Monday Morning Flash Fiction Challenge, Week 22..... The Friday Post

Well, it's Friday morning, and I feel like crap! I'm sick again, and it's not FAIR (I say as I stomp my foot). It seems like I just got over this crap, and it's back again...

So, this is going to be a short post...

My response to this week's gorgeous prompt chosen by Amy!  This is the third part I've written to this story, if you'd like to read the first and second parts, click here (pt.1) and here (pt.2).  If I weave these into a book, there is much blending and editing that will have to be done, there's pieces of the story still to be fleshed out.  But, it's a taste of what might come....

Soul Fire, Part 3

by: Dottie Taylor

word count: 740

Reena slipped into sleep and became aware of the mist surrounding her. Slowly, she made her way across the courtyard to find stairs. Dreams were so odd, she thought as she floated through this one.

Glancing down, she found a foreign looking hillside, strange flowers poked their heads above the rolling fog. She reached down and brushed her hand along them, it tingled as the flowers sighed in response.

“Where am I?” Reena wondered, she didn't know if she spoke aloud, how did it work during dreams?

Though, she couldn't hear an answer to question, she felt another presence enter her dream. She shuddered, a cold breeze squeezed up tight to her body, caressing her, time froze as quickly as her body. Chill flesh seized her with fingers of icy dread.

Wanting to leave this place where she now felt trapped, she pulled away from the breeze, wondering how long she'd been held in it's embrace?

Reena rushed down the steps, gazing back over her shoulder. An arched bridge waited for her, and to the right, more stairs leading up to a multitude of doorways. She crossed the bridge, staring down into the water where the petals of the flowers looked back up at her, winking in and out of the water, some speeding by and others coming to rest to peer at her. As she watched, her heart beat faster. One of the flowers yawned back at her, revealing a row of vicious teeth.

“Who's there?” She called as the breezed swept by, grasping ahold of her, lifting her brash hair away from her pale face, leaving her dizzying, washed out further.

Reena stopped, she thought she heard something, she concentrated hard, and at last, the voice broke through to her thoughts.

“Reena, run, it's coming..!!” It shouted to her, and she realized she knew this voice. It was the voice of that detective, the murder that happened near the high school. Abruptly, it screamed inside her skull, “RUN!!!”

She put her hands up to her ears, trying to silence the scream, her heart pounding out a staccato beat. Again she yelled into the growing mist as she began to move, “Where am I?!?” But this time, someone else answered, calling her to the doorways.

“Reena, hurry, the mist grows stronger, fuller. Look around, it's thicker now. It grows stronger as it absorbs your Ki, you must hurry!”

“Who's there?!?” Reena barreled toward the voice, hoping she was rushing to her savior, not her destroyer.

“Think Reena, who am I?” He fought to rasp out as if he was physically pulling her to him, “You know me, but you've forgotten. We've known each other for so long.” A wistful longing filled his voice.

“Petrov?” Reena called, she'd only met him the night before, Brea's new boyfriend.

“Hurry Reena!!” His voice grew frantic, “Hurry, it's coming!”

Suddenly, Reena was running as fast as her feet could carry her up the slippery steps. She came to the top and in one of the doorways, Petrov stood in his own ghostly state, motioning her to him.

Without thinking, she raced to the safety of his arms as her heart pounded out her fear. She really didn't know Petrov, but he felt familiar, like she'd known him before. Then she wondered, before what? It was the same strange feeling of familiarity that surged through her in her parents living room.

Petrov pulled Reena hard against his body, folding her in his arms, hiding her as the cold breeze once again reached out for her, and this time, she shivered, not from the cold, but from the anger she could feel boiling inside the breeze that became a bristling wind seeking her, demanding she be returned, and she found herself almost willing to let it take her, she wanted to appease the demand.

As she made to leave Petrov's arms, he pulled her fiercely back, growling out, “Not this time!” He placed his body between the pull of the wind and Reena's. “She'll never be yours again!”

Next, an obscene laughter filled Reena's ears. What was happening to her?

Petrov spun around, brandishing a small ankh, and the wind howled, furiously leaving them.

Quickly, he turned, “Reena, please wake up!” He shook her, harder and harder, her head snapping back and forth as Petrov grew more agitated. “You must wake before it returns!”



Ok, posted, now going to go lie down, but don't worry as soon as the drugs kick in, I'll be by to check out your post! Beware of comments that don't make any sense!

And remember to join us again on Monday (when I'm sure I'll feel better...)

Ciao!