I was a pony with the attitude of ‘get stuff done’. I liked being practical where I could but I didn’t think that I was anything special; nothing close to front page fame. I was an average filly, same height as everypony and same ability. But the difference was that I hadn’t got my cutie mark. Everypony in my class had one; I was always called a blank-flank for my lack of a mark. Oh the humiliation of my younger years. Even so, what they lacked was general mental capacity. I was smart for my age and did well in my tests, the typical star student who was always talked about behind my back.
I had spoken English and German fluently by the age of six. My mother had been to a place called England many times before and taught me how to speak the language. But I lived far away from the well-known places like Equestria. I lived in a country called Germany or ‘Deutschland’ if you will. Only, we were living in very difficult times. Word came out that we were at war with some other country called Hoofsia. They had things called Nuclear Bombs. We were taught in school of the dangers of these weapons and what to do if one ever found themselves under attack from any of them, but I quickly deduced that if one ever struck, I was fucked.
I wanted to be an electrician in my later life. Whether it was subconscious, personal preference or the fact that my name was Static Charge I’ll never know. I think names play a small part in our persona. I never really got to test with wires so I had to learn from books. Unfortunately, in my youth, I had a very short attention span when it came to reading, so my mind was always drifting in and out of fantasies beyond possibility.
Anyway, it was when I was thirteen that my life was forever altered. I was walking home after school, through the many streets of Flankfurt, and spotted a bunch of unconnected cables, sparking and flailing around like the arms of a deranged squid. They were frayed and spread across the pavement. I saw them and instantly thought how great an opportunity this would be for practice, though my other motive was that it could hurt somepony, and I certainly couldn’t be having that on my conscience.
I instantly got to work at the wires, setting aside all distractions. I started putting them into order of colour or size, my mind frantically at work. Then I tried connecting them to see if they would work. Checking whether a wire was blue to signify it being neutral, and then find all the brown, black and grey wires.
Everything seemed to stop. My vision blurred as I saw my hoof had touched a high voltage cable. I then was shocked backwards and my vision had become darkness. I felt a surge of pain circulate my body, followed by burning and stinging, then nothing. I had hardly let out a scream.
I woke up on a hospital bed. As the light glared into my hazy eyes I winced and tried to turn my head to the side. It was met by pain, and then the soft feel of a hoof against my cheek. I liked the feeling, so I stayed in that position. The pain was starting to ease off and as it did so, I regained my vision and general ability to possess various senses.
When I looked to try and see my family standing by my bed, I did not see them. It was in fact, a young unicorn. He stood with a reassuring smile. I didn’t even know his name but yet I still felt a strange feeling of attraction towards him in almost a brother/sister sensation. I tried to speak but all that emerged from my mouth was a quiet groan. He laughed quietly and stroked my messy mane. I desperately wanted to ask what his name was, this colt that was standing by me.
When I was finally able to create legible words, I asked what I had been wishing to say for what seemed an age. “What is your name?”
The blue colt spoke quietly and soothingly, “My name is Osiridium, I found you on the floor outside the chemistry laboratory. You had some very severe burns. I’m surprised you made it!”
At this, I smiled and quietly said, “Thank you.” Then a nurse came in and broke the connection between us. Osiridium was rushed from the room as the nurse levitated some food onto my chest. I reached my hoof out and rolled onto my back, but it was only then that I realised how hungry I was. I ate fast, almost as if the meal would be taken from me. The food didn’t quite taste as I would have preferred, certainly not Michelin star standard but what would you expect, it was hospital food. Even so, I relished every single bite until the plate was completely clean bar some leaves that I had found particularly disgusting. The plate was then taken from me, and I was alone in the bedroom once more, waiting for company.
