I screamed out in pain, my teeth gritting together. Then, suddenly, the snake was taken from my body. I could feel his hands shaking as he held down my wrists.

I opened my eyes, to see him staring at the wound on my leg. His eyes looked into mine. I didn’t understand what his look meant. I was tired. I was in pain, and my eyes began to close.

But I could still hear voices. I could hear him, Pastor Hughes and Elder Paul talking. “Something’s living within him, Michael. Something evil runs in his veins. An evil we must exorcize.”

I heard his choked bellow. And all I could think was that there were flames in my blood. Flames I had to get out. But they were holding me down. I couldn’t get to the flames. I needed to get them out of my blood. Cut them out of my blood. But I couldn’t get free.

Darkness came and took me.

When I woke, I was in a dark room, dirt on the floor and walls. My head throbbed, my thighs hurt, but I couldn’t feel half of my body.

Then I remembered…

And I could feel the flames. I could feel the flames under my skin. Flames I needed to get out.

I heard footsteps above me. Heavy footsteps. I could hear Mama crying, begging him not to do something. I could hear my baby brother crying. His loud screams hurt my head.

The footsteps stopped right above me. My body began to shake.  Suddenly, a hatch above me opened, the bright light shining in where I was laid, making me flinch. Then he jumped down beside me. He was holding a belt.

I looked into his eyes as he stepped forward. I remember the pain. Remember the pain, the number eleven… and the flames… the invisible flames pouring out with my blood…

A wooden ceiling came back into view and I was in the light. But I was tied down. My wrists and ankles were tied down. Men came in and out of a door to my left. Men that were going to hurt me.

Those same men…

They said things to me, but I couldn’t hear them over the screaming, over the sound of the flames in my blood. I thrashed, needing the ties to be broken, when the door to my left opened again. It was one of them. One of them that tied me down. One of the fuckers I wanted to kill.

The noises of screams, shouts and banging on doors were too much. Then I heard a voice call, “I will not let you hurt him. Please… just let me calm him. Let me calm his rage.”

I froze, my arching back flattening on whatever I was laid. The sound of rushing blood whooshed through my ears, but the person in the room with me now was new… the voice… their voice made the screaming in my head stop…

I panted hard, my eyes staring at the ceiling. Then I heard a cry and my head turned to the side. The floor. On the floor was a woman. A small woman, with her arms around her knees. My blurred eyes blinked fast and I fought to see, my stomach clenching at who she could be.

Black hair… small body… her hands, small hands…

Then I saw the eyes. Green eyes. The pulse in my wrist and neck raced on seeing those green eyes. And the flames calmed. The fire was still there, burning under my muscles.  Evil still infused my body, but I could breathe. I panted. I sweated. But I could breathe. When I looked at her, I could breathe.

But I was tired. And I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t fight anymore. I didn’t want to be like this anymore.

I stared at the woman. She stared right back. My heartbeat slowed in my burning, raw chest. A tear slipped down her face. I watched the tear trickle down her cheek, wondering why she was crying? Then, no sooner than the flames had calmed, that feeling of the fire beginning to rebuild—to torture me again—flooded back. The flames never stayed away for long.

I couldn’t do it anymore.

Fighting the threatening darkness, I took a deep breath.

Seeing the woman freeze as she watched me, I opened my mouth and whispered, “Kill me…”

Chapter Nine

Maddie

I could not believe what he looked like. Flame. My Flame. Broken, strapped by his ankles and wrists to the small bed in the center of the room. His torso was bare and it was covered in blood. His skin had been slashed. Everywhere. He had slash marks and scratch marks everywhere.

His legs were covered by his leather pants, but they were gashed, red bloodied skin peeking through.

But it was his eyes… his beautiful dark eyes that had my soul in pain.  His pupils were dilated so they looked completely black. The whites of his eyes were the brightest red, many veins having burst. And it was easy to see why. Heart-wrenching screams were pouring from his throat, his back arching off the bed, his limbs stiff as though he was being burned from the inside.

My legs had given way at the shock of seeing him in this tortured state. And I had ended up on the floor. The magnitude of what Viking and AK described was now glaring me in the face. Flame was in such pain. More than I had ever witnessed before.