Irresistible: Chap. 6: Fire

The truck’s door smashed into my side, making me hit my head against the window. I gritted my teeth, keeping my eyes closed, from the impact. The truck was sent in the air, like it was flying and was free of gravity. I went sailing to the driver’s side of the truck, but before I could recover, I was back in the air. My head connected with the roof and hit against the side of the passenger side window. As quickly as it came, it stopped.

I kept my eyes closed and my teeth were still grinding together to the point where I thought I tasted blood, but I wasn’t entirely sure. It felt like I had gotten sucked up in a hurricane that didn’t let me go.

I heard Triston saying something, but I didn’t answer. Instead, I drifted off. I was no longer in the truck. I was standing in complete light, but I didn’t want to open my eyes yet.

I felt a warm breeze on my face from what could have been the sun. I felt the green grass sway against my feet and legs.

It all felt right for the first time. There wasn’t anything to worry about. No one was trying to hurt me here. For the first time ever in my life, I was happy. I smiled and opened my eyes. Mark stood before me with the same crooked smile staring at me.

He still wore his favorite loose, black tee-shirt and faded jeans. His feet were bare as were mine with his blonde hair was still cut in the same way since the last time I saw him. Tears started to dance in my eyes, but I couldn’t move toward him. I tried to move my limbs, but they didn’t respond.

“Hey, M,” Mark said. His voice sent shivers up my arms and spine. I desperately wanted to cup my fingers against his face and kiss him with as much force as I had desperately wanted to all those years ago.

I let out a sob and he stepped closer to me.

“You can’t stay, M. I’m sorry,” Mark said. I looked at him as his words engulfed me.

“What do you mean?” I asked, shrieking. “Why?”

“You’re not meant to be here yet,” Mark said. He stepped so close that I thought he would bring me to him, but he didn’t touch me at all. “I’ll still be with you, M, but I want you to be happy.”

“I’m happy now! Why can’t I stay here?” I asked, tears streaming down my face. Mark shook his head.

“I wasn’t the one for you to be happy with,” Mark said. I didn’t know what he meant with that. Was he talking about Triston?

“Please, don’t make me loose you again,” I said. Mark’s face fell a little, but he kissed me on the head and leaned down to my ear.

“Mona...” His voice sounded muffled, terrified and hoarse. No. It wasn’t Mark’s. It was Triston’s.

 

 

 

 

 

A sharp pain radiated from my neck all the way down to my toes. I tried to talk, but I couldn’t. I forced my eyes open, but didn’t see anything. I felt like I was in a drunken stupor. My skin burned like fire while my eyes lazily rolled around in their sockets. I couldn’t grasp the reasoning for my head continuously falling to the left.

“Mark,” I gasped, squirming, trying to get away from the pain. I tried to open my eyes again, but realized it was some kind of substance over my eyes. I couldn’t wipe them away. Something was keeping my hands and legs trapped.

A yell came from somewhere. No. It was a scream. I sobbed without really even meaning to. I desperately tried to unhinge myself from whatever it was that kept me in place, but I couldn’t even see.

“You killed her!” A man screamed repeatedly nearby. It was Triston’s voice. I squeezed my fingers and, with all of my power, yanked my left hand free. I yelled and shook because of the new pain that coursed through my entire left arm. I moaned and rested my hand against the head rest only for it to roll off.

I wiped my face with the free hand and pulled it away to see blood on my fingertips as well as the crushed in truck that surrounded me. The seatbelt that caused my neck to bruise was what restrained me to the seat while the truck tilted to on its side. I was completely trapped. Crumpled in plastic came to points near my chest, the seat was bulged upward with glass that was everywhere. Triston was no longer beside me in the truck.

I sucked in a shaky breath, which mixed with another cry from the pain, and gripped onto the crumpled dashboard as I pried my other arm loose that had gotten wedged between the door and the seat. My soar gums protested against the force that I pushed on them with my teeth until finally my arm came loose. Blood streamed from an open wound on my forearm, but I only tried to focus on getting out. I unbuckled myself which took a few minutes from shaking so hard. A stench came to my nose with such force that I nearly gagged. Gasoline. I looked up through the shattered glass and could see smoke starting to rise.

            “F**k,” I whispered repeatedly. I stayed focused on getting the seatbelt off while my breathing became more frantic and my hands became more hysterical. It was stuck. I was stuck. I looked harder at it and just barely made out the bent metal. I didn’t know how it could have possibly gotten bent like that, but I started screaming and crying. I tried to push myself from under the seatbelt, but the harness was caught. When I sat back to look at it, it made a little knocking sound. I knew what that meant. I tried to force myself back upright, but it was too late. It already locked me snuggly against the seat. I would have to take the seatbelt off to get it to unlock itself.

            “Triston!” I screamed. The gasoline smell started to get stronger and smoke was starting to come into the truck. “Help me!” I pulled the top half of the seatbelt over my head and desperately tried to unpin my legs from the dashboard and seat.

            “I’m coming!” Within seconds the door to the truck that had pinned my arm only minutes ago was being pried open. It finally gave way and revealed Triston, who looked just as battered and beaten as I probably did. I cried harder while still gripping the seatbelt with my nails.

            Triston leaned over me and yanked the seatbelt, but it didn’t give in. Triston cursed under his breath while trying to jerk it out, only coming up empty-handed. He looked at me and I saw the fear in his eyes. Sweat was trickling along the sides of his face and neck. He frowned at me, air coming out heavily through his nose, and he looked back at the seatbelt. Triston looked down at the blood on my arm then he bent down. I thought he was trying to go down on me, but he grabbed the seatbelt with two hands and bit in the middle of it.

