《The Perks of Dying》 An upsetting amount of blood Blood. Bright red. It hurt coming out. Smelled like sewage. Or rotting garbage. The pain made him sick. He wanted to throw up. Teeth sized bite marks had gotten brown and chapped. Doctors had been no help. "It''s nothing to worry about. It''s probably just a small tear and constipation. Try a banana." The banana only made it worse. After a few days he stopped eating them. Fuck. Fuck that doctor. "If this is an emergency please dial 911, for all other callers please choose from the following menu options. The office is now closed. To leave a non-urgent message please dial 1. For urgent messages, that cannot wait until office hours resume, please dial 7 and a represenative will speak with you." Dials 7. Ring. Ring. Ring. This call may be monitored for quality assurance. "Hello?" ¡°Hi, my name is Alek Mersky, my birthday is July 9th 2001, I see doctor Manson Mengal¡± ¡°Hold on, what was your date of birth again?¡± ¡° Seven, nine, zero, one." ¡°Alek?¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Ok, what seems to be the problem?¡± ¡°The pain. There¡¯s just so much blood when I go the bathroom. Please help me. My head is pounding. I¡¯m feeling lightheaded.¡± ¡°Ok, hang on, I will page the on call. What teleportation number can we reach you at?¡± ¡°Thank you, Zone 714A, Section 704-884-4484¡± ¡°Sure, please call back if you don¡¯t see doctor Gruberlin within 15 minutes.¡± He felt some relief that a doctor would see him soon. But the pain in his head was blinding. His skull felt like it was pushing through his eyes. 10 minutes later. Alek had opened his laptop as he waited near the teleportation matt in his living room. ¡°Don¡¯t jerk off.¡± His urges got stronger. ¡°Please, come on not now.¡± Pulls open porn. ¡°What if you die while jerking off.¡± Lowers shorts. Bring Bring¡­ Bring Bring. ¡°Account number 8A7-9541-112 has requested permission to teleport to you. Would you like to accept?¡± ¡°yes¡± ¡°Confirmed. Please allow up to twenty seconds for transfer to complete.¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Alek pulled up his shorts. Swoosh. Light blue dots fizzled as the doctor entered. ¡°Please tell me your name and date of birth.¡± ¡°Alek Mersky, July 9th, 2001.¡± She glanced at a paper in her hand. ¡°Okay and what seems to be the problem?¡± ¡°Blood in my stool. Lightheadedness. Pain when I go.¡± ¡°Okay, why don''t you lie down for me.¡± She pressed on his belly. ¡°Tell me if this hurts anywhere.¡± ¡°No. No. No.¡± ¡°Okay and what about now¡± Warmth and a faint blue glow filled Alek¡¯s belly. He winced. ¡°yes. Ahhhh.¡± She continued to move her hand all over his belly.Pressing in then releasing so that his belly fat sprang back like jello. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s take your vitals. Alcier!¡± A small green slime appeared in her hand. It was translucent. But, implanted on top of the slime was a screen with wires that ran all the way down to its core. It wrapped around Alek¡¯s chest. Tightly. It felt hard for alek to breath. But the tightness was fleeting,like the poke of a needle. Ding. ¡°Heart rate normal. Dehydrated. Blood pressure, ah¡­ Mana inflammation¡­ have you taken any medication recently?" ¡°No, I hate taking pills.¡± ¡°Okay takes 3 tablets of Manodril now, I have some with me if you don¡¯t have any here.¡± ¡°We have some.¡± ¡°Ok good. I am also going to write you a lab order for a CT scan to see why your mana is so high. Exceliohydrophil!¡± A small clear ball appeared in her hands. It was covered in a plastic film with a label marked physicians only. ¡°I¡¯m also going to leave you with this. It''s a medical grade rehydration spell. Have you had one before?" ¡°No.¡± ¡°Let it attach to your body. It will balance your hydration and electrolytes for 24 hours, before it needs a refill of mana. That should be enough to last you to your CT scan tomorrow. Call our office in the morning, or have your parents call us, to get the CT scan order and to set up an appointment to talk about the results. Do you want me to talk to your parents now or should I email them?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t want to wake them up, just email my mom, [email protected]. And wait, do I need to watch out for anything getting worse?¡± ¡°If the pain gets worse, vomiting, more blood, pain in your neck, call 911, but those are rare complications. Try not to worry, ok? Feel better.