While in hospital, I thought a lot in my white clad bed, about questions like, ‘why haven’t my family come to see me?’ or, ‘why do all the nurses look so tired?’ and most recently, ‘where in the hoof is that terrible draft coming from?’ I pondered these questions silently while I sat alone in the room that smelled like antiseptic. Osiridium would see me every day of the week; I had changed my view of him and was proud to call him a friend now that I knew him better. He would tell me stories of his experiments in chemistry and how he had been quite handy when he was working. But as the days went by and there was no sign of any doctor or nurse, I started to get very suspicious. Something was tipping me off that something had happened and I was being kept from the truth. Osiridium was progressively getting more nervous with every visit.
In accordance to these strange happenings, I decided to explore. After all, my burns were healing surprisingly well considering the lack of medical attention. They had diminished just enough so that I could move my position unhindered. So I sat up on the edge of the bed and thought that if I lay there then I would be waiting forever for something to happen, henceforth wishing my short life away. So I stood up from the bed, and instantly collapsed. I guess I hadn’t thought about how my legs hadn’t had any exercise since the electrocution, which was a shame.
After many attempts to right myself and find my centre of gravity once more, I completed my task and tried walking. It was tough at first as each step was met by creaks and joint pains in my legs, causing me to stumble around a bit. But after walking out of the room, I paced down a corridor which was unlit; surprising for a hospital. And as I wandered around the many maze-like corridors, I noticed that there was absolutely no pony there. How peculiar.
When I reached a window, the sight was almost too much to bear. Houses, towers and schools, reduced completely to rubble. Just centimetres off the ground stood a slight haze; what had caused this? Was there some sort of invasion, leaving the city in ruins that I had not been aware of, or was it something bigger. I thought for only a second, and then a bomb dropped with a dull ‘boom’, leaving the signature mushroom shaped cloud, which I only knew belonged to one thing; the Nuclear Bomb.
***
‘What a bloody nightmare’ I thought to myself as I snuck around the backstreets of the ruined city. Everything was hectic, police stood around the fenced off area, keeping the media away, well, what was left of the media: a few ponies with notepads and a mare with no hair who asked questions. I had had to sneakily walk around dark alleyways, sticking to the darkest parts. At least the cloud cover had meant that the moon was unable to illuminate me, revealing my position and getting me arrested for the possession of a Balisong knife and a loaded, heavy firearm.
Just my luck that this place had law enforcement, I had to break my friend out of prison, as a way of repaying him for helping me eight years prior. The police here were too judgemental. From what I had heard they locked up Osiridium for being near the scene of a murder. It had also been said that he was in possession of stolen items; I wasn’t sure what that was about. Anyway, I ended up at the back of the prison unscathed. Now that I was there, I had to find a way in. There were no windows on the wall; nor were there doors or any other methods of entrance. Well, that sucked. I had to go in through the front (just typical that that would happen). Then I had to sneak past all the guards and other prisoners without raising any alarms which shouldn’t be too difficult considering my practice of stealth. I had to remain a small target while I rounded the corners to the entrance of the jail. The doors were made of glass, though they were smashed or damaged. A white stallion was sitting at the reception desk and twirled a pencil in the air with his magic; his horn was surrounded by a bright blue aura. I hopped quickly through the glass door and slunk behind a plant pot. The pony at the desk looked up to see what had made the noise but did not see anything. I used this to my advantage, to hop silently behind him. His keys were in plain sight, a row of stainless steel blocks with numbers signifying cell numbers. I used my horn to grab the keys and create a spell to freeze the keys in place on the ring.
After managing to sneak through the main area, I snuck into a corridor. This was where the entire atmosphere changed. Hundreds of cells, all lined up in rows, many contain ponies. As soon as I walked in with the keys, every single prisoner reached their hooves out and shouted at me to open their doors. I panicked as I knew the receptionist would hear and find me. I ran forward, checking everywhere to find Osiridium.
I eventually found him in a cell at the back of the corridor. He was sat on the sheet-less bed and was looking at the ground.
“Hey, Hey Osiridium,” I called. He looked up surprised at the sound of my voice. He smiled and ran towards the bars. He then threw a hug about my neck with his front hooves between the bars.
