LOST CAUSE
Prologue
Kait
Fire.
There was fire everywhere. It engulfed everything, the tongues searing anything in its wake. I ran faster, not daring to slow down. The fire was closing in, and I couldn’t stop. There was nowhere to go. My vision was hazed by the smoke billowing in all directions, and I couldn’t breathe. Whenever I got the courage to look back, I stumbled and hit the ground, hard. There was a stabbing pain in my left shoulder, and suddenly I was surrounded by the stench of burning flesh. This is it, I thought to myself. This is how I will die. My vision started to go black. The fire came closer.
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With a jolt, I sat up in bed and stared at the alarm clock. 4:45 a.m. My breathing was still ragged from the smoke, and my eyes were watering. I hiked up my left shirt sleeve to inspect my shoulder. It was red, and it burned. I flopped back on the bed and stared at my ceiling. This was the 10th time I’ve had that dream, and it was always the same. The same fire, the same smoke, the same injury, the same ending. 10 times I had tried to escape, and 10 times I had failed. I rarely ever dreamt, but when I did, it was always the fire dream. It wasn’t the dream that got me – it was the reality of it. My lungs were on fire, my shoulder burned, and I could still smell the smoke. I couldn’t explain my dreams, and that bothered me. I realized I wouldn’t find my answers anytime soon. I crawled out of bed, opened my window to clear out the smoke, and lay back down until sunrise.
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