Caged Ivy | Prison Romance

CAGED IVY, REWRITTEN VERSION OF 'Ivy on the Wall'

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P R O L O G U E

Smoke, pain and heat. It’s all I can do to not scream, there was barely enough air left to breathe without getting a lungful of smoke. I blink repeatedly to clear my vision only to see the bright blinding light of a fire. I was laying on my back, looking up towards the ceilings.

Run.

The words echoed in my mind yet I could barely move. As if there were something weighing me down. The fire seemed to grow more furious, whipping against my skin with each sweep. Dancing in joy while curling in intoxicating bounds, charring the walls with black while staining my vision with a yellowish light.

It burnt so bad. The pain sent an awakening jolt as my body started to move on its own, tired of waiting for my mind to catch up. Rolling onto all fours to crawl for an exit, anywhere to escape. Tears streamed down my cheeks as they blurred my vision, warm, almost scalding with the heat that built in the room.

I didn’t know where I was or how I even got here, but I didn’t even care at the moment. I just wanted to get out, to be able to flinch away and not feel the flames against my skin.

In the background, there was someone crying for help. Yet I felt as if I had no option but to carry on, the fire blocking the way I had came.

Then there it was, a green light at the end of the corridor, a set of double doors labelled FIRE EXIT.

I almost wept in joy, but the scorching heat reminded me to be haste.

With the last of my strength, I clung onto the handle, sweat making me nearly slip on the first try.

I pulled it down, unlocking the door and left it to swing open with a push.

An icy gust of wind made the fire anger and chase after me in fear of my escape, the breeze fed the flames mockingly.

I pushed myself out onto the pavement, the cold air soothing.

The flashing red and blue was what greeted me. Tires screeching and sirens blaring to form a deafening choir.

The pain wasn’t gone, it lingered. Throbbing aches crossed my body. Thump, thump as it followed the rapid cascade of my heart.

“It was her! I saw her set it!” A woman screamed amongst the crowd whose voice faded into a jumbled murmur.

All I focused on was what she said, who set it? the fire? who were they talking about?

But oxygen had denied me, constricting my lungs in a tight grasp. Black dots filled my vision.

Slipping down the steep slope of nothing as darkness came to take me back.