¡± ¡°Thank you doctor, and sorry for waking you up.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, did you hit me or hit on me?¡± ¡°No?¡± ¡°Then don¡¯t worry. I''ve had to call the police on two calls tonight. Okay, goodbye." ¡°bye¡± Then she left. TheManodril quickly relieved his urge to go the bathroom and blunted his pain. After a long night Alek finally went to sleep. It was dark outside. Like being in a black cloud. He wokeup in agony.The painwas worse. Alek¡¯s belly was swelling. His neck felt like his spine was being stabbed into his mouth. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh¡± He frantically screamed trying to wakeup his parents, but he couldn¡¯t hear anything. His vision was blurry, he stumbled into the wall as he tried to turn the light on. The black was terror until the lights turned on. What was that smell? Am I having a stroke? A million thoughts raced through his head. The room was covered in tiny dust particles and bacteria. Like a small galaxy of organisms that had now been made visible. Crash. He fell into the hallway table trying to grab the phone. His parents shuffled awake. His mom called out ¡°what was that?¡± Alek tried to answer but he couldn¡¯t speak. His dad rushed out to see what was going on. Alek was on the floor, in his boxers, his stomach looked like a balloon. Veiny stretch marks pulsed around his belly button. ¡°Alek?!¡± Alek tried to get up, but he fell down the stairs. His head dented the drywall and he passed out. Bloop. Alek¡¯s stomach exploded. His organs were now visible, spilling out onto his boxers.Blood dyed the white stairway carpet red and sizzled. Smoke rose from the carpet as itburst into flames. Blood is Thicker Than Water & Substantially Hotter ¡°Aquaosis!¡± Water shot out of Alek¡¯s dad¡¯s hand like a jet. Sccchhhh. Steam filled the room as the water evaporated on impact with the fire. But the fire kept raging and the stairway was nowcharred black. It was hot. Alek¡¯s dad, Robert, whole body felt like it was in an oven. His flesh hurt. Felt raw to the touch. He tried to cast another spell, but the smoke was now too thick to chant. Coughing. Wheezing. Robert dropped down to the floor. His lungs screaming for oxygen. ¡°Alek!!!¡± He screamed for his son. No answer. The sound of the fire alarm now entered his ears for the first time. Mana condensed in his body furiously as he tried to cast a stronger spell. His mana channels tore from the rapid infusion of mana. He could barely see anything now. Just fire and smoke. ¡°Frozen Tundra!¡± Ice covered the hallway and spread towards the fire. The fire dimmed enough for Robert to now see Alek. He was pale, blood was stillleaking out of him onto the carpet. But he could now see that Alek¡¯s blood was feeding the fire. Whoosh. The fire roared. Alive. Ferocious. Clinging to the wall and ceiling. Spreading. Alek¡¯s mom Alyssan came running out into the hallway wheezing. ¡°Robert!?¡± Alyssan barley croaked out Robert¡¯s name through the smoke. ¡°Alyssan, get down! Go get Sarah and call 911!¡± Robert pulled Alyssan down to the ground. The smoke swam aboveher head allowing her lungs a small respite. ¡°Alek? Where¡¯s Alek? Sarah?¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright, get Sarah. I¡¯ll get Alek. Go!¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!¡± Alyssan crawled towards Sarah¡¯s room at the other end of the hallway. Her door was closed. Keeping the fire out. But smoke was flowing underneath. Sarah was in her room coughing. Screaming for her parents who couldn¡¯t hear her over the roaring fire. Alyssan got to the door. Her eyes watering, vision hazy. She groped for the handle. ¡°Ahhh!¡± The copper door handle burned her fingers. ¡°Bash!¡±...¡°Ahhhhhhhhhh!¡± Alyssan''s spell fizzled as the blood red flames dripped onto her back interrupting her cast. ¡°Truso!¡± Robert saw Alyssan screaming as the fire touched her skin. She was rolling on the floor to snuff out the flames.His Truso spell pushed Alyssan through the door as it¡¯s hinge¡¯s burst from the pressure. The door & Alyssan crashed into Sarah¡¯s bookshelf. Books and a Paper-Mache mask, that looked like an alligator with horns, fell onto the floor along with Alyssan. ¡°Mom! Help me I can¡¯t breathe. I¡¯m dying!¡± ¡°Sheyn, girl calm down!¡± Sarah¡¯s tears and shock made her words grown into incoherence. She stopped moving. ¡°Sheyn, get down! You can breathe there.