Fiery Embraces

Darkness hissed as it threatened to begin its conquest of Sayane’s body once again. Streams of oozing, fetid black clawed upwards on her arms, towards her heart, and inwards along her thighs, to the places she almost wanted to never be touched again.

She’d never wanted any of this.

Flames roared, and the air ignited. Masaru’s lungs filled with incendiary rage, and he began to choke. Gasps made it worse, but he held his footing as the hotel let out a bellow of strain. Beams bent, and the ceiling snapped.

He’d never wanted any of this.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

From the depths of a realm where light almost couldn’t reach, Sayane dared to lift her head. Whispers and jeers from voices she’d long begged to forget were gathering around her in a typhoon of cacophony. Word after word struck her like needles, causing her body to cave against itself as she fought to stabilize.

Darkness tried to progress, but it stalled.

Far below the sedimentary layers of grief and solitude that had buried her self-worth, there was something gentle and desperately longing. It shone out in a solitary flicker, sending signals to any who would answer. The other solitary orb had moved closer, and Sayane could feel its gentle radiance coating her malnourished skin.

“Masaru…” she whimpered.

Fire billowed along the walls and ceiling. Alarms screamed but sprinklers failed to start. Masaru could hear the copper plumbing torquing and expanding in the heat, but the safety system could not release its disgusting water. The hotel was burning alive. Heat burned the edges of Masaru’s good eye, but he kept it open to watch the fire. He wanted to be sure that this place collapsed.

A deep, tragic pull seized his insides, and he flinched as the feeling nearly overwhelmed him. It wasn’t the hotel. It was someone else. Even though it was excruciating, the pull felt as though someone was trying to claw their way out from being buried alive, and his spirit was the lifeline they were using for support.

A single tear ran down his cheek.

“Sayane…” he smiled.

She could hear the rain now. Reality was glitching back in fragments, and she caught auditory hints that her window was reforming long enough to let her know the outside world was still there.

More of her life force faded into the darkness. It wasn’t spreading, but it was still consuming her. If she allowed it, it would kill her in a few minutes.

In so many ways, she wanted that. To die was to finally escape. To live was to accept more struggles. But it also meant the chance for at least one more pleasant day in Kamakura. A thousand hardships would be worth one single smile of sincere gratitude.

Her fingers unzipped her waist pouch and found the hotel’s card. Simple, thin cardstock grazed along her fingertips as she felt the tiny token of remembrance. That rectangle of information carried more spiritual and emotional importance to her than any shrine talisman or temple relic ever had. The gods may have abandoned her, but he hadn’t. They may have all been lies, but he was true.

If he was true, then it meant everything else she’d been told about herself was a lie. She could be happy. She could feel warm again. Not only because of him, but because of herself. Maybe she could even feel peace one day. Maybe, just maybe, she even deserved it.

Tears flowed clear and watery as the blackness sputtered and failed. Sayane gasped out as though surfacing for the first time after living below the ocean surface for ages.

The heavy burden of continuing on lifted, and a simple lightness of being touched her for a single second. For the first time in years, she wanted to keep living.

Masaru watched in waiting as the ceiling arched. It was starting to hurt. The inferno was far enough away for him to stay, but the air was drenching him in scorching agony. By now, the hallway was consumed. Flames invaded every room without pause. Plumbing groaned in warning as it swelled and expanded, unable to release its prized filth.

CHIIIIIKKKKTTTT

Chiiiiiiiiiiiikkt. chikkkkkttttt chikkkt cccccchhhhiiiiiiiikkkkttttt

Thousands of gnashing teeth began to whisper.

something was coming somethingwascoming Something was coming.

Grating, scratching, grinding. Hundreds of hungry, horrified mouths. Fire had driven them from their blood-stained dens of waiting and now they were fleeing for the door. Or coming for him.

Undulations in the carpet told him something was approaching. At first he thought it was the heat waves distorting perspective, but then he saw that it was steadily drifting forward. Too even and too consistent to be fire’s trickery. The ripples grew as they rushed around the corner, gathering mass from every door.

The screeching, scuttling, scratching cries rose in volume until they burrowed into Masaru’s ears and cut at the walls of his thoughts. Every inch of his skin began to prick and sting.

They swarmed towards him, but he didn’t flee. Whirlpools of bodies lumped and contorted beneath the carpet, swirling around his feet, clawing to tear through.

Masaru grimaced and stomped the ground, feeling the squishes crackle and splurt as hundreds upon hundreds of bedbugs were crushed beneath his heel.

Again and again, he slammed his foot.

Squish.

CHIIIKKKTTTTT

Smoosh.

CHIIIIKKKKKTTT

Scream.

CCHIIIIKKKTTTTTTT

Splatter.

CCCCCHIIIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKTTT

Scream.

CCCCCCCHHHHHHHIIIIIIIKKKKKKKTTTTTTTT

Then the carpet ripped, and the horde broke through.

Fires exploded from the backroom just as the swarm was unleashed. Thousands of flattened, glossy oval specks burst from the stained fabric and rushed to Masaru’s legs as he screamed out, but didn’t move.