“Thank you so much,” he whispered.
“HEY!” shouted a deep, masculine voice. I turned to see the receptionist running towards me, so I quickly un-froze the keys and found the key that was labelled ‘399’. I then inserted the key into the lock to open the door. Osiridium jumped out and ran in front of me. He was defending me. The white stallion jumped towards us with his hooves outstretched, and just at that moment, Osiridium brought a strong hoof towards the stallion’s temple. It came into contact at an angle. The pony was thrown to the floor to the left and slid over the tiled floor. His eyes were clenched shut in pain and his legs writhed on the floor. We then ran out of the room, closing the door behind us.
“Thanks very much,” said Osiridium.
“Don’t mention it!” I replied enthusiastically as we sprinted out of the main entranceway. “That was some punch!”
“Well, it was you I was saving; after all, we are friends.”
“Fair point.”
“Anyway, I say again, thanks for bailing me out.”
“Yeah, bloody guard was a fool, couldn’t hear a thing I was doing!”
We silently wandered the streets, sticking to the shadows where we could not be seen. We didn’t talk much for a while; we were mainly just trying to be unseen and unheard and spare both of us a sentence in Jail. The excitement of the moment was still resounding through my body. My blood circulated at a rapid rate and the adrenaline rush had not worn off. I was excited but managed to contain it as I had done before. Osiridium too seemed to be coping well with the situation, being surprisingly quiet for a twenty-three year old stallion.
We rounded a building corner to come to an empty square in the town. No-pony was present so we stood upright and started to walk normally. I looked at Osiridium’s cutie mark, situated on his flank. I recalled that he had earned it at the age of eleven. It depicted a clear conical flask with some sort of blue liquid contained in it. I had no idea what the blue substance was; I never really got into chemistry, or any other science apart from physics, mainly because it contained the electronic circuits topic. Anyway, I stopped staring at Osiridium’s flank and set my attention to mine; 21 and still a blank flank. 21! And still a fucking blank flank.
While I was preoccupied, Osiridium was cautiously walking through side streets and I was mindlessly following him. I knocked into him when he abruptly stopped. I was awoken from my daydream and brought back to my senses. He shushed me before returning his gaze down the street. I looked where his head was turned and saw a group of police-mares patrolling the street we had turned onto. Osiridium started slowly pacing backwards until he was behind a corner and I was soon to follow. We flattened ourselves against the wall, in the darkness luckily, and waited for the officers to stroll past.
They were gone for no longer that a second and we were on the move again. We trotted down where the police-mares had been. I kept carefully checking behind me in case we were being followed. I couldn’t be sure but I thought I saw a character silhouetted against a lamp post with my adept eyesight. I turned my eyes forward but the temptation to look back was too much to bear. I turned, but this time, saw nothing where there was something before, or at least I thought there was.
I put the thought out of my head as Osiridium and I walked further, closer to the outskirts where we could fully lose the police and finally leave this shithole of a town. As I was thinking about this, I noticed that the sky was getting ever so slightly brighter. Great, we couldn’t trick the police in daylight. But, as was expected eventually, the sun peeked up over the horizon, flooding the streets in a warm orange glow.
As the houses began to thin, we realised how far we’d walked. From the centre to the outskirts took us a few hours; that was quite a large town in my opinion, more like a small city. The last few houses were in sight soon though, and the sensation of freedom and the light breeze on my back made me feel fantastic. I was almost through with this place.
As we crossed the line that separated the town from the wasteland, I laughed. What an adventure I had just experienced. “Jesus Christ,” I said clearly. “Jesus bloody Christ.”
