“What’s happening to me?” Kyle screamed, coughing and spitting blood so that Ethan jumped away from him. “Help me!” He stood, blindly, with the red liquid pouring from his eyes, and stumbled. Instinctively, Paige backed away, fearing he’d caught some sort of epidemic. She didn’t want whatever he had.

“Ethan, get away from him. Don’t touch him anymore,” she hissed.

“No, don’t leave me!” Kyle cried, his voice a whimper filled with fear. “Help me!” He stumbled forward and tripped, nearly face planting as he barely caught himself with his hands. They erupted in blood, skin cracking along his knuckles. And as the blood flowed, it began to catch fire.

“Shit!” Ethan grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the door. Paige wanted to help Kyle, but that fire spread quickly, following the lines of blood across the floor and trailing up to his clothes and igniting them. They didn’t have buckets of water or a fire extinguisher, and considering how the blood had caught fire on its own, just like the sacrificial blood earlier, she doubted it would have mattered.

“We have to get out of here,” Ethan told her, just as the fire crawled up Kyle’s pant leg. He started to scream and flail, and Paige agreed. He was dangerous in this enclosed space, could set the pallets on fire so the whole room went up in flame. And if he swung at them, unable to see, they’d be dead.

“Come on, let’s go,” Paige agreed urgently. She hated to leave Kyle behind, but the flames were spreading fast over his body. Even if they put him out now, without proper medical attention, he likely wouldn’t make it through the night with the amount of his body that would be burned. At this point, they had to save themselves.

Lunging for the door, she thrust it open, and Ethan took her hand and began to run.

***

Losing two traveling companions to the gods only knew what was one thing. Watching another spontaneously combust was something else entirely. And the terror of the imminent danger as the fire consumed the small space was enough to send anyone into a panic.

Ethan knew they couldn’t leave the building yet. He and Kyle had already tried that once. But they had to get out of that room and hope that the bleeding, burning form couldn’t find his way out quickly. He tugged Paige down the hall, away from the screaming and burning Kyle, with no clear destination in mind.

“Ethan, wait. Where are we going?” she asked, slowing to a halt and stopping him in his tracks. She looked as terrified as he felt. “I don’t know that there’s anywhere to hide in here.”

“I don’t, either, but we can’t stay here. We can’t risk burning to death.” He thought frantically, trying to come up with a solution. “Maybe the prayer room?”

She looked skeptical. “Strength in numbers only makes sense when members of your group aren’t bleeding to death and catching fire.”

“It’s not about numbers,” he told her, fearing she was right. What if they went into the prayer room with the monks, only to find them afflicted with the same problems? “Listen, if this is something supernatural, or if it really is Kali and his sacrificial souls, wouldn’t the place with the highest concentration of faith and dedication to Kali be the safest place?”

She considered it for a moment. “I suppose that’s not the worst logic. In fact, it might do us some good to say a little prayer to Kali ourselves.” Ethan stared at her in horrified shock, but Paige rolled her eyes. “I’m not above showing some respect to a demon, if it means saving my skin, Ethan.”

She had a point, and he nodded, glancing up and down the hall. They’d run so far, so fast, he had no idea where he was or how to get back to the main prayer room. “Which way is it?” he muttered.

“I don’t know.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “This corridor meets up with another, and together, they pretty much circle the whole building. It may take more time, but if we keep moving forward, we’ll eventually get back to it.”

Ethan clenched his teeth. In doing so, they would likely pass by Kyle again, either still burning or crispy on the floor, dead. Neither sounded pleasant, but he didn’t have another idea. Turning around would make it highly likely they’d return to the burning man, considering they’d only just escaped the sounds of his torment.

Squeezing her hand, he nodded. “Alright, let’s go.”