They Called Me FIVE

"Seven, what's going on?" She glare at me.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not Seven."

I guess again. If what I'm seeing is neither a dream nor a vision but a memory... It would make sense.

"Efta?" I tried again. This time she did not glare. She just stop walking. Her long midnight hair turn around to regard me strangely.. Her fingers cake into my palm and fitted right through my fingers.

I'm struck by how her hand felt so right in mine. I seriously don't have any romantic feelings for Seven... I regard her as my sister.

Only that.

But strange sensations crawled from my hand up to my chest. Based from the contact of our skin alone. I shiver.

"Did you perhaps hit your head from the practice this morning Lancelot? After you told me to be ready for the Ranker's trial tonight...what? Are you nervous for me?"

My heart skips a beat. Five missed beats to be exact. That should explain I'm already dead. Yet I'm here. Stuck by the strangeness of her words.

"Trials? What trials?"

She flips her hair, cross her arms and let out a hearty laugh. That's the first time I heard it. This could be one of the perks in this memory lane I'm experiencing. At least Seven here talks and laugh and frown and scowl like a normal person.

The Seven in the present won't even wear any of those expressions. Except a slight smile, a slight nod, a slight furrow... Beyond that and she'll stare blankly.

Makes me doubt if I'm really befriending a human girl or a living doll.

"Guess you really hit your head huh. After we spend the last six months training me. Anyway, we're going -"

She ushered me forward and I have to force her to stop by planting my feet in the ground.

"Wait, wait, wait. This trials you're talking...was it the hundred trials of Rankers?"

"Yes...?"

"But why you? I thought women aren't allowed to take it? I thought only men can -"

Her expression close up again. She's not glaring at me. But the way her crimson eyes glint dangerously makes me feel conscious of my words. I need to choose wisely.

Somehow, I'm overcome with the urge to go back to the real world and converse with the real Seven. At least she won't react and turn all moody grumpy whatever I say...this Efta girl is damn right scary.

"This wasn't my choice Lancelot. You force me in this. You, Father and the Rank Elders. But you said this is the only way. You assured me I can be free if I finish this."

"Free from what?"

I couldn't get my answer. Whispers of silent screams and horrified shouts catch me in their midst. Engulfing me, trapping me.

This is far from getting fieldtrips down to my previous life memory lane. This is different. There are screams I can't internalize. Screams that tear through my heart, bleeding my ears, scorching my skin.

I'm suddenly not in the dark corner with Seven anymore. I'm standing, my feet scalding, my flesh cooking in the molten lava spreading torture in my bones. I'm paralyzed. I'm choking. From the smoke and poisonous sulfur in the air. The whispers starts to increase. My eyes are whisk in the impenetrable walls of the metal gate with barbed wire. I can't voice out the scream tearing my throat apart. As my skin are slowly cooked, the chains binding me digging through my bone.

I'm aware. Just a little more, a little drill, a little penetrating actions that conquers my flesh, this chain will snap my bone in half, breaking me apart.

In front of me, a pool of lava stir like a boiling red soup looms. The circular rocks containing it has pipes that let the lava flows...

Towards me.

I struggle. I tried to wriggle free. It was useless to realize I have no clothes on. It was useless to notice I'm missing an ankle, a finger, an ear and two of my toes.

There's nothing left. No trace no bones no blood.

I scream for Seven's name. But my voixe we're drown from my companion's voices. There are others. Aside from me. Trapped in this hellhole.

At the pool of lava, a figure emerged from the center. I recognize the horn, the skully eyeless face, the bony limbs, no clothes, no flesh, no skin, just bones. And it's body is blazing on fire.

I know him. Or if that 'thing' has a gender then it's a 'he' no doubt. He raise his bony chin. The fire engulfing him burn brighter. He scan the surrounding, as if he detects something is wrong. That something which wasn't supposed to be here, is here.

I stop struggling. I bite my screams, swallow them down to my throat. I kept my figure standing erect despite the pain. I hold my breath.

And then he finds me. A shudder runs up my spine. I bit my lips too hard blood runs down from my lips.

"Lancelot," he says, his voice rasp as if the fire around him makes him choke his words.

He stands erect. He raise his feet to get out of the pool. He plant his feet in the rocky path. He comes towards me. Towering over me, twenty feet tall build, human skeleton by appearance. The only thing worth noting is his horns. Its longer than the bulls, sharper than the claws of any monster I've face. My eyes stay locked as he slowly approaches. Thirty feet away, then twenty. He stops ten feet short.

"I know you will come back." He muse. A lava ooze out from his mouth when he he speaks.

"Did you miss our time together? Did you miss my fire?" He waves his bony hands. And the lava crawling in my skin doubled.

I already punctured my lips at this moment. My face is red from the controlled screams, unbearable heat, intense pain that makes me want to blackout.