The Fire (Freewrite Prompt: Helpless)

I remember smoke.

Everywhere that I look, it filling my lungs with the poison as I try and breathe. The intoxicating dark clouds surround me as I attempt to escape the flames that nip at my soiled clothes. The red hot flames grow higher with every step I take. My eyes burn from the intense heat, my throat closes up on itself. Coughs rise from my mouth, however I can only hear wheezing in it's place and the crackling of burning wood. Pictures of my loved ones surround me in this hell and a photo of my mother becomes burry as I collapse to the ground. I have inhaled too much of the exhaust. I should have listened. I now pay the price. I have finally accepted that this is the end of the line. I am too far gone to bring back.

I rest on the charred carpet and await my death for I know that it will soon come. My sight worsens, I see only shapes and colors instead of the designs that were once painted across these familiar walls. I am comfortably numb as the warmth of the flames sooths me to my eternal sleep.The constant sting of flesh burning off of my throbbing body becomes something that I am used to, as the inferno hell that I am in nips around my weak figure. Almost as if it were dancing, as if my pain is amusing to them. If I don't suffocate from the smoke I will surely be burned alive. The flames pirouette around me, rising higher as their dance becomes more intense. My ears catch the sound of shouting in the distance but the only thing I can focus on is the warm, welcoming glow in front of me. Inviting me to join them in their dance.

I'm not sure what happens next. Has my body failed me? Did I pass out? The noises around me seems to all fade away to one, low hum. This is my last thought, only confirming what I already knew. I am helpless.

And then, all at once, the long awaited darkness consumes me.