face away from my search for a split moment. I raised my fingertips to the caress and felt my dirty prints touch the clear exposure on my jaw. I didn’t see it.

In terror, I froze in realization that I couldn't see what was with me. A fearfully cold point in the far corner of my eye and a wet streak down my cheek told me that I was beginning to tear up. Afraid now, I knew I couldn't move until I knew what was accompanying me.

I took a moment to recover my voice. I tried to be calm as I croaked, "Who--" Swallowing, I tried again: "Who's there."

Past the chain to my right was movement. Not splashing of resin trees or rolling hills of living earth, but something else. I patiently watched until I caught and spotted the flickering and blurry motions of living things. They didn't come onto the concrete lane -- like the chain was a border to a ranch -- leaving me to wander for so long unmolested. Until now --

--and again. This time it stroked around my right hip to grab and pull me away from fully facing the one chain. I stared ahead in the direction it had me face. Over my shoulder blades was a sinking warmth in my flesh and bones. It was behind me. My eyes shifted to their extreme right, but I dared not turn around or look over my shoulder at what it might be.

Gradually I progressively felt the incredible slow ascension of glowing and growing warmth in its touch going up and over my shoulders. Like being embraced from behind, it crossed over to pass my neck and down my throat in a relaxed lean on my naked shoulders. A form pressed fully upon my bare back. It was familiar. I remembered it from when I was saved from the piling ashes I’d deeply sunk into and nearly suffocated in. Hopefully that thing on my back wasn’t harboring any ill will, unlike the rest of this inhospitable world had been so far.

Shutting my eyelids tightly, I reprimanded myself in thought as to why I was here; I took a Leap of Faith by stepping forward to pull away from it.

I was still held, but I could continue to walk. There was no weight burdening me. Only that warmth and press of something very alive around me. Our burning skin touched. A powerful heart drummed through the caress of its breast against my back. Strong and heady was the scent breathed against my cheek, as if it were poised uncertainly with its lips by mine in readied undetermined passion.

Whatever was wrapped around me made no move nor showed any intent of harming or hindering me and my search...

How long had I been walking was uncertain.

A strong headache had been thundering in my skull for awhile. Each time I took a step was a struggle -- not because of how tired my limbs were, but because my eyes would blink shut and I would trip myself awake a few seconds later in a stumble.

Looking up at the fiery black sky, I wondered, 'Would it be safe for me to rest here?'

I stopped and stood stiff when the warmth of what hugged me laid a tender patch of heat beside my cheek. It was moving just there. Nuzzling into me with a lover's affection by planting little pecks of its scented kiss over what of my face it could reach from behind me. My breathing came fast, deep, and hard as I tried to keep standing upright.

I croaked, “Enjoying your piggyback ride?” Blinking rapidly, I tried to keep sight of this world as I was close to drifting back into the slumbering darkness. "Keep moving." The kisses grew insistent as I said those words. One naked and sooty foot raised from the concrete and stepped down--

--to not move again. Warmth and flesh viced around my legs. A hotly intoxicating full body was pressing upon my back to be laid down. Carefully, I leaned and then knelt down on one knee as the form of what held me shifted. It snuggled up against my side to force me down on the ground. Under my bare shoulder and hip, I finally laid down to rest. I struggled to keep my head up -- nodding in and out of sleep -- until the warming companion on me had tugged at my cheeks to face slightly up.

My mind was blown by the stirring kiss and the potent breath of the invisible thing. Those hands on my cheeks had let go as I could no longer keep fighting to stay up, awake, or resisting. I could feel the breath of fire pouring down my throat as this thing delved its licking flame around the inside of my mouth. 

In the arms of my invisible companion, I slept. It folded over me to protectively blanket me, in a heated buffer from the unnatural elements of this world...

Light hit me in the face. Peeking from slitted eyelids, I saw the copper sunlight coming through the curtains. I turned to face away from it, but decided on grabbing the blanket to pull over my head. Moving hurt. I had burns all over and across my ashen body.

Snapping my eyes wide open, I bolted upright out of bed in a leap and ran out into the hallway. Hurriedly stumbling in a run to my dad's room -- shaking off the blinding blackout experience from getting up too quickly -- I slammed to a halt against the open door frame.

Red. Sunlight pouring into the room displayed -- unquestionably -- not a single spot he hadn’t covered with red. 

"Dad?" Searching around inside his room proved fruitless. I could've figured he wasn't here by standing at the doorway with no need to enter.

In a jiffy, I grabbed the phone off of his nightstand and began dialing. "Pick-up, pick-up, pick-up," I chanted as if it would summon his voice. Somewhere on the floor was the sound of his cell phone buzzing. I watched it vibrating in a crawl out from under his bed.

Gradually curling my lips to bare my teeth down at this awful red floor, my breathing coming out in ferociously hissed sobs, I struggled to quietly keep myself from crying in futility...

mrsimple

Thank ya for reading thus far! :D

Let me know what you all thought and give me a buzz if you have any suggestions on how to make this story even better. I'm all ears... er, I mean, eyes. XD