Flare Read Online Free Page B

underneath his rags and saw that the first floor was much as his sister had normally kept it. It was neat and spotlessly clean, the only difference being that the windows were now covered with thick curtains that glowed from the edges.
    “Hello?” asked Ash.
    He searched for any clue to what had happened, but the house was no different than it had always been, a modern and airy two-story home, clean to the point of being sterile.
    “Heather?” he asked once more, but there was still no answer.
    He looked at the far corner of the living room and saw what looked to be a small cloth shelter at the far wall. The shelter sat neatly on the floor, with strong crisp lines. It wasn’t high but it was long, and it was completely opaque. It didn’t look like it posed a threat, so Ash decided to investigate and walked towards it cautiously.
    It was set up like a one-man tent, built to hold a person lying down but not much else. It was long and thin, and though the outer material was opaque, Ash saw regular bed sheets sticking out from the bottom. Ash felt the outer material and realized that it was the same heavy plastic cloth that lined the interior of the mask that had covered his eyes.
    He listened for a moment and then heard a faint wheezing from the bed sheets, and jumped back. The wheezing continued, and it sounded like a very sick person was trapped inside. Ash stood back, hesitant to even speak again.
    This person might need my help. But Heather must have set this up, and maybe I shouldn’t disturb what she’s done.
    Ash took a step back and listened to the wheezing coming from the tent for another moment, before a horrid thought crossed his mind: What if it’s Heather in there?
    He knelt down next to it and listened. Whoever it is, their breaths are quite shallow. They might not be dying, but may be soon.
    “Heather?” asked Ash, but no response.
    Ash pulled gently at the covers of the tent, and they slid back easily to reveal blankets underneath. Ash felt the tent’s structure and realized that it wasn’t a tent at all, but rather a loose shell with covers on top of it. He gently removed one of the upper folds of the covering blanket and pulled it back. He saw a man, or at least what was left of one.
    “ Kheee …”
    Ash jumped back in shock when he saw the person. He could only see a little bit of him, because most of the man’s skin was covered in bandages. What little skin Ash saw was blistered and raw and covered with a thick layer of pus.
    “Sir,” said Ash, “can you—”
    “ Kheee …,” wheezed the man again, and he started to shake.
    The man continued to tremble until he was in an outright seizure, and his mouth began to foam.
    “Heather!” screamed Ash.
    The man began shaking violently, and the cloth around his head came loose. The man’s eyes were pale and sightless, his eyelids nonexistent, and his forehead a pale-red matte of flesh. The man started to make choking noises, and Ash put his hands on him to turn him over on his side. The man’s pus had soaked through his bandages, and Ash’s fingers stuck to the man’s body.
    The man was beginning to choke on the foam that was coming from his mouth. I need to turn him over but I have to do it gently. What if his melted skin has fused to the floor?
    Ash felt a hand on his shoulder, and it gently pushed him aside. He stood up to see his sister Heather kneeling down by the man, moving him to his side to let him cough. The man spat fluid onto the floor, and it came out black, red and thick, a dark ball of mucus. She took a thin tube from her pocket and put it in his nostril, threading it upwards and inwards, and then attached a bulb to the end. She squeezed the bulb and more dark mucus came out, which she deposited onto a pile of gauze on the floor.
    The man calmed down, and she gave him soothing words before taking an encased syringe from her pocket, along with a packet that contained an alcohol-soaked swab. She opened the packet and sterilized