We walked into the wasteland casually, as the conundrums of the night before were beginning to vacate our recent memories. When in the dangerous environment of the wasteland, one must only dwell on the most significant things. As to replicate this, in the back of my mind, I had the memory of the mysterious figure silhouetted in the flickering glow of a faulty street light. My heart rate was average, my breath was slowed and I was overall intact, and that was what mattered most. The only problem I found was the feeling of fatigue seeing as I had been awake all night and the adrenaline rush of escaping the city unscathed was dissipating, and I knew that Osiridium was experiencing a similar feeling; also, having a heavy rifle (an ‘L115 A3’ that I stole from a military barracks) was not helping my situation, being cumbersome and uncomfortable on my back. But having been in a hellhole for eight years of my life allowed me to adapt and forget the insignificant details of my life.
The wasteland can do horrible things to a pony’s thought processes: how they act and how well their brain works. It is a vicious and relentless place of despair and misfortune, the home of all sorrow. I knew ponies that had killed themselves soon after realising their fate. It was disturbing to see, knowing that I shared their pain. Sometimes I felt completely empty inside, a sadness that was hard to forget, following the loss of my home, friends and family.
I was suddenly brought to my senses by Osiridium, who stopped my daydreaming abruptly.
“What do you think of that?!” He said, holding his hoof out in front of me pointing towards the horizon. There was a grey, jagged outline, sitting on the bleak backdrop greeting all those who noticed it. I felt my jaw drop slightly with the sight of it. At my best guess, I estimated that it was about twelve miles away at least.”
“Well, I guess we had better be going.” I said to him.
“Indubitably,” he replied.
I start walking, galloping down the side of the hill, slowly because of my heavy equipment. I heard him laugh, and then hooves running down towards me. When he ended up beside me, I ran faster, inviting a race.
About one mile in we stop, gasping for breath. We sat down on a clump of rocks to regain our breath, and when I did, I asked Osiridium a question.
“I’ve always wondered, what are in those saddlebags of yours? You never really told me since you stole that stuff in whatever the hell that city was called.”
“Have I really never told you?” He asked.
“No I don’t believe you have.”
“Well then, let’s see. We have: bread, water, morphine injections, bandages, a Heckler and Kolt USP, sun lotion, toothbrush and toothpaste and deodorant. You know that kind of stuff.”
“I haven’t seen you use that pistol.”
“You won’t have, I stole it from bloody City de Crap back there.”
I giggled at the name that he dubbed the city.
“Do you even know how to use it?”
“I’ve fired pistols before.”
“How many times?”
“Admittedly, only twice. But, I was a good-ish shot.”
“Good-ish?”
“Yeah.”
“Right.”
We started walking only seconds later, making good progress. We chatted for a while but inevitably fell into an awkward silence. After two hours, we had made about 5 miles. The sun was at its midpoint in the sky and was beginning to burn us with its UV magic. There are hardly ever any clouds any more as most of the weather ponies died in the war or the bombings. Occasionally we saw a sliver of cloud but it was usually because of natural processes. We never really had many weather ponies in Germany. Most of the time the weather took care of itself and we did nothing about it, braving the wind and the rain.
Another four or five hours later, the sun was shining on our backs. We ran into the city through a dirty, stony track that wound round into a large forest, but all the trees were dead and grey. The dreary, painted landscape made us feel depressed inside without the help of the sky having a dull tint. Upon walking further, we came to the very outskirts of the city. We skirted the sides of buildings until we found a way into the area, through a side street that led us past smashed glass. My eyes were always on the lookout for supplies whereas his he scanning the torn walls for survivors. He walked in front of me, and illuminated dark spots with his magic.
“See anything?” he called back to me.
“Nope, only rubble,” I replied. “What about you?”
“Nothing! Fucking hell this place is massive!”
We rounded a corner into a park. There was a rusty, broken swing-set that creaked eerily in the breeze. I had remembered what they had looked like from when I was young, until the bombs struck. I caught up with Osiridium, making sure not to branch too far off, especially as night was beginning to fall. I noticed the large ‘L’ shaped building on one of the corners of the park, maybe a school.
“You think we could take shelter over there tonight?” I pointed my front, right hoof at the place.
