The road rumbled beneath my feet. Parthenia was just as unstable with all that trembling in my arms, and upon realising she was holding me recoiled in disgust.

'Don't touch me!' she threw her scarf at me as if it were a live snake she'd hoped would spit its venom. Her sneer and the worry lines in her brow were so jarringly different to the dewy-dopey-darling pictures she had on Favebook.

Parthenia Georgiou who was all over Zan in that post. A bright and smiling girl who was every traditional parent's wet dream. That post was one of the few that was public to those off her friend list...

It was enough to make an impact. To force that chocolate syrup bottle in one hand—with a bowl of vegan hazelnut ice cream in the other. You know that good expensive case that was organic and had fancy ethical sources of ingredients.

That night was nothing now.

The miseries of a week ago were nothing compared to the despair engulfing me now.

The only dewy glow she had was the red-hot light from the horizon catching the drips of sweat down her temple. The large lush trees made all kinds of dark shapes on her face contorting her fear-riddled face in a similar hollow way to Matisse's.

Crack.

I yelped and held back from hugging her again though I felt incredibly volatile, like the concrete was merely the skin containing rippling muscles of something too colossal to comprehend. Like something living was writhing right beneath my bare feet.

I don't know how much I can take before my heart stops.

I wish it would.

A spear of scarlet split through the road. Steam poured up my legs in a hot fury and I leapt away nearly tumbling on my arse as the trail of the dress wrapped my foot. I caught myself upright and squealed like a live-cooked pig.

The air was thick with heat that enclosed you in your sweat but at least the cracks hadn't spread too far or broken into a gorge.

It was more than a threat—a promise of completely giving away and swallowing us whole.

'Do you hear that?' I said.

'Yes...' Parthenia sounded like she really wished didn't.

The bell of a tram rang hectically close by. People were gushing around the end of the street all screaming in terror as the tram barrelled after them. It sped too fast around the bend and derailed. I thought for a second that whatever was driving it was trying to ram through people like a raging bull.

Then the blazing beasts came and crashed purposefully into the middle carriage driving it to flip on its side. The morbid interest to get a better look at the creatures nearly consumed me but thankfully, the people running at me—therefore tempting the beasts my way woke—me up from that idiotic stupor.

I took Parthenia by the wrist, she was paralysed by fear rather than my sullen stupidity and I got us moving with the rest of the crowd of fifty people, already calculating how to get us away from them.

Parthenia was an unfit sack of weight behind me.

'Move faster!'

This boosted her adrenaline and out of spite of being told what to do, Parthenia met my pace, albeit not as gracefully. The road was condensing us to a bridge met with lots of abandoned cars and while Parthenia was trying to rip herself from my grip I forced us to halt and go the opposite direction of the crowd. I followed the rushing sounds of water.

Parthenia still managed to screech through ragged breaths. Zan was going to looove that. 'What are you doing!'

'Water! We need to be in the water!'

I took the stairs just off the road that led us to the bike track along the Yarra River. The river coursed under the bridge unbothered by the events above it. Everyone else had pushed forward for the cars, maybe to use them as buffers between themselves and those fiery monsters.

After seeing the way, they leapt at that tram, there was no way some posh little Audi or a fancy-looking Tesla was going to stop them.

I jumped feet first into the water, the base of my foot hitting hard into blunt rocks I couldn't see. The water rose halfway up my shin and the cool feel of it took a subtle calming effect against the intense wind beating down my back. I felt that everywhere else I was baking.

I bundled up the train of my dress and turned around to find Parthenia paralysed again on the bike path.

'What are you waiting for!' I hissed through gritted teeth. The wake of more screams took the shape of tiny hands shaking every disc in my spine. 'Let's go!'

'I-I—'

'It's not deep. See? They're covered in fire. Remember the sprinklers?' I was throwing out every excuse to get her to rush in, but she stared at the water like it was a death trap.

'I-I-I can—'

A body flew over the bridge and crashed face-first into the water. The very injured man scrambled up onto his limp and started moving upstream. We followed his hunched body and then gazed up at the hellish creature that purred like a crackling bonfire on top of the stairs.

My eyes bulged from their sockets. 'Girl come on!'

This time Parthenia scurried into the water and she embraced me tightly, talons digging into my neck.

Two of the fire-crackling hounds wandered down and lingered on the edge of the shore, fierce gazes honed into our souls and paws hot enough to burn the surrounding native reeds and shrubs to cinders. Neither tried to enter the water.

This offered little relief.

Without a word, we followed the flow of the river and the hellhounds tagged along for the ride.

~ :*: ~

'This is priceless.' I didn't want to think too hard about the squelching feeling of mud between my toes. 'It's the end of the world and I'm stuck with my ex's fiancée. And demon dogs from HELL.' 

I gave a pointed look to the beasts with frightening ruby shards jutting out their upper lips like tusks.

