They Called Me FIVE

LANCE

What I couldn't process about this...is his height. He's a bird. A real life fire burning twisted ugly copycat version of Phoenix. He had his nose pecking in the wrong direction. The majestic fire and grace of phoenixes I see in movies was smash by him.

He had no grace. Probably because his big figure won't fit into the room. He outdone himself. He spread his wings.

Setting everything else on fire. The cabinets, the beds, the chairs, the peeling wallpapers. He's ultra gigantic size is blocking the door. I can't escape. His neck is crane in the ceiling. His pudgy chest, curvy chicken thighs and flurry belly is swinging from left to right as he struggles.

"Baaaad!!!!" He shriek. "Transforming in closed space is bad!" He scrape his talons on the ceiling and it's already on fire. I frantically look around. After he appeared out of nowhere before us I don't get why he's doing an odd pathetic job of attacking and transforming to a size too big for a room.

The ceiling has collapsed. The room is filled with thick smokes and poisonous air. I have no way out. I gaze at the window. Slap my palm and look beneath.

I won't die. I told myself. This is the only way.

"Where are you going?!" He shriek at my ear. His voice is ringing, pulsing, joining with the molecules in the air to bleed my eardrums.

I kick the glass window. He yelp guttural cry. My breath froze in midair. My mind went blank. My brains are cooked inside out. Dripping blood right out of my ear, my eyes, my nose, my mouth.

My thoughts are jumbled. I can't think of anything. Alpha Beast just scream at me. Only his shrill voice is hundred times high in pitch and mind blowing screech than a blasting speaker in the concert stage.

My heart definitely stopped. I, without a doubt, died. Just like that. No excuses. No way out of it. His voice is like a bomb ticking off in a tunnel.

I was engulf in fire. I felt my skin melted into ashes within seconds. My heart, my limbs, my bones, any small tissue that make up as me was obliterated within seconds.

My sight turn black. Darkness engulf me in its claws. I dont know what's coming. I hear faint whispers in the distance. I wasn't sure what this is all about. Whether its a dream, a vision, a trap, a memory... I don't know. I'm aware I'm not really dead, yet I'm frozen in place. My heart too. As if it forgot how to pump life in my veins. Or at least... What used to be my veins.

I feel myself floating aimlessly. Without direction. I dont know where to go. A dark hole open up above me. Shedding a small hint of light. And warmth. I start to move towards the light. To where it came from. I have no control of my body. As if its in autopilot.

I rocket through the hole and blasted out in the clearing. My arms are stuck to the side. My voice are trap to my throat.

The darkness turn into light. Sunlight. The whispers turn into giggles. Of a man. His voice is familiar. I squint against the sun. My eyes ache at the sudden change of environment.

Then a hand stretch out in front of me. Long thin, vulnerable, a hand of a woman. I slid my eyes up.

I stare at her. She stare at me. I gape at her. Her mouth fell seeing me.

"Seven what - what happened?"

She slap her mouth shut. Her expression close up. Her eyes grew stern.

"I'm not Seven." She snap. She grab my hand and pull me up. We are at a place I don't recognize.

The sun, even though its pinned high up in the sky looks different. Normally you can't gaze directly at it. Because it will hurt your eyes. Because the heat will destroy your sight.

But this sun is different. I can gaze at it for as long as I can. The clouds drifting in the atmosphere looks weird too. It's going in opposite direction. As if the wind has change its course like a racing car taking a U turn in the road illegally.

In the distance, there are hills bumping, kissing the horizon at the peak. There was nothing strange about them.

Except the color is totally off. Where can you see hills in blue and red color? I'm not talking about red like dust and mineral mountain shade of red for tourist, I'm talking about red as blood. Red as rose. Blue as ocean. Darker than pacific ocean....

This is the kind of blue and red I'm seeing. If that wasn't weird enough, it's the building structure I'm laying my eyes on behind me.

All has circular hats. In different candy type of colors. If you're familiar with Aladdin and has seen how brown sturdy marbled the structures could be, how ghostly it is, to see windows with no glass except curtains and wooden planks plastered to barricade it close.

The building resembles more like a hundred foot tall ghosts having serious meeting who's to point as their leader for the Earthy Ghost Club.

I shudder. The clothes men and women are wearing is completely normal. Like a medieval type of dressing with heavy cloth wrap ons on women and buffy thick trousers for men.

Another weird thing to note: Men have swords and horses to ride on. There's trolleys, palanquins, wooden cage to be pulled by horses and men who dressed like Knights in parade. I feel like I'm standing, watching, applying audition for a hollywood movie set.

If it wasn't for Seven's glaring eyes, I would be tempted to sheath the knights sword and swing it around to check if its real or not. If I had gone insane or not.

I thought we're heading to the group of onlookers for the parade of prisoners. But we're not. We're heading to a dark corner.