He came back to senses as I said this, breaking concentration for long enough to see where I was pointing and listen.
“I guess.”
“Looks like a school to me or something like that.”
“I agree but it looks quite scary though. Derelict as fuck! ”
He went into silence at that, his pupils dilated in anticipation of the thorough searching of property that was most likely about to ensue. After worrying for a few seconds, he dropped his head to look for any sign of life. He had great eyesight, which made him perfect for spotting, though he couldn’t look for ponies and other random shit at one time. I had to find the useful stuff.
We reached the building in around two minutes after crossing a court with curved triangular plots of land with an abundance of dead and lifeless trees. To neither of our surprise, we were met by no resistance. Osiridium pushed against the door. It was stiff at first but then proceeded to fall right off its hinges, creating a magnificent cacophony, echoing into the darkness. I looked at him as we both illuminated our horns. Even in the light produced by both of our magic I tripped on what felt like metal. I thumped onto the decaying wooden floorboards and looked back, shining my light on the large, unknown object that fell awkwardly in my path. Osiridium instantly came to my aid. He grabbed my hoof and pulled me from my sitting position to witness the criminal of my mishap. It was a chain, and a big one at that. It was connected to a wall by a massive hook that seemed to be so overcome by rust that it could well have not been there at all with the amount of corrosion it seemed to have been through. I walked to it and flicked it with my hoof, very lightly. My prediction was correct and it cracked like glass but with the consistency of sand. I heard a devilishly loud crack from right above my head. I yelped in terror and faced my head up to the ceiling, only to see a termite ridden support beam hurtle towards my face.
That was the last thing I remembered before blacking out. I woke up with a barrel aimed at my temple and a knife to my throat and a thumping headache. I saw blood dribbling down my eyelids. Even so, memories came back to me gradually. I saw my sniper rifle and balisong knife leaning against the wall. I felt sweaty and nervous, wondering if this was to be my final day. Was I going to die and never see the end of this terrible and torturous time? I had no idea who was holding me hostage, but whoever it was, I had the impression that they were not going to be willing to set me free on request. I was going to have to use my wits to get out of this predicament. Trying to speak was a mistake; my mouth was filled with a cloth covered in some liquid substance of which I had no idea of its origin. It tasted bitter and inhalation made me feel drowsy. My eyes fluttered as I fought not to fall asleep. My instincts said that my captors were not happy with me falling asleep during their moment of triumph after managing to capture me. All four of my hooves were tied together with a rope that felt as uncomfortable as razor wire. After calming my senses, I began to assess my chances of escape:
Assuming that the gun was loaded, if I attempt to escape then I would be shot down instantly. Also, the knife to my throat did not help as I could not bring my hooves to bear to remove its pressure.
And then I heard something that made my fur stand on end. There was a heavy breathing that occurred just centimetres from my left ear. It made my heart skip, and then beat at double time. The breathing continued. Each breath was rasping, like the creature’s lungs were denying the entry of air. But then, things got even worse. It started counting, “5,” and then a breath, “4”, and then a cough, “3” and then a rasp, “2”, “1”. And then there was silence.
BANG!
I screamed so loudly through my gag that I could have deafened people intercontinentally. My ears were ringing, almost making me think that I was dead. But I opened my eyes, and saw that there was no gun barrel to my head, and there was no knife to my throat. In fact, the knife lay placidly in my lap. I gasped for air but the first shot was followed by a second. At this point my head had flopped down with my chin on my chest. There were no more following shots. I groaned in pain as my eardrums pounded and blood dribbled down the side of my face. I honestly thought that I was the one who had been shot. A few small tears forced their way out of my eyes, dropping to the floor.