Sayane hadn’t noticed its steady creep, but the void had moved further up her thighs and across her chest. Despair had crept in silent whispers that went unnoticed. It moved between the spaces where dreams once stood and had finally made its way to her last sacred realms. Even as she’d dared to feel warmth, the darkness had never fully faded. Now, its tendrils of deprecation and loathing were seeping into her body once again.

Her moment of peace faltered, and her lips parted in a sigh of strain.

Hope began to evaporate.

Darkness began to permeate.

Deeper and deeper it went, breaking through the barriers that had only just begun to form.

“No… no no no no no…” Sayane flinched.

“I don’t want this. I don’t want this. I don’t want this.”

Void slithered further into the pores of her bleached, drained body.

It was too late for her.

Joy arrived too weakly.

Darkness felt its opening and rushed in to drown out the warmth. A shallow puddle of tears would be all that it needed to finish the task.

“NOOO!!!” Sayane cried out in resistance.

Bites bit. Wounds stung. Skin ignited.

Masaru screamed.

Microscopic mouths were ripping his flesh open, pumping saliva into wounds. It was painless, as was their trick. But he could feel them. He could feel it all. They only ever wanted to drain him and infect him and destroy him. All of them. Everything.

Up they went, carving their way to his face.

Masaru wanted to flee, but he knew this was the hotel trying to win. He wouldn’t let it.

Delirium devolved his roars into hysterical screams as the flames spread to the opposite hall. The building was finally engulfed. Chunks of ceiling tile and bracing fell away as the infestation reached his jaw.

“NOOOOO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO PLEASE NO!!!” Masaru screamed out, but he knew it wouldn’t stop.

Walls fell away, and the hotel laughed as it choked on its own death.

Fingers clawed at skin.

RIP IT ALL AWAY.

He was devolving himself.

They were going into his mouth.

He was being unmade.

Lesions ruptured and spewed.

But he didn’t move.

Warm Embraces realized he wasn’t going to flee, so it readied its last assault.

Sayane bent over against herself to fight one last time. Warmth may have dissipated, but its touch had been enough. This wasn’t what she wanted. This wouldn’t be where she died. Somehow, she had to live.

Blistered, bloodied, scarred hands of hundreds of lovers who never loved her reached out from the blackness and clawed for her throat and hips as they tried one last time to suffocate her.

Sayane screamed out as her back arched and her head faced upwards. It finally struck her. Masaru would not save her. She would have to save herself. She could not live only for him and only because of him. And that was okay. She would have to save herself every day if that’s what it took. But maybe he could, too.

One arm covered her chest to shield her still-beating heart.

The other pressed down so that her hand went between her legs to protect the last seeds of dignity she had left.

“I’m… not… yours… anymore! I AM MINE!!!” she shouted.

Darkness tried one final assault, but a small wave of light pulsed out from Sayane’s eyes. It flowed like silken tears, spreading until it streamed down her face, along her neck, across her head, and over the rest of her body. Blackened, void-drenched hands locked and shook in agony as the light burned them away.

Masaru’s voice was animalistic as he shook and heaved and clawed and screamed. Every wall was aflame. The poster girls were bubbling and melting away. Sparks bursted out from the monitors. Warm Embraces was consumed by fire and he was consumed by pestilence. But he was still standing better than it was.

Smoke filled the lobby. It was becoming harder to breathe. He knew there was one last agony awaiting him. Burning grid tiles fell around him, sending embers to his violated skin as he looked up to see the sprinkler lines. He’d shut off the valve, but that would not stop this. Steam broke through loose couplings. The flood was coming. The hotel wasn’t going to try to save itself; it was going to try to take him with it.

Unseen fangs bit at his cheekbones as they funneled to one last opening.

Rusted, forgotten copper creaked.

Meters of piping snapped in unison, and the great deluge of filth rained down on Masaru in a waterfall of brown and green.

Gallon after gallon soaked him, filling his open wounds with disgust. Barbaric unraveling flung his body side to side as the infestation reached his eye socket. Masaru couldn’t fight it anymore. All he could do was let them bite at his worthless eye as he choked to breathe through the smoke and rank.

Reality lost itself and the fire and hate engulfed everything.

Light banished the darkness and she was left alone, still alive.

She had to flee. This couldn’t be it. She had to get out. She had to escape her traffickers. She had to feel the rain. She had to live.

He had to stay. This was it. He would never escape. His bosses had made sure this would be his fate. He was never meant to feel anything ever again. He would die here, and that was that.

Walls returned to their correct positions. Volume aligned with its true spacing. Though she couldn’t see it, she felt the door reappear. Sayane exhaled and almost laughed as she sobbed to herself in relief.

Warm Embraces began to collapse as the blaze rose dozens of meters into the downpour of the outside world. Horrified, concerned neighbors fled as they watched the mysterious building sway then break. Some swore they heard a scream as it snapped and fell inwards.

There in the lobby, Masaru could feel the bedbugs exploding as they boiled alive and burst like ripened fruit. The deluge stopped as the plumbing collapsed. Two glowing orbs appeared before him in a flash. Structural barriers gave way, and the hotel ended.

One last burst of fiery hate snaked towards him as everything burned away. Masaru laughed to himself as he felt the heat.