Salem'sheart pumps blood through his chest as quick as it could.
His body began to burn hot, so very hot that his head felt sickened with a fever, he's never had even the slightest cough in over a month.
Salem trekked one foot in front of the other as he walked forward. The thought of flying straight to Hachishaku never crossed his mind.
Salem bites his lip, cursing the same thing again and again.
Salem: "Don't you dare touch him… Don't you dare touch him…"
With every fiber of his body Salem didn't care about anything but Mickey.
Salem felt like an idiot.
He left the Mall in fear of acknowledgment of his other persona.
He didn't want the connection of The Burning Man and Salem to become known and disregarded the need for an effigy.
Now he's on a wild goose chase for the kidnapper of the brother and the perpetrator is obvious…
He's foot left visible singe marks on the ground, as they burned through his shoe into the ground.
He's hot indeed but not on fire, he burns away any sign of life that hits his body.
Even the air is too afraid to touch him about now.
Salem climbs and climbs.
Salem: "I'll kill that fucking bitch."
Those were Salem only words that broke through besides his repeated words of not wanting a single finger laid on his brother.
Salem feels anger, not only because his brother was taken, but because he's very well about to experience the same thing with his mother.
He was about to let her mother be hurt in his stead. Instead of finding a way to stop the whole altercation in the beginning of it all he does something stupid and ends up having someone else deal with the consequences.
Only now, instead of his mother. It might be his brother, the one that hasn't had a life, hasn't had the ability to find anything good to do in life right now. He doesn't even have friends.
Salem: "Don't you dare touch him…"
Salem continued on his climb up the hill, the visibility as he grew never increased.
* * *: "You came alone?"
The voice was feminine and sounded dangerous:
* * *: "Are you an idiot?"
The voice didn't break through to Salem yet, his mind was still stuck on saving his brother so he continued trekking up, thinking the voice was Wonders.
Salem: "Don't you dare touch him…"
Salem voice was course and so low, but the amount of contempt, the amount of anger, the amount of…
RAGE
It was undeniable, he was going to save his brother by killing the thing or die trying.
* * *: "Salem… No longer want to save your brother?"
Salem eyes spun in the darkness of the forest.
Salem: "Where is he?!"
He yelled into the darkness like a madman after taking straight fentanyl.
Salem: "Where's my Brother?!"
* * *: "He's here somewhere…"
The voice was prolonged, and it sounded like it was zooming around in the darkness with perfect precision.
The trees in the hills cracked and broke as the voice jumped around Salem like an unhinged monkey.
Salem: "Where's Mickey?!"
Salem breathe was hot, if there was light, smoke would be seen.
Smoke that let off heat so hot it would burn the trees were they were at.
* * *: "Is that how you want to treat the one person that could help you?"
Salem doesn't bat an eye to that question.
Salem: "I want my brother back. NOW."
Salem voice was strong.
It held the anger he was covered in.
Salem walked, his footstep made a clear print of smoke whenever his foot left the ground to another spot.
* * *: "Did you grow a pair of balls since the last time I saw you?"
The darkness obscured the voice as it trailed closer to Salem now.
Salem: "I'm angry… So very angry…"
Salem paused.
Then he let out a deep breath that he didn't even know he was holding.
The breath burned hot.
It was like a dragons breath, it burnt.
Salem took in a deep breath to let it out again.
This time it wasn't smoke, fire came out, not a lot, but enough to know that he was serious.
* * *: "You will have to give your life in order to free your brothers."
Salem: "No… you will lose your life if you don't give me my brother."
Those words cut through like a laser through tofu.
Salem took a deep breathe and his body started to grow hot. Very hot.
He took a deep breath.
* * *: "Are you sure about those choice of words?"
Salem let out the breath.
Salem: "I very much fucking am."
The breath held smoke, his body transformed.
His mouth got covered in flames, then his head. His body followed and then the fire covered Salems legs completetly covering Salem body in flames.
Salem would have been in a different position if he was in his brothers stead, but that's not happening, right now this thing decided to become a target of pure aggression for Salem.
Salem: "Give. Me. My. Brother. Now."
The flames illuminated what Salem has been talking to this whole time.
It was a woman. A tall woman, so extremely tall that she towered Salem, she had deep red eyes as they burrowed holes into Salems eyes.
Her body was extremely thin and her skin paled in white, if Salem never lit up the area in light she would have been just one of the trees.
She wore a dress the same that Salem saw Hachishaku wear.
Salem feels it now, the same dread that he felt when he first saw her. But it's now, not even the same as before, his body completely ignoring the pain of being under fear from the "woman".
Salem: "Give me my brother."
Hachishaku: "Give your life."
Her voice was a scratchy sound that annoyed Salem to the extreme.
Salem: "Where's my brother?"
Hachishaku: "You don't hear him?"
Salem instinctively quieted down to try and hear for voices.
He couldn't hear anything.
Not even crickets were heard from where he stood.
Salem now had no clue what she was talking about… but a voice broke through the quiet silence of the forest.
It was faint and could bery well be assumed to be a mouse, if Salem wasn't familiar with the voice.
Mickey: "..help..!"
The yell was distant Salem ran in the direction he heard it from and was immediately struck in the back of his flaming body making him go flying into a tree that would bend and break, making him get set into another tree, stopping him there.
Hachishaku: "Give your life for your brothers freedom."
Salem wanted to stand but he's never felt a punch this bad.
The only time comparable was before his father just up and left.
Salem tried to get to his legs, but his body felt like giving out.
The tall woman took steps closer to Salem.
Salem coughed blood as he got to his hands and legs, he gripped the bark of the tree and pulled himself.
Before he could stand to full mast he was struck again sending him right through the tree again.
He struck the ground and bounced off of it, his flaming body faltering for a second letting the flame sizzle away.
After the bounce Salem struck a tree, his back hit the tree with a loud…
Crack!
Hachishaku: "Is this the power that you can amount to..? If that's it I very well could kill you both.."
Salem looked up and saw a disgusting smile on the tall woman's face, it was disturbing…
Salem: "Don't lay a finger on my brother…"
Salem gripped the bark once more and pulled himself up.
Hachishaku moved fast just like the other two times and was ready to stroke Salem once more.
Salem saw it this time though. In defense he covered his face and dug his feet into the ground.
Hachishaku struck him in his arms and the force didn't move Salem.
He shook first then he tried to grab her, she moved out of Salem grasp.
Before moving completely out of his line of sight her deep red eyes gone… that's when Salem heard the voice again.
Mickey: "…Salem… help me…"
The voice was far but Salem didn't care. He ran once more in the direction of the voice. And he found a a silhouette of a child on the ground next to a log that was dying.
Salem couldn't see it very well so he moved closer to the body.
The silhouette now stopped being obscured in darkness, and was revealed with Salem's flames.
The body was a skeleton, and a small one at that, it could very well be…
Salem didn't want to think that.
He didn't want to think. Salem was afraid…
Salem: 'No, it can't be… it won't be.. how did..? Please… Mickey…'
The voice came back. From behind him.
"Mickey": "…salem… save me."
It came from behind him.
Salem turned quickly and was struck in the face sending him flying.
Hachishaku: "Your brothers very well dead, I've just been using his voice for lure…"
Salems was horrified by the implication of his death…
Salem felt the heat of his flames increase… it felt hot, and hot, and hot, and…
Salem flames turned deep blue as he let out a yell so loud.