Soon I felt somepony touch my shoulder. I think they shouted into my ear but no sound was being received. The pony then walked to the other ear and attempted to communicate; nothing. I felt my gag being untied from the back of my head and it soon slipped down to rest upon the knife that still lay across my legs. I took a gulp of air just before I started a coughing fit. Phlegm was ejected from my mouth after each throat burning cough. Saliva drooled out of my mouth and piled up at my hooves to wet the decaying wooden floor. As soon as my hooves had been untied, I knelt down and clutched my skull. The blood was still coming from my ears and stained my orange fur a bright, sickly red. My entire head hurt but the experience was worsened when I opened my eyes and noticed that Osiridium was the one that had freed me, but he had a massive and bloody cut down diagonally across his chest. It was so deep that I was able to see his ribcage and intestines.
As Osiridium fought to hold his organs inside his body, he attempted to communicate with me. He took the knife that had fallen onto the floor when I knelt down and cut a message into the floor. The letters were very jagged and were dabbed with blood but the message was readable and forceful. It said, “GET OUT”. I shook my hoof to show that I had acknowledged the message and crawled my way to the door where I twisted the doorknob. Throwing the door open, I looked back to see Osiridium aiming a pistol out of the rear window. I then proceeded to leave the room, shutting the door behind me. After a struggle to stand up, I walked down the stairs that appeared outside the room that I had previously inhabited. The stairs led to a long corridor with lockers on either side including classrooms at regular intervals. There were cracked floor tiles and some of the polystyrene roof plates had split as they had fallen. The spectacle gave an unnerving sense of Déjà vu. I stumbled around knocking into lockers and walk into a glass door making it smash. I fell through onto the dull and cold concrete sprinkled with shards of reddened glass. I crawled away before standing and running out of the gate that stood to my right. The courtyard was exactly as I remembered it, boring and samey; and as I staggered into the poisonous breeze of the wasteland, I collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily, trying my best not to pass out. Waiting for my companion to emerge was like hell and who knew that hell could get worse. About two minutes in waiting I saw gunshots in the windows and the sound of bodies slamming to the ground. My instinct told me that the shooter was none other than Osiridium but my paranoia was saying otherwise. As I silently contemplated this over my ringing ears, I completely missed what was happening right in front of me. Suddenly, I felt a presence, something eerie that makes the fur on the back of the neck stand on end. I looked up and saw somepony standing no further than three metres from my head. He wore a menacing yet disturbingly relaxed grin and boasted a grey saddlebag and out of the side was what looked like the butt of an assault rifle. It was a metallic silver colour with small patches of dirt and a small blood splatter. His eyes were a bright red and his fur a luminescent green contrasting well with the black scruffy mane and a cutie mark that sent shivers down my spine and bad memories into my head. It was in the shape of bomb with a chemical hazard symbol clearly visible in the centre. As I observed his features, he chuckled quietly. As he did, he revealed a rack of teeth as sharp as spears that were made even worse due to the sickening yellow tint that they possessed. He took one step in my direction, followed by another, soon proceeding to circle around me. The stallion observed every part of my back. Once finished he walked closer until he was literally right next to me. Tucking his hoof under my body, he reached back and kicked me over onto my back, taking the breath from my lungs. I coughed as he continued to examine every curve of my physical structure. Taking a wild guess, he was probably looking for any weaknesses that I may possess. Suddenly realising that I could hear, I rubbed my ears to clean them and must have looked like a dumb zoo animal.
“Ha, you’re quite a funny feller aren’t ya? So, your name is?” the pony asked. His voice had a slight rasp to it and I could have sworn that I heard the grinding of metal as well.
“What’s it to you?” I replied as threateningly as possible through my gasping for air.
“Oh I was only trying to be civil.”
“What do you want?”
“Same question.”
“What relevance does that have? You were the one who talked to me.”
“Alright, no need to be hostile!”
“Says the pony that fucking kicked me not one minute ago,”
“Such language.”
“Cut to the chase already!”
“Alright, seeing as there are no means of being civil towards you I may as well tell you exactly why you caught my eye.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m hungry, and I have no food left. I was hoping you could supply. ‘Shut the fuck up’”
“What?”
