101 HeatWave

Sam (20s, pretty, edgy with tattoos) is wearing a tank top and shorts. She lays passed out on a small dining room floor that connects to a small kitchen. Her fingers begin to twitch.

Her eyes pop open and she blankly watches a ceiling fan rotate slowly, like the hands of a clock, on top of her. Sunlight peeps through the window blinds, casting parallel lines of light and shadows across the room. An old AC unit, sits in the corner of the room underneath the window.

Sam slams both hands on the sides of the AC unit with heavy and unsteady breaths. Her eyes are shaking and beads of sweat appear on her forehead and upper lip. Her finger sloppily turns on the AC Unit. She bends down to the open vents of the AC Unit and lets out a deep relieving breath while closing her eyes.

She sits there for a beat.

Her temporarily relief turns uncomfortable and her eyes shoot open. Her hair is blowing from the wind but the sweat on her face is more prominent. She starts to breath heavily again and scans the room in a quick panic. She looks over at the fridge and quickly gets up. The room starts to move and Sam places her hand on her head to steady herself before moving towards the fridge.

Sam opens the fridge, grabs a jug of water, and takes the top off in one unstable motion. She can't calm herself as sweat drips down her neck while her hands are shaking uncontrollably. She drinks the water slowly at first, but as she continues to drink, she becomes more and more aggressive. She is about half way through the water when she starts coughing and choking up water. She gasps for breath, sweat still dripping from her, she gives a pained expression and continues to drink the water. With each swallow, it seems she will devour the entire container with the water inside. She finishes the last bit of water in a gasp, she throws the empty jug of water, and lets out a scream. Her hands shake uncontrollably.

Sam tries to catch her balance on the fridge door, stumbles a few steps before falling to her knees. Her hands catches her fall. Her vision becomes blurry making the floor move from under her. She crawls and painfully breaths as the sweat pours from her body. Her hands slip on the puddle of sweat that she leaves and falls face first. She struggles and turns her body around to lay on her back. She looks up to see that she is under the ceiling fan that spins in a dreamlike orientation now. Her eyes are stuck in a trance before a pain in her hand makes her wince. She lifts her hands to her face and they are shaking so hard that they look like they were wound up and let loose. Her face and hair are now soaked in sweat. Sam's hands are in such an extreme pain that she doesn't know what to do other than to stare at them and pray for some sort of relief.

Pain turns into shock as one of her fingertips begin to ignite. Within seconds, her whole hand catches fire. The other hand repeats the same pattern. She squints in confusion and curiosity at her hands before fear floods her face. The fire starts to spread up her arms and she tries to shake them off: she can't. She begins to panic and begins flailing her arms around causing little flames to jump across the room. She starts to hyperventilate and becomes overtaken by pain. She gives one final gasp, looks up at the ceiling, before her eyes roll backwards. She falls to the ground, hitting her head hard. She lays on the ground and the flames from her hands and arms slowly fade away.

Sam lays on the small dining room floor underneath a ceiling fan that rotates like a clock.

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