            I watched the veins on his neck start to protrude. He practically started growling from trying to rip it. The gasoline smell started to make me dizzy and the smoke had started to cloud up the inside of the truck. The next thing I knew, the belt snapped and Triston hit the plastic dashboard from underneath with such force that it freed my legs and made a nice fist-shaped crater in their place.

            Triston pulled me from the truck. We were four sprints away before the fire started and we were sent in midair, landing in a pile on the ground. Triston hid his face in my hair while covering my body with his.

            My feet burned from the heat of the explosion. It took me a second to realize that Triston had gotten up and was rolling around on the ground. I tried to sit up, but the pain from what had just happened hit me harder than a shockwave and I fell back on the ground. I turned my head to see that Triston was putting out a fire that had started on his back. I tried to get up again, but hands grabbed me and jerked me upward. Something sharp pressed against my neck and I whimpered. It felt like knives were being stuck in me from everywhere internally while one was being pressed into the thin layer of skin on my neck.

            “Leave us alone!” I screamed while crying. A thousand things rushed through my mind as Triston jumped up and looked at both me and whoever was holding the knife to my throat. A growl grumbled through the person’s chest against my back.

            “Shut up!” A man growled, pulling the knife closer to my neck. A small teardrop of blood ran down my throat and into my white shirt. Triston watched the blood and I watched his face go from tired and faint to irate. It didn’t take knowing Triston to notice this.

            Triston looked through his eyebrows at the man behind me. The man released the knife from my neck and pointed it at Triston. I immediately took action. I jerked my elbow upward towards the man’s nose until I felt the crunch of bone. I was slung out of the way as two men went neck and neck with each other. I looked up from the ground, dizzily. They looked like red blurs from the fire being cast on them. Triston occasionally yelled out in pain, as did the man, but Triston sounded like a dying animal.

            They broke apart for a few minutes and were circling each other. I thought I saw something on Triston’s back, but he was moving too fast for me to grasp it.

 The man said something to Triston and then they were right back at attacking each other. I looked around to make sure no one else was coming up on us, having to literally turn around because of my neck. When I looked back at them, Triston was sitting on top of the man who was face down in the ground. Triston had him pinned with both legs and arms while managing to choke him at the same time. The man cursed, spat, struggled and almost succeeded in getting up, but Triston remained calm and stern. I watched as the man died. The life left his eyes and I watched. Too shocked to do or say anything.

            Triston stood up after the man was long gone, stumbled back a little bit and fell backwards with his eyes rolling up into his head. I got up as quickly as I could and made it to his side. His mouth was slightly open and his eyes were shut. He was completely limp.

            “Triston,” I repeated frantically, patting his face and trying to get him to open his eyes. His eyes fluttered and then he swallowed. His lips moved, but there wasn’t a sound coming out. I leaned down to his face just as his opened a little. He smiled a little then closed his eyes.

            “You okay?” Triston asked. His breathing started to get labored.

            “Yeah,” I said vocally and he opened his eyes again.

“What’s wrong?” I asked and he smiled again. It was a genuine smile. Not the smart a*s smile.  

            “That fire was a little hot,” he said. I swallowed, making the link. Triston groaned as I slowly turned him over on his back and saw it. What I couldn’t see earlier.

            “Oh my god,” I breathed. The flesh was bare and blistered. Some of the skin was charred at the edges, revealing red flesh underneath with a clear liquid seeping from it. I put my hand to my mouth and squeezed my eyes shut. I let my hand fall and looked at Triston. He was barely conscious. His eyes would close, flutter and slowly open for a second.

            “Do you still have feeling in it?” I ask. Triston nodded, but I wasn’t sure if he was even nodding at me by the way he looked up at the sky.

            Off in the distance, I heard a twig snap. I looked at the woods and thought I saw something move.

            “Triston,” I whispered close to his ear. “Triston we need to leave. Now.” I tried to pull him up to his feet gently, but couldn’t even get a good hold on him. Another snap of a twig sent me standing straight and ready to fight. The pain was difficult, but primitive instinct fought it back. I got a look at where we were for the first time. We were next to a meadow that was surrounded by trees in the far distance. It had a white picket fence that we crashed through. The forest that we ran from was on the opposite side of the road. I looked up the road and both the meadow and the forest went on as far as I could see. There was no way I was going to be able to limp him all the way to a payphone in the shape we were both in without getting killed by whatever or whoever was out there.

            “Leave us alone!” I screamed. I looked around, trying to find a weapon. The knife. As quickly as I could without falling, I quickly snatched the knife from the dead man’s fingers and held it up threateningly with a shaky hand. I swore I could hear someone laugh. “I’m not kidding!” I gripped the knife.

            “Mona…” I looked back at Triston. He was staring at me with lazy eyes, still lying on his side. He closed them for a second and I thought he was going to pass out but he opened them again. I looked back at the woods and saw black figures emerging from the woods. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. I stumbled to Triston, knife still pointed, and stood in front of him. Hissing came from the opposite side of the road. It sounded like a dozen snakes.

            I sat down on the ground and without thinking, touched Triston’s cheek. It would be the last time I would get to feel him. His fingers reached up, touched mine and enveloped them. Triston’s breathing was getting worse, but he slowly pushed himself upward.

            “Triston…” I said, watching as he struggled to stand. He looked at the forest with such ferociousness that it gave me courage. I stood up with him and looked at the shadows. The fire from the truck lit the scene up with red and orange that reflected on the vampire’s faces, casting a skeleton glow.

            “How is it we make it this far and now we die?” I ask, not looking at Triston, but he looks at me. I looked up at him and he took in a ragged breath. He looked back, his hand slipping from mine, and he ran before I could stop him.

            “Triston!” I screamed. 

Author's Note

Keep in mind I'm sick so when i wrote this, it may not have been the best. I might go back and edit it again :/