¡± Sarah responded, to her nickname, only with wails, tears and mumblings of death. Alyssan slapped Sarah. And pulled her to the ground. ¡°Sarah, we have to go! Hurry up. Go. Go! Come on!¡± Sarah finally got up and clung to Alyssan¡¯s` waist. Digging her nails into Alyssan. ¡°Bash!¡± The window in Alyssan¡¯s room shattered outwards. Alyssan jumped out as mana pumped into her legs. They landed hard on the concrete sidewalk. Painful. But, far enough from the shattered glass to be safe in their bare feet. The fire was still warm on their skin. It was now engulfing Sarah¡¯s room and covering the left side of their house in flame. So hotthe papery bark, from the birch tree that grew next to Sarah''s room, was now on fire. Flaming barking floated down from the tree and fillled the air. To the right of Sarah''s room was a circular window pane that, under normal circumstances, let their hallway be seen from the street. The window now oozed crimson as it melted. Flame¡¯s blocked any sight of a main hallway. Nothing could be seen. But a firey red glow. Alyssan started to run to her neighbor¡¯s house to get a phone when the blue & red lights of a fire truck entered her vision. They lived less than a mile from a fire station. ¡°Sarah, don¡¯t move.¡± Alyssan ran over to the firetrucks pleading for her husband and son to be saved. Inside the house Robert was running low on mana. His mana channel¡¯s felt like they were in rough glass shards. The heat was unrelenting. He¡¯d cast Frozen Tundra a dozen time¡¯s now. Each time the glimpse of his son was more fleeting. His son was gray chalk. No burn marks. Skin turned pallorfrom blood loss. Robert could feel his heart beating. His breath faint, lungs heavy, kept alive only by a channeled dispel toxin. Do it. He couldn¡¯t feel anything anymore. His body was numb with heat. Mind screaming to save his son. Pleading with himself. Accepting death. The joy of his tiny sonlying on his belly as they watched TV together.That perfect warm summer glow as they drove homewith Rocky Road Ice Cream for Alek''s first time. The food his son had cooked for him as soon as he got home from school. The food that had kept him alive. He had so few of those memories. They were treasure. Happy picture''s that he¡¯d held tightly through death and cancer. "Void Pain." He exhaled. A quick pleading sigh. "Amittere Memoriae." A surge of mana rushed through his shattered channels. Crunching and breaking the channels down even finer as the manaflowed into his spell. ¡°Gelida.Magna Gelida!¡± That joy disappeared forever. A Candle for a Flaming Soul Formless mist erupted from Robert¡¯s every pore. A fog rolling into fire. The fire squealed. Hissed. Spat back at the spell. Inching back from mist. The white wooden dowels holding up the staircase railing splintered. The railing collapsed. Crashing onto the floor. The fire in the hallway dissipated. Nothing but black charred walls and blood. Robert sighed in relief. Empty. A mere shell; a blackened husk. He rushed towards his son. Pain in every step. Agony. The mist had reached Sarah¡¯s bedroom now. The fire squirmed to avoid the mist¡¯s touch. As he reached down to put pressure on Alek¡¯s stomach, Robert thought he heard a faint sob in the fire. Crunch. Yellow flaming teeth bit off Robert¡¯s foot. ¡°ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh¡± No blood came out. Just a glowing char on his stump. Robert could hear the bone¡¯s from his foot snapping under the creature¡¯s teeth. He collapsed next to his son & tried to cast another spell. ¡°lesser heal!¡± Nothing. He couldn¡¯t feel even a trace of his mana move. His heartbeat didn¡¯t change. His Amittere Memoriae spell had left him with nothing. Adrenaline unable to be secreted. Only pain & concern for his son remained. He stared at this flaming ball of a creature. No eye¡¯s only a smirking mouth, jagged flames for teeth. Alek woke up. Groggy. Pain. He wanted to rip his teeth out with pliers. Make it stop. Die. He screamed. Mouth open, face contorted, eyes closed. Nothing came out. Instead, he was gasping for air. The strained exhale¡¯s of a body preparing for death. Robert saw his son wakeup. Saw his agony. A primal pain. His heart ached. The flaming ball above them stretched out it¡¯s mouth wide, like a deep-sea creature, revealing a blazing furnace inside. So hot the walls burst into flame. It¡¯s teeth now expanded out like tentacles. They tangled up Robert¡¯s legs. Climbing quickly to his waist. Burning his flesh everywhere it slithered. Alek opened his eyes. _____________________________________________________________________________ Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. A voice called out over the firetrucks radio. ¡°This is dispatch. Apple Ridge Terrace. Cross street Goshen River Road. Structure fire, split level house. Stations 219, 304, & 17 please respond.