"Iris…h!"
Jasmine screamed, her voice barely audible over the roar of flames licking the basement walls. Panic gripped her as she yanked at the chains biting into her wrists. The metal scraped her skin raw, tearing flesh, but she didn't stop. Because she couldn't stop, the excruciating pain no longer mattered. Survival did.
The fire crawled along the walls like a living thing.
Hungry. Patient.
Smoke coiled toward the ceiling, then descended, thick and suffocating. Her eyes burned. Her lungs screamed. Each breath tasted like ash and death.
"Iris! Leo!" Her voice cracked, hoarse, barely human. "You won't get away with this—!"
The heat intensified. struggled against the chains that bound her wrists. Heat radiated from all sides, and the acrid smell of smoke filled her nostrils.
Each breath was a battle, each movement a torment.
Her hands clawed at the cold iron, but the chains refused to yield. Tears burned her eyes as despair threatened to drown her. Wood snapped. Beams groaned. Sparks rained down like cruel stars.
Her tears fell freely now, sizzling as they touched her skin.
I don't want to die like this.
She pulled again—harder than ever before. Blood trickled down her arms, warm and slick, dripping onto the concrete floor.
The chains did not move, but the burning wall did.
she gasped, choking on smoke as a beam above her cracked before collapsing.
Fire crashed down.
"AHHH—!"
Flames licked her hair. The smell hit her instantly.
Burning flesh.
Her hoarsed scream tore her throat apart as she collapsed, hands clutching the right side of her face, skin blistering under unbearable heat. Her world blurred—red, orange, black.
Her heartbeat thundered wildly, then staggered.. Her vision dimmed.
Is this how it ends?
Her body trembled violently curled on the floor, wriggling around in pain, strength draining with every second. Consciousness slipped like sand through her fingers.
"I swear… in my next life… I will make you… pay…" Her voice dissolved into a raspy whisper, swallowed by the crackling inferno.
"Thud"
Footsteps echoed through the chaos, unnervingly calm. "Boss, we've searched the building. She survived but barely breathing," a subordinate reported.
"Interesting," a cold, detached voice replied, amusement threading through the words. "Wrap her up. Call Damien. Let's see how long she clings to life before we reduce her to ashes."
A heavy silence followed, broken only by the sound of snapping flames and Jasmine's shallow, ragged breaths. The world around her blurred—the fire, the heat, the pain. All that remained was a flicker of determination fuelled deep in her chest, a fire untouched by the ones that threatened to consume her.
And then, in the midst of hell, a shadow moved—silent, deliberate. A pair of strong hands scooped her up, shielding her from the worst of the flames. Her vision swam with smoke and fire, but she caught a glimpse of him, masked in flames and smoke —face obscured, identity unknown, yet radiating a power and calm that contrasted sharply with the chaos.
"Hope you're would keep surviving, you have done well enough," a voice whispered, low and steady. "Just hold on a little longer."
Her heart stuttered, caught between fear and disbelief. Who is this person? Why risk everything to save her? Questions clawed at her mind even as darkness threatened to pull her under.
Minutes—or maybe hours—later, she felt the cold sting of water on her scorched skin. Her savior worked silently, unwrapping the scorched remnants of her gown, soothing the burns, and tending to her as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
"You have a strong will," the savior murmured. "It's rare… it will serve you well."
Jasmine wanted to speak, to ask who this mysterious masked figure was, but her voice failed. Instead, she clung to the words he spoke, promising herself that she would survive, that she would return stronger, and that when she did, the ones who had destroyed her world would pay dearly.
As her consciousness faded into the haze of pain and sedation, the fire behind them reduced to smoldering ruins, she whispered one last vow:
"In my next life… I will rise… and I will make them pay."
"Boom!"
An explosion roared behind them.
Fire erased everything.