The Gemini Age: Book One

[5-1] Burning at Both Ends - Part One

    On the few occasions sleep overcame Karim's racing mind, it was always the same. Hard stone pressed against his feet and back whilst a black tide rose over him, ebbing away just before his breath forced itself from his strained lungs. He struggled to keep his balance, numb to the pain flaring in his chest, all too aware that he did not belong in the space around him. Every gasp rendered the air a thick fluid that expanded to fill his throat and suffocate him as he took it in. Choking, Karim searched the void that pulsed around him for the twinkle of an escape.

    Then the light came right to him. The flash blinded him as his chest erupted and burned, a wave of heat that struck through his shirt to his bare torso and spread like wildfire over his skin until every inch of his body withered into weakness on the floor. The weight of his heart sank into his shivering ribs and tugged at his blood vessels, chilling and burning them at once. 

    A crack shattered the void and quelled the slick black waves, and as their black curtain folded out of sight, Karim saw her stood over his fallen body. Her wicked smile glinted in whatever lay behind after the darkness retreated, and her boot pushed against his immobile legs, drawing a cry of pain that he himself could not hear. Though her lips moved, Karim did not catch a word of what she said, but he knew he did not need to. Those words had long since branded themselves in his memory.

    Some Gemini you are.

    The bored tone of voice, the lilt of each syllable, the roll of her eyes as she rolled him onto his back. Karim recalled it all in his dreams, even everything that happened after they scraped him off the floor. The second their claws sank into his clothes, he awoke without fail, his face hot, his heart racing. Sweat slithered between his shirt and his skin, and his fingers swept over his shaven head to find it laced with shivering droplets also.

    He focused his energy on steadying his hoarse breathing. Though the air felt familiar once more, the room in which he sat shared the same hostile darkness as his dream. It was a different room to the one he had last seen, that much was certain. Below him, the roll of threadbare fabric that claimed to be a bed creased as he shifted his weight, revealing more of the rigid rubber floor that lay beneath, its pieces so vast and packed together that no air could pass through, let alone any earth or stone. 

    Without any windows to let light in, Karim struggled to recognise the dimensions of his chamber, though he was certain that it was not a large space. Sunken in the dark, the frame of a firm rubber and plastic door flexed into his view, coaxing him towards it. Even the thought of standing ached his battered frame, yet the lack of any other course of action led Karim to gather his weary limbs and drag himself to the door with a chain of grunts and scraping steps.

    A closer inspection offered little new hope. The hinges of the door had been formed from a rigid plastic, and black tracks of rubber filled the slightest gaps between the door and its frame, making it both secure against his magic and a trial to open even when unlocked. Karim's eyes gravitated to the one feature of interest, a small set of slats just over his head. Beneath his laboured breaths, he heard nothing. The world beyond the walls appeared as dark, as cold, and as devoid of motion as the cell itself.

    But not devoid of air. Karim smiled to himself as a plan formed in his head. Moving air with enough force to burst the locked door open would require more energy than he could muster now, yet sparking a flame with the oxygen he could feel around his fingers was much easier. With a shake of his wrist and a flex of his digits, Karim clicked his fingers to spark the fiery blade at the tips of his two fingers, the sudden glow of the feeble orange flame almost bright enough to blind him. A head of smoke too large to be healthy rose from his hand, and a slight tickle formed at the back of his throat and sinuses just at the sight of it. No level of discomfort deterred him as he channelled all his energy into raising the heat of the flame.