I am trapped. I can’t catch my breath. The engulfing smoke, of burning wood - the persistent loud threat of crackling - and the fiery heat in every direction disorientate me. I choke out a cry for someone. Any movement I make to get away from the fire is met with a roaring flame, a sense of futility saps my strength. There is no way out. 

“Aiden!” somebody yells. I whip towards the source that has come from my right with a renewed burst of desperate hope. Shielding my dry eyes from the stinging heat, I try to see if he is nearby. My response ends up in a cough. “Aiden!” he calls again, a strangled mewl this time. I know the fire is eating him alive. 

My urgency to get to him makes me kick at a towering hellish obstacle. Ember falls on me painfully but I dash through the small opening created just before a beam collapses where I was standing. He doesn’t make a sound anymore and I don’t know where he is. I try to scream for him; I try to claw my way to him in the inferno. 

Gripped in the remnants of my nightmare, I snarl with clenched fists in a half-wakened state of frustration and intense need. Pain gnaws at me. Mastered by a ferocious instinct, I rush unseeing with an unnatural speed towards the seated figure, intent on devouring them.