The world flew by in a blur of twisted colors, desert sands tarnished by the footprints he left behind. His breath ricocheted through his lungs with each swallow of dusty air, but he refused to let himself stop running. There was too much to run from.

Maddox let his feet pound on the sand-strewn road. He thought he could see something on the horizon; a building, a car, or maybe it was just wishful thinking that he could be lucky enough to find some kind of safe haven. Regardless, he pushed towards his faint glimmer of hope with the notebook clutched tightly against his chest.

"Gotcha!" Maddox screamed as he was flung forward, the notebook tumbling from his hands. Desert dust stung his eyes while the pavement struck his cheek. A hand wrapped around his wrist and pulled him backward.

"Stop it!" Maddox screamed. His eyes filled with tears as he tried to pull his arm away. "It's not my fault!".

"It doesn't matter if it's your fault." The man scowled, and just from the corner of his eye, Maddox could see the his aged wrinkles that strained his demonic smile. "You still did it, and now it's my job to fix that."

"This doesn't fix anything!" Maddox screamed again. His voice felt exhausted from the yelling and his whole body shook from the short sprint, but he still found the energy pull away. He had worked too hard to let his escape end here. Maddox wrapped his hand tightly around the man's arm, desperate to destroy his grasp.

"You're right, running won't fix anything." The man's grin spread across his face, which only made Maddox tremble, his fight slowly fading away as the terror set in. "Now let's go. You've wasted enough time as it is."

Maddox closed his eyes and tried to focused on his ragged breathing and the falling sensation inside his stomach. He knew that his flaw was unpredictable, dangerous, and destructive, but he didn't have much more of a choice. Concentrating on all of hist terror, Maddox forced the feeling to pulse through his veins.

When he opened his eyes again, Maddox was drowning in flames. The man jumped back as he let the fire dance harmlessly over his skin, and Maddox wasted no time in jumping to his feet. The smoke that should have burned his lungs only tickled his throat as the fire jumped off him in great leaps like solar flares.

It was such a familiar feeling to let himself burn in the fires he lit. The flames never hurt, but only sent a warm tingling sensation across his skin. Still, he couldn't dwell in the familiarity of the fire.

With flames still dancing up and down his arms, Maddox snatched up his notebook and bolted, not even bothering to look behind him as the man screamed.