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FIVE: FIRE ESCAPE

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Darkness.

Darkness is a curious thing.

There is something so unique about the feeling obtained when surrounded by darkness; the feeling of not knowing anything about your surroundings, not being able to see if there is any danger lurking around you; not being able to see the colours of things as they appear, but as they truly are. The same thing goes for humans; often are we fooled by the façade put on by humanity; the mask it wears to cover up the truth, to mislead you and distract you from the things you should be seeing. When in darkness everything hides, yet nothing is able to hide. One can't put on a fake smile or a sad face to hide what's really residing deep inside.

There's something intriguing about darkness. The unknown, the quiet, the cold. Darkness whispers unspoken words into your ears, and makes sure it stays rotting inside of your brain like an apple that's been left uneaten for too long. It whispers things one can never repeat; things that not a single person can put into words. Something so beautiful, yet so grotesquely violent and horrifying, repeating it would be a sin in itself.

Every being carries darkness inside of them. Whether it is a small flower blooming in the shrouding darkness, or an ineradicable anguish spreading around the body like the roots of an old tree deep underneath the surface we tread.

For some darkness is a blessing. It keeps them realistic and alert, making sure to always be careful. It's weight constantly reminding them that there's always a bad side to things; no matter how pleasant and harmless they may appear.

To others, the darkness inside of them is a curse. It grows and grows like a tumor rooted deeply inside one's veins. It causes a pressure so severe that it makes all the cells in your body feel as if they are about to implode on themselves. Your lungs are no longer organs used to make sure you survive; Instead they cause every breath to feel constricted, screaming to get out yet never truly being able to. The darkness swells inside the chest, causing everything inside it to burn like it's getting prodded by a branding iron and being cut open like a corpse ready for autopsy.

Yet darkness isn't only something to be experienced internally. No darkness is everywhere. Darkness causes caution and fear. It hides the unknown, and the unknown is something horrifyingly unclear.

Darkness is there when you go to sleep at night, closing your eyes and sacrificing yourself to whatever is lurking inside the shadows of your room. Darkness is there when you walk home from your job late at night, fearing that every alley you walk by will hold a danger even greater than the previous. Every shadow has a possibility of hiding something gruesome; of hiding sexual assault, a murderer, a drunk, a junky, the list goes on. Girls get told by their parents to be careful riding home from school; to not listen to strangers, and to never trust an unknown man when he tells you your parents asked him to pick you up from school.

Darkness isn't something you can take a hold of. It's elusive, cunning and deceptive in a way no human could ever come close to being. Despite this, darkness brings with it a weird sense of comfort, of security. While your eyes can't see in the dark, neither can someone else's.

Darkness can make you feel lonely in places that you didn't even know existed; makes you feel unlike yourself, and fills you with an emptiness so heavy that it weighs down each and every step you try to take.

And with every night the darkness grows and spreads, the empty pain gets worse; and it'll keep getting worse and worse until it has you laying in your bed telling yourself that one day it'll get better; that it'll go away. All of this while knowing damn well that it won't.

-

2006

Roman Hall was no stranger to darkness. The way it shrouded his entire body in anxiety and anguish, streaming through his body as if it was the blood running through his very veins. The darkness covered him, took over his thoughts and left I'm feeling empty and useless.

Darkness knew him better than he knew himself. It knew him inside and out, it knew how he worked and how to make him stop working. It knew what areas inside of him were cracked, it knew which buttons to push to make it all collapse into nothing; to turn him into nothing.

However, his darkness also had its moments of greatness. In times he needed it, his darkness would come and take over; it would control every move and make it so that everything that needed to be done got done – no matter the price. It was times like these it protected Roman. Shielded him from fear, panic or pain - even if just for a moment.

It was times like these he appreciated the darkness; during situations like the ones he was in now, standing inside of a burning building, fervently trying his best to listen for any sounds that could indicate there was life stuck inside the structure; Surrounded by blazing flames fighting for their chance to complete their destructive undertaking.

Truthfully, it hadn't been Roman's intention to go out that night, let alone spend it in a burning apartment complex. His thoughts had simply turned too dark and menacing for him to handle, hence why he went outside in the first place; the fact that he passed the – currently blazing – building just happened to be a fortunate coincidence on his part.

Sprinting over the rooftops of surrounding buildings, Roman wasted no time in busting open the door leading to the building floors, making his way down several storeys of the building.

He could hear the sounds coming for outside clearly; wails and sirens alike shattering the crackling silence like a scream cuts through the dead of night. Roman felt the stifling caresses of the flames as they grazed his arms and legs in a fit of brazen fury. Although not burning him directly, the flames still felt uncomfortably hot as they rose higher and higher, almost touching the cracked ceiling, not giving up until every single piece of the once strong, pristine building had been scorched and traded in for nothing but ashes.

