Old house (Bonfire). Scene #08

Epilogue to Marina in Old House story

You can watch and read full story here - https://www.deviantart.com/marinagagged/gallery/98132561/marina-in-old-house

Marina did not wake up right away. First came the smell — sharp, bitter, burning her nostrils. Smoke.

Then — the crackling sound. She opened her eyes and saw orange tongues of flame lazily licking at the black, charred logs before her.

She was kneeling on the ground, in the damp grass, just a few steps away from the fire. The light of the flames illuminated an old house — the very one where it had all begun.

In the half-darkness, it looked even more alien: the crooked walls quivered in the dance of the fire, and the windows stared at her like dark, empty eye sockets.

She tried to move — and her heart sank. The ropes cut much deeper than before. They were tied so tightly that every breath sent a dull ache through her wrists.

Her mouth was no longer stuffed with the old gag but with a gray rag, pulled so tightly it felt as if she could taste its roughness with every cell of her tongue.

And only then, lowering her gaze, did Marina notice another strange change. Her familiar pleated skirt and sweater were gone. Instead, she was wearing jeans and a ridiculous,

unfamiliar T-shirt with bold letters across the front:

“Why always Marina?”

She froze. It was absurd, mockingly ridiculous — and for that very reason, all the more terrifying.

And only the campfire crackled nearby, as if mocking her condition, as if the house and the fire themselves were speaking to each other, while she remained merely

a silent witness.

Is this another dream? Or is it still reality, in which a strange man continues to play with her as if she were a doll?..