¡± Raul, the only man standing inside the fire truck grabbed the mic & replied. ¡°Station 17 arriving on seen. We¡¯ve got heavy smoke coming from the structure. House is on corner of Apple Ridge facing West. We have one woman approaching.¡± ¡°Alright. Triage, then update 17." Raul looked back at his men & saw dark bags under the eyes of each of his men. They¡¯d just been sleeping. The alarm woke them up at 3am. Hastily throwing on gear as they rushed to the truck. The fire had broken out not even a half-mile from their station. Raul had been their captain since most of the crew could remember. A bulldog¡¯s body. Thick neck & thicker muscle¡¯s. The only one not in full gear & mask. From a proud lineage of fire mages, now serving as Jake¡¯s, he didn¡¯t need one. All he needed was a bodysuit that wouldn¡¯t burn up in a housefire. Everyone in his family was a firefighter. Everyone. Drilled into their heads to serve. To rush towards flame & enjoy it. Burned by fire magic as a kid. Part of his families¡¯ tradition. Bald from shaving his head. Another family tradition, borne out for more practical reasons. The smell of burnt hair clung to you for days. Raul addressed his team. ¡°Morrison talk to that woman & radio the rest of us. Jamnus, Ryan, Brad, 360 report. Jamnus you take point. Andrew & Tubbs with me on Alpha. Sam 1 & Sam 2 you start running line. Jaime you¡¯re on Mic & Truck. Copy?¡± They all replied in unison. ¡°Copy!¡± Morrison got out of the firetruck. It continued past him & stopped in the front of the house. Alyssan ran up to him screaming. Pleading for help. ¡°Ma-am is anyone in there.¡± ¡°Yes!! My son & husband. Please! Help!¡± ¡°Is this your house? Okay ma¡¯am where are they. I need you to tell me where they are.¡± ¡°yes! Yes yes! F.. fro-nt hallway!¡± ¡°Okay ma-am I need you to get behind that firetruck. And stay there okay?¡±This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°My daughter!¡± ¡°Is your daughter still inside?¡± ¡°No, she¡¯s over there!¡± Alyssan pointed to her daughter who was coughing in the distance. ¡°Are either of you hurt?¡± ¡°Yes, yes!¡± She showed the man her burnt back that was now pock marked with red welts & white blisters. Morrison recoiled. The blister¡¯s & welts littered her back. Gruesome. Almost as if they were still on fire. Moving. Growing. Getting deeper & continuing to whiten her skin Morrison: ¡°Jaime I¡¯m with the mother of the residence. We have one juvenile, one adult, still inside around Alpha. Last seen in front hallway. We have injuries. One juvenile female, one adult female, call dispatch for a Bus right fucking now. I¡¯m bringing them over to you.¡± Jaime: ¡°Copy. Raul you get that?¡± Raul: ¡°Yeah, Copy. Guys where¡¯s that 360? I need it now.¡± Jamnus, Ryan, & Brad had already lapped the building. Mana infusing into their eyes allowing them to see thermal heat. Jamnus: ¡°We¡¯ve got fire on the Alpha Bravo corner & at Alpha. Nothing else visible.¡± Raul, Sam 1, Sam 2, Andrew, & Tubbs were all on the front lawn of the house. The red glow of the fire reflected in their pupils. Raul: ¡°Copy. Get back here. Alright boys were on offense. Sam¡¯s, Alpha, now! Tubbs, Andrew, hook that door frame at Alpha. Then hit your spells. Jamnus you boys take that Alpha Bravo corner. Control that fire for now. Don''t waste any fucking mana yet. Go!" Sam 1 & Sam 2 were already running the line out to Alpha located right at the front of the house. Each squaring up with hoses that looked more like long tubes of oversized metal drums. The heat was more intense than usual. They could feel it even through their enchanted masks & protective suits. Enchantment¡¯s that were rated for 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Enchantments that could last an hour at 1800 degrees before the mana in the enchantment needed to be recharged. Back in their acadmey days they¡¯d drilled, with these suits, inside industrial