Excerpt: Clone Me!

'I had a dream last night. It seemed so vivid, so incredibly real that when I woke from it I was convinced that it was real. It took me a few minutes to catch my breath and to convince myself that it had just been a dream. I could smell the smoke... I could smell the burning flesh... I could feel the heat from the flames and see the orange flicker back my eyes, and although I had awoken it still felt as if I were still standing before that woman, still standing before that terrible scene.

To begin with it was not so terrible. There was a brief moment at what I believe to be the start of the dream (though do we ever really remember the whole of our dreams? Do we ever really remember what happened in what order or do our minds try to piece segments into the right order when we awake?) when I felt the spark of happiness. I stood with the woman in my arms, leaning in for a kiss. I was much younger in my dream - at least twenty years younger then I currently am - from a time when such actions still held any interest for me. We leaned in to kiss when suddenly a shadowy black arm wrapped itself around her waist, pulling her away from me. She reached out for my with a look of horror and a silent scream on her lips as the arm pulled her through the air. I reached out for her and ran after her before I fell and my face hit the ground. I pulled myself to my knees and looked up to see the woman tied to a stake, like the witches in the old stories. She seemed to be unconscious, her head resting on her shoulder and her curly hair trailing down like a pillow. Then she twitched as if something disturbed her sleep. She went still before twitching again, her brow crinkled in confusion. Then she seemed to wake up... raising her head to look at me. Her face still showing her confusion I see her lips form my name, a question rather then a call.

And then the flames came.

I stared at them aghast and tried to run to the woman, to pull her free of the flames and to release her from the demons that sought to consume her... but although I managed to get to my feet I could not move any closer to the woman. I was seized by a presence similar to fear, but much more real, more physical then any fear I had ever felt, either real or in a dream. I was paralysed, unable to move forward but unable to turn away. The flames grew taller as the demons danced around the woman, teasing me, tormenting her. "See what happens when you play with fire?" they seemed to sing. "See what happens when you play with matches?" Higher and higher the flames grew. Louder and louder the demons sung. "See what happened when you light a spark?" They consumed her bit by bit. I could smell her flesh burning. I caught glimpses off her face calling out to me though the flames, twisted in pain yet unable to scream. The flames consumed her, the demons devoured her, singing their song brought from hell. "See what happens when you play with fire?" they sung, even as the flames died and nothing was left but some sticks and bones little more then charcoal now.

"You get burned."'