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Lloyd coughed as he covered his face with his mask. Smoke had filled his room faster than he could have thought.
Thankfully, he knew the layout of the monastery well.
Unfortunately, the fire was right outside his door. His windows were jammed, probably because the arsonist wanted to trap him inside with no way out.
Lloyd jumped onto his bed with a yelp as a part of the ceiling fell in front of his door. He didn’t know what to do. He was trained to know what to do in the case of a fire, but what he wasn’t trained for was what to do when trapped in an extremely brunable room with no way out.
What shocked him the most was that most of the weapons he kept in his room, including his prized dao, was gone. He had little time to think about it before he started getting desperate.
He grabbed a pair of scissors from his desk and began trying to poke a hole into the windows. Unfortunately, it wasn’t glass, it was weaved bamboo and it wasn’t going to budge anytime soon. Lloyd tried to kick the window with all his might, but all he got was the wood of the frame groaning and that was it.
Lloyd felt the room’s temperature rise and the smoke grew thicker, making it harder to breathe. He began wheezing and coughing as he thought about the others.
After the tournament, the others went on a new mission to search for Jay, leaving Lloyd behind as they claimed he was too unwell to go. Sure, he could admit he wasn’t too well with grief after the whole tournament, but it was better than burning alive.
Lloyd just hoped that the others got back before his body was as charred as Kai’s infamous ‘black stakes’ that he made last week. The room suddenly shook as a loud explosion came from the other side of the monastery. Lloyd screamed out in fear as another wave of heat went through his room.
Lloyd looked over at his closet and ran into it, hoping that there could be a way to hide. He quickly slid the door shut and began frantically grabbing his clothes and even a couple of his old gi’s and shoved them at the bottom of the door, hoping to block smoke from coming in.
Lloyd felt like he couldn’t breathe. The smoke was too thick as he coughed and wheezed. If only Nya or Zane was here. He turned to face the wall behind him. He was getting desperate to escape. As the heat got hotter he began punching the wall, barely reacting as a couple of his fingers broke. The pain was nonexistent as he made a small dent, about knuckle deep, right into the wall. He stopped, panting, coughing, and wheezing as sweat dripped down.
Lloyd turned around, sitting down as he leaned against the wall. He let out a broken scream as he finally began to feel the pain of the heat. He yelled at the frustration of hiding in a closet, likely going to die alone and miserably.
Lloyd used his strength to slide the door of the closet open and he crawled out into his burning bedroom. He huffed and coughed as he desperately made his way to one of the windows. He clawed at the opening, trying to open it. It wouldn’t budge and he slowly turned to face his doorway, and before he could think, he heard a loud explosion and the right side of his face burned in agony as he fell unconscious.
—
They all saw the smoke before they even got close to the base of the mountain. Sora watched in horror as the charred remains of the monastery grew closer and closer as they all ran up the stairs. She couldn’t believe it, the others didn’t look as horrified, almost as if this had happened before.
She thought about Lloyd. He had to have gotten out, she didn’t want to think about what could’ve happened if he hadn’t.
By the time they reached the doors, Kai was calling out Lloyd’s name as Zane and Nya took care of any remaining fires. Sora followed as Cole and Kai ran in, heading to the direction of what was Lloyd’s room. The building had a rather stable structure, the wood had metal framing, and Sora can only assume why. Thankfully, that meant that they wouldn’t have to worry about the building collapsing too much.
Kai and Cole pushed some fallen debris that was in front of Lloyd’s doorway. The door was slid open and the wall in front of it was blown apart, seemingly with a bomb. Kai stepped in. The first thing he saw was Lloyd, slumped against his bed, he was facing the door and the right side of his face was burnt and bloodstained.
Kai cried out as he kneeled down in front of Lloyd, shaking the youngest ninja’s shoulders. He was begging for Lloyd to get up, to blink his eye, to do something.
“C’mon buddy,” Kai pleaded, tears running down his face as Cole put a hand on his shoulder.
Sora stood behind them, stunned. Tears were also pouring down her face as she couldn’t even begin to comprehend the sight. She backed away and threw up before falling to the floor as Cole ran over to her.
She couldn’t stop herself from passing out.
—
Lloyd felt exhausted as he tried to open his eyes. His right eye burned with pain. He couldn’t remember much, only the fire and that was it.
He groaned as he shifted in what he assumed was (hopefully) his bed. He blinked, his eye heavy with exhaustion. He blinked again. He couldn’t help but notice that half his vision wasn’t normal. He began to freak out a bit as he closed his left eye. He couldn’t see anything but a bunch of green out of right eye. All he could see was outlines of things, and only the biotic things he could see properly.
He blinked over and over, hoping that his vision would turn back to normal.
There was a knock and Lloyd looked over at the doorway to find Nya standing there. “Hey, Lloyd. Glad to see you awake,” she said, stepping inside the room as Lloyd watched her.
Lloyd felt a wave of emotions flow through him. The Forbidden Five really wanted to make a point, hadn’t they?
The visions had warned Lloyd.
Now he’s partially blind in one eye, almost as if to mock him for not seeing his vision clearly.
He was never going to forget this.