“What?”
“You just talked to yourself,”
“Is that so? ‘JUMP OFF A CLIFF’”
“What is going on?”
“GIVE ME FOOD NOW BITCH!”
“No way mate, find your own food.”
“YOU WILL GIVE ME YOUR FLESH YOU MEAT HOGGING BASTARD!”
“I don’t even eat meat! Ponies are herbivores!”
“Nay this pony!”
“You eat meat? That’s disgusting!”
As soon as these words left my mouth he pounced and gnashed his teeth in front of my face. I held him back with my front hooves. I took a painful right hook to the face which made me drop my hooves. The stallion fell to land with his head on my tummy. I rolled out of the way quickly and reached around for my balisong knife. The thought didn’t hit me that I had left the knife in the room that I was captured in. I cursed and staggered to a standing position. I felt a hoof grab my back leg and sharp teeth sink into my limb. The pain was phenomenal and made greater when I ripped away my leg leaving deep, pulsating gashes running from the top of my thigh to my hoof. Blood spat out of it, staining my leg fur and the grey dirt. The stallion leapt again and wrapped his front legs about my neck pressurising my windpipe. I groped at his hooves in an attempt to try and prevent my asphyxiation. Panic was beginning to set in, my back legs kicked about and my tail flicked against the back of my legs. I saw my vision blur in addition to a lethargic feeling that began to flow about my blood. My strength was waning as well as my consciousness. I heard a muffled shout in my right ear that reverberated about in my head. The feeling of death’s hooves on my shoulders was lifted and I slumped down on my back. Turning towards the direction of the scream, I saw the dreadful sight of a green stallion lying with a fuzzy silvery coloured item protruding from what looked like his stomach.
The future couple of hours were a mystery. I had blacked out soon after being released, mainly from shock and suffocation. I awoke in a tunnel; it was made of burgundy brickwork and a cold, dank feeling that pooled around my hooves. I caught sight of a glint of light, it looked quite far away. I started walking towards it. It was then I noticed that I couldn’t hear anything nor smell anything. I started to feel nauseous, causing me to have to lean against the wall. Out of curiosity I turned to see what was behind me, and what I did see was a large expanse of darkness. A rush of air flew past me, brushing my hair down the corridor. The wind stopped, leaving me shivering, it was the kind of wind that got in your bones and left you cold for a while. A quizzical look came over my face as I found myself bewildered about the whole situation.
I decided to turn back and continue walking toward the light. It hardly seemed to get closer. By about five minutes, I felt a wave of exhaustion. My head drooped and I collapsed on the floor, followed instantly by a falling sensation. I opened my eyes and saw a fireball, as big as a mountain, and I was falling into it. It felt like I was being wafted by paper as the flames curled about my body. There was no heat and no pain, although I did feel quite terrified about the whole ordeal. Plunging down, I looked around me and realised my horrible error. All around me were dead bodies. I felt a tear prick in the side of my eye. I pointed my head forward, screaming at the images brought before me. The dead and burning faces of my parents remained emotionless. A few tears came out of my eyes and flew upwards when I saw my brother and sister falling by the sides of my parents.
“You left us for dead Miss Charge!” said my father in a demonic tone, blood starting to drip from his eye sockets. “You couldn’t resist fixing that electricity!”
“No. You don’t understand!” I pleaded in return.
“I understand perfectly well. And that coltfriend of yours is a retched piece of work, no etiquette!”
“STOP SAYING THAT!”
“WHY SHOULD YOU LIVE?”
“STOP,”
“YOU DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE!”
“STOP IT NOW!”
“DIE!”
“NO”
“DIE!”
“NO”
“DIE!”
“STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!”
The wind rushed through my mane like a hair dryer. No more did I see the horrific visions of my dead family, by this point I was crying by the gallon. I had left the fireball. The earth hurtled towards me, getting closer and closer at a rapid speed.
“Please let this kill me.” I whispered.