furnaces. They both cast fortify spells on their hands right before pulling down their hose¡¯s metallic lever. Click. Click. Whrannggg. Whooosh. Whrannnnggg. The hum & whoosh of the hoses roared. Pressure forcing the two Sam''s to tense their whole bodies.Even fortified the pressure nearly ripped the hose out of Sam 1¡¯s hand. Blue fog rolled out. It smelled sickly sweet, like cotton candy, & spread along the ground hovering outside the house. Artificial ice mana laden with chemicals to keep it from dispersing. Or Volwile Juice as the veteran¡¯s called it. Only the men who still remembered Ernest Volwiler & his nobel prize called it that. The young one''s had their own slang for it, Zamboni Smut. Andrew & Tubbs ran towards the front door. Hooks in hand. Both men pouring mana into the curved metal tip of their hooks. As soon as they reached the doorway they both activated the Bash enchantment laid down in the hooks. Boom. The door fell back onto the floor. The heat immediately beat them back. Blinded them. Before they even had a chance to cast a spell. Fire spreading out towards them. Raul leapt in front of them blocking the fire. It wasn¡¯t normal fire. Raulknew that immediately. His bodysuit was shredded & burned. It hadn¡¯t so much as singed in any house fire he¡¯d ever been in. Also, the fire was too red. No yellow¡¯s or orange¡¯s, just shades of red. He hesitated, for a brief moment, before running through the flame¡¯s into the house. His family credo, A Candle for a Flaming Soul, pushing him in. Pushing through his fear as he radioed his team that he was entering Alpha & to be careful of thehottness & intensity of the red flame. Andrew & Tubbs quickly recovered their sight & wits. They rolled away. Watching as their captain ran into the blood red flames & heard his call over the radio. They sucked Volwile Juice into their mana channels as they channeled their spells. Andrew: ¡°Magna Aqualida!¡± Tubbs: ¡°Supaqua!¡± Water flowed out from Andrew like a wave pool. Mighty and unrelenting. Tubbs strengthened the waves increasing their speed. Supercooling their temperature without freezing them. The waves crashed into the fire. Struggled to force the fire back inside the house. Inch by inch the flames relented. Steam building & billowing around the door. Both men gobbling on Volwile juice as they continued to channel their spells. They couldn¡¯t see Raul. Steam & flame turned their visibility to shit. But then they heard the screams. ______________________________________________________________________________ He saw his dad covered in flaming tentacles. Burning him. Screaming. Wailing. The smell of charcoal and sulfur. Of rancid oil or charred meat. His dad looked at him with eye¡¯s pleading for help. Robert tried to say something, but the tentacles wrapped around his mouth & went down into his throat. Alek reached out for his dad. The tentacles lifted his dad up & pulled him into its mouth. Alek turned & looked up at where the tentacles had come from. An orb. A Red Golem. Hell¡¯s furnace. Terror. He could feel his retina¡¯s burning. He screamed for his dad again. Nothing. Throat so tight he couldn¡¯t breathe. He gurgled. Unable to exhale. Now pressure building in his chest. He could feel his heart pounding. Banging. Thumping. Trying to force its way out of his chest. He couldn¡¯t hear his dad¡¯ screams anymore. Could only hear his heartbeat. Then he saw the red tentacles up close for the first time. They weren¡¯t tentacles at all, but tiny layered runes. Collapsing and reforming in a constant churn of cylindric energy. Three of them were pointing down at his chest & connected together forming a hand. A tiny mouth surounded by runes wriggled out from the palm. It¡¯s tongue extended out onto Alek¡¯s chest. He closed his eyes. Schwip. The tongue pierced through Alek¡¯s chest into his heart. Gurrrgle. Guurgle. Huuuuh. Huuuh. His heart felt like it was going to burst. Alek was desperate for air. Like a kid in a cave trapped under water. He thrashed everywhere searching for a place to breath. But, he could only gurgle as he continued his struggle. Then, finally, he breathed. His whole body contracted as his lungs compressed. Again. Again. Ahhh. He felt light. Warm. Like swimming in a pool of milk. He could see his skin changing color. Losing its ghastly chalkiness & regaining some of its former warmth. The hole in his stomach visibly closing up.