Smoke covers my vision, graying everything in front of me until it parts to reveal the burning fires on the ground, surrounding my body, even underneath me. Still frozen from shock, I don’t notice that the flames crawling along my clothes don’t feel warm, or even hurt at all. I stumble to my knees with my hands on the ground keeping me from falling back down. I try to collect my thoughts, I know I couldn’t have been knocked out. My ears are ringing louder as I stand up and almost forget how to balance myself. Another horrifying shockwave explodes from in front of me, and a wall of fire flows past as I’m still trying to adjust myself. I can hear nothing at this point, and yet I’m still standing. The fires spread further around the blackened rubble of what once could’ve been any building. It’s not helping me remember anything. 

After a few moments of my vision adjusting itself to both the brightness of the fire and to the blur of the smoke, I can almost see clearly. The wiring under the floors now protrudes out with a flurry of sparks. Much of the area was burnt up and charred in such a way that I can’t understand most of what I see. There’s a shadow in the smoke wearing some heavy clothing, in a bizarre position. Maybe they’ll help me, I wonder if they’re hostile, or if they know what happened. I wonder why they’re alive. But then, why am I still alive? I call out to the figure and realize I can’t hear my own voice. I almost fall down just from putting a foot forward. Strangely, the smoke begins to part between myself and the other. It’s easier to see him now, standing, but with his back arched backwards almost to the point that his head is touching the ground. A dark red puddle is still growing underneath his body. I know he lives when I see movement, his arms and torso twitching, struggling to pull themselves back up, and yet his lower half is completely still and upright, almost as if his legs are bolted to the ground. I take a few more slow steps forward, losing stability with every inch of progress I make. 

The man in front of me seems to grunt at the sound of my movement, and finally throws his body upwards, standing upright for a mere moment before its torso falls forward. He doesn’t seem to have the strength to hold his own weight. With my vision beginning to focus he suddenly becomes recognisable. I see his coat, slowly turning into ashes, and the blonde, combed hair I’ve seen before, now disturbed by the chaos.

“Come towards me!” I cry out to him, “I’ll heal you.” I don’t know what I mean by that, but I feel that I can help him somehow.

This makes him move again, his face tilting up from the floor to reveal how broken it’s become. A hole within his forehead, exposing parts of his brain. Some of it might have fallen out earlier. A thick, disgusting stream of his blood is falling from his mouth, through his lower jaw which seems to be partially missing as well, but it’s not as easy to see because of the red discoloration dripping down. 

Even his familiar eyes, which before, I’ve stared into for minutes at a time, don’t look the same to me. The whites are gone and ruined, replaced now with darkness, not the same blood that painted the outside of that face. They’re darting around, looking around the room as if they can’t find me. I think hard for a moment before I can put my right hand out towards him. As I see his hand shaking as it moves to reach mine, my heart feels as if it’s sinking down my spine. His arm is covered in burns and marks from what could only have been centuries of fire, with some patches still lacking skin.

His fingers attempt taking hold of my own, but they pass right through me. Our hands both occupy the same space, yet make no contact. Am I real? Is he real? The thoughts and possibilities hurt more than the fires do. My arm bends inwards, then I throw it back out to try again in desperation. To my surprise, this time I can touch him. Our flesh connects, now I’m holding onto his wrist. My physical being is present. 

At our touch, his body lurches upright, like it’s being pulled from a string. Our faces are dangerously close. The face moves forward as he takes a step, and I move back. I feel my hand shaking, gripping his arm tighter than when I grabbed it before, until again my hand just passes through. I’m not sure which one of us is losing ourselves, but I pray it isn’t me.

For the first time, his blank face starts smiling at me. I take another step backwards when his smile keeps growing, unveiling the bleeding source from two jagged and elongated teeth, still dripping from whatever victim might’ve come before. Faster than I can react, he plunges his mouth into the side of my neck. I cry out in shock until I’m stifled by the blood clogging my throat. I can see it flowing out and feel it splashing and spraying onto my face as I collapse back onto the ground with him following along my motion to keep his teeth embedded into my skin. I panic as I try to pull his jaw open and loosen his grip while my fingers slip off from the blood flowing and spilling out on him. His own hands stayed motionless at his side as he simply lay over me, latched on and bleeding me dry. The previously destroyed face he had seems to almost regenerate. The broken pieces stayed broken, but his skin has turned pure and smooth, outside of what was dripping from it. I can see his eyes clearly through all of this. They’re glowing. Brighter and brighter they shine red. This brings my attention to notice the smoke in the room is gone. I can see everything again. There’s visible holes in the ceiling, through which I can look at the sky. I’m being bled out by a vampire, but I can still see the sky. Maybe death isn’t within my ability.

It’s peaceful, almost, as the thing finally lets go of me. It stands up. Still with a massive bleeding piece of my neck carved out, I push myself to my feet with newfound energy I didn’t feel before. I’m standing in the same place I was in when the smoke began. There’s a massive smear of red across my torso, leading from my chin to my waistline, and still dripping on my legs. 

The one in front of me is almost unrecognizable from only a few minutes ago. What before was damaged and broken skin is now clear, his smile innocent, his hair cleaner, his eyes blue. Still the same face after the fact, and I hate it all the same. 

He demonstrates the indifference of his new appearance as he postures himself, drawing his arm back like a bow and arrow. He clenches a fist before it flies at me in a flash I couldn’t dream of reacting to fast enough. There’s no feeling this time. His forearm rests just below my eyes. I’m phasing right into his attack. I’m not accepting further torture. With my hands still stained in red, I press them both against his chest. I push him as hard as I’ve ever comprehended to be possible in my lifetime, leaving my bloody handprints across his torn coat as his body is blasted to the wall, shaking the foundations. A line of fire appears below the path he flew. The wall begins crumbling with bricks and shelves landing on the monster I’ve thrown into it.

The thing falls down, barely able to hold itself up with both hands. One shard of a brick cracks and embeds itself into its collarbone. It’s almost invisible, with all the dust and fire around them, but the man falls. He faceplants into the wiring of the floor, creating a noisy mess of electricity as his body vibrates to the shock.

I breathe heavily, and press my hand against the wound in my neck. My legs are shaking, the smoke is returning from the new fire, and I’m bleeding out. Yet I live, I stand over him. I might be exactly where I started, and hurting worse, but I can move freely without his interference.