Roman was currently rushing through the second floor of the building, feverishly checking every apartment for any signs of humanity; of survivors. As the flames continued to climb and diminish the mountain of oxygen surrounding him, Roman heard things start to fall apart; wooden and metal beams alike giving in to the heat, letting themselves be comforted by the scorching embrace of the inferno. Almost ready to finish up to the second floor, Roman began heading down the stairs leading to the first when he heard a slight whimper coming from above him. Realizing he must have missed something, Roman rushed his way back up the stairs and towards the area where he thinks he had heard the sound coming from. The flames were roaring by now, a vicious barricade between him and the person still suffering inside of the building. Reaching the source of the sound, Roman stood in front of a blocked off entrance way, pillars of burnt wood and molten metal blocking the scorched door leading into the apartment. Behind the door he could hear the sounds of whimpering increase; turning into a soft wail of despair; a wail of someone having lost all hope of ever escaping their planned demise.

Sensing the familiar feeling of stifling panic rising up inside of him, Roman threw himself against the barricaded door, trying his best to avoid the burning materials blocking his way. The door – being stronger than Roman had initially anticipated - wouldn't give in, instead sending Roman reeling back from the hard impact it had on his already exhausted body. Giving himself no time to recover, the Hall shook his head and started throwing himself against the door once more. He couldn't give up; he wouldn't give up, not when knowing there was still someone he could have gotten out. After one particularly ferocious slam, the door finally gave in and flew off its worn hinges, landing on the floor with a violent thump.

Rushing inside of the apartment, Roman tried looking for any movement visible through the myriad of flames hindering his vision. Smoke filled up any space the fire didn't, causing his eyes to feel as if filth was constantly invading his eyes. Nevertheless, Roman carried on frantically searching through the apartment as if he were an addict desperately searching for their next chance at a high. Not finding anything, the panicked darkness inside of Roman started to grow more and more restless each second that went by.

That was when he heard it.

It wasn't anything noticeable for anyone who wasn't listening as intently as he was; in fact it sounded more like a defeated breath of anything.

Scrambling to the source of the sound, Roman ended up in front of a dilapidated kitchen table - or well, what he assumed had once been a kitchen table. Kneeling down carefully Roman looked under the piece of furniture, only to see a little girl who couldn't have been older than nine lying crouched down on the floor, hands covering her head in what must've been a desperate attempt to shield herself from the increasing amount of falling architecture that seemed to grow with the second. Wasting no time, Roman hurriedly grabbed the girl from underneath the table, making sure not to add on to whatever injuries the girl might have sustained from the fire. Carrying her bridal style in his arms, Roman hurried out of the apartment that was getting closer and closer to getting swallowed by the fire every second. Only faltering when he heard the girl in his arms let out a heartbreaking whimper.

"Shh it's okay, I got you don't worry"

Hurrying down the decreasingly substantial stairs with care, Roman made sure to move his arms as little as possible, as to not disturb the life he currently held in his arms; in the palms of his hands. Just as Roman was about to reach the exit of his current purgatory, a beam from the ceiling fell right in front of where he was standing, effectively blocking his way out.

Cursing to himself Roman looked around, trying to find any possible solution to his current problem. Not seeing anything remotely helpful, and knowing the fire exits were all blocked off, Roman rushed back up the stairs, heading for the only other exit he knew; the rooftop exit. Sprinting with the pace of a gazelle victim to the hunt, Roman tried his best to avoid falling debris, all the while pretending he couldn't feel the ink inside of his skin growing more restless with the minute.

Rushing up the final flight of unstable stairs, Roman crashed through the door of the rooftop with the side of his body, causing the door to fly open, hitting the wall beside it with a loud slam. Once out in the open, he was gasping for air, drinking it in like a man starved. Regaining his composure, Roman made his way down the fire exit at the side of the building – not being able to use them before with them being blocked off from the inside. Once he made it down, Roman carefully made his way to the front of the building and handed the girl off to a dumbfounded medic who immediately took the girl away to get looked over. The moment the medic turned his back, Roman pulled down his hood further down over his face and hastily stalked off, not making any effort to acknowledge the people around him.

As he walked away he could hear the sound of a reporter's frantic talking slowly ebbing away, and soon the only sounds to be heard were those of his slow footsteps hitting the cold pavement below them.
Burning eyes stared down at tired feet as the male slowly made his way back to the cold and shabby apartment he had come from; his frantic heart not yet having calmed down from the events that had just occurred.

The moment the male entered his apartment – after unlocking the shitty security system he had on his door – his figure exhaustedly slumped down onto his worn couch. He shut his eyes and prayed for a sleep without terrors; a slumber that lasted longer than two hours maximum.

He prayed for a chance to rest.

He prayed for a chance to forget.

He prayed for a chance to breathe.

𝗘 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦 !

THIS SUCKED. It's so messy and short uGh. I to rewrite the end because it didn't save when I wrote it before :/

I honestly don't remember what I wrote in this chapter so uhhh idk I hope you enjoyed??

I'm so tired lmao. Once again I didn't check this on grammatical errors so kindly point them out if you noticed some!

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