Gone.

The door was locked. None of the windows were open. Only a small nightlight was keeping away the darkness of midnight. Time was running out. I stood still, something was about to happen. I could feel it in my bones, I didn't know what could happen but I knew something would. And I was stuck, locked in my room. Mum and dad are both in bed. Asleep of course, neither would sense what I was sensing right now. Well, no one that I have ever met has been able to feel the things I feel. The warnings.

Smoke was coming from under the door, I could smell burning wood. The house was on fire. I yelled and screamed, and opened my door. But the fire was right there outside my door and I couldn’t get out that way. I wanted to stop it, so badly. I couldn't stop it. It was too strong. Too fierce. Too wild. Growing stronger by the second. I heard screaming. A loud crash. Glass being shattered. That gave me an idea. A window.

I grabbed my skateboard as the flames crept ever so closer and closer still. I smashed the window with my skateboard, glass cutting my arms. Thankfully, it broke easily. I jumped out and I escaped. Alive. But what had become of my parents?

The flames behind me lit up the dark street. I was so scared for my parents. I heard a fire truck coming, someone had called for help.

I stood with a fireman outside the house of fire, once my home. Well, if you call trying to run in the house with the fireman holding me back, ‘standing’. It took a long time to stop the fire but when they had stopped it, they found mum and dad. Dead.

I screamed and screamed. They were dead. How the hell would I live without them? I’m ten years old! I’m alone. They were my only family. I have no one!

I cried. So much. I couldn’t bear to look at my parents bodies. I asked if they had died from the fire. Even though I knew the fire didn’t kill them. Something else did.

A stab wound through each of their hearts. The didn't perish like I thought they would. They were killed. Murdered. The fire was on purpose. It was lit. It was a cover-up. For the real crime. The murders of my parents.

I was supposed to die with them. Who wanted us dead? Everything I had ever known. Was lost. Gone forever. Never to come back. I was dead. On the inside. Part of me was ripped away.