'What if our family is dead?' Parthenia whispered, dimmed eyes watching her feet wade through the water.

'Now, there's no point thinking that way.' Besides, my dad's got a gun in his safe that no one's supposed to know about and my mother would outlive us purely out of spite.

'What other way is there to think?'

'How about it's so hot I want to strip out of this dress?'

'Please don't.' She sniffled. 'Dear Lord, don't let me die like this.'

I didn't want to say that God had abandoned humanity long before the fires of hell started.

'So,' I said. 'What do you do for a living?'

She waved her hands emphatically, like warding off flies. 'I can't do this with you.'

'We've got a lot of kilometres ahead of us. I'm happy to go on in silence.'

'Aren't you more freaked out by this?' She didn't give me a chance to answer. Her hands flew in the air nearly slicing my cheek with her pretty manicured nails. 'Of course, not, because you're the devil's mistress!'

I whipped around like a savage animal. A breath away from her face. 'I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS THE DEVIL!'

Her eyes settled on the hounds that were glued to our every movement. They cocked their heads, not in confusion but in fascination with our anger. With our dread. Did they know that the longing was there? My morbid fascinations? That I was still drawn to their master even this far from his compulsion?

That even with his eyes devoured in abysmal black, the rings of gold made my body shiver...

I smoothed my hair back and muttered an apology before wading through the river. The gust of wind rustled the gumnuts, and the gum trees, and the smell of burning eucalyptus managed to both clear my airways and fog up my lungs.

'I volunteer at the asylum seeker centre,' she said.

'That's lovely,' I said not to be polite, I was genuinely impressed. Not a paying job, as far as I knew. Honourable though. Typical. 'Why are you afraid of the water?'

I didn't expect her to answer. I pictured her ruffling up like an offended chicken. Instead, she grew more solemn.

'I drowned when I was eight years old.'

'Oh.' Another answer I didn't anticipate, but I noted the choice of words. Not nearly drowned. No, it is very different to just drowned. No wonder this woman was so intense. I could picture her being high-strung even outside this nightmare. My hand instinctively flew to cover my heart. 'I'm so sorry.'

'We were at Bondi Beach. I was caught in a current. It was my fault I didn't swim between the flags. My dad had to give me CPR to bring me back.' She started unbuttoning her blouse baring a plain cotton bra underneath and waved her hands at herself. The act would have only blown more hot air at her but I felt the gesture was more about having something to do with her hands. 'I had read Behrouz Boochani's bio-fiction, the refugee who—'

'I know him,' I said gently. '"No Friend but The Mountains". I was at the Greek Centre where we met him through a Skype call. He was still on Manus Island. His story is incredible.' In both the sense of courageous and miserable.

'We must have been there at the same time then,' she said for once not sounding dismayed, only conscientious. 'His story, and others, got me volunteering. I couldn't stop thinking about travelling so far by boat. The many that would have drowned along the way.' Parthenia shook her head. 'Anyway, my fear of water got me invested in helping them.'

'I hate to say this, but that's the coolest thing I've ever heard.'

She scowled, but I knew under the red sky that I made her blush. 'Whatever. It's just volunteering.'

'It's saving people's lives.'

We walked on for another long beat of silence. The crackling fires of the beasts were a constant reminder we were being stalked, and the heavy beating of the river against my legs was an uneasy sense of security.

I sighed. 'Dare I ask how you and Zan met?'

'Our parents planned a meeting. We liked each other instantly.'

'Ah, an arrangement.'

The muscles in her jaw tensed. 'We love each other.'

'I didn't question it.'

'Out loud.' Her chest rose in irritated breaths. 'I understand what you're going through is hard, and Zan should have ended things sooner. The moment he proposed even, but he's a gentle soul that doesn't like to hurt anyone...'

'Hang on, a minute.' There was a lot to process there, and I would have to compartmentalize Zan's "gentle soul" into a file I would pick at later. 'You knew we were still together?'

'I knew he would break it off eventually.' She flipped her hair back. 'He doesn't know I know though.'

Son of a bitch. Was it worth sharing that I had no idea about her until he dumped me a week ago?

'Great start to a happy marriage,' I snapped quietly. A sour taste was forming on my tongue.

Parthenia smacked her hand to my chest and raised a shaky finger to vibrant red light sparkling on the horizon. We slumped in despair at the sight of the city of Melbourne up in flames over the hilltops—a blazing pyre of horror.

I could see imps flying over the Eureka Tower, or something batlike.

In a mute acknowledgement, we spun around and walked against the stream. The hellhounds followed quietly. There was no way to tell but I swear I saw a hint of a grin on their faces. A menacing smirk through their ruby teeth as if we were finally falling for their trap. I avoided their glare, tempted enough to flip them the bird.

Parthenia cleared her throat. 'So, how did you meet Zan?'

'Tinder.'