The Fire

He was in my dreams.

I went home and spent the rest of the day in my room, doing meaningless things. I heard my mom and older brother, Rob, arrive home, and soon after that, mom called me down for dinner. It was a quiet affair, no one had anything to say as we ate. When it was over, I hurried to my room, got ready for bed, and hit the hay early.

 

All day I'd had Collin Mallard on my mind. It was getting on my nerves. He was a jerk---doesn't matter how handsome he was.

 

I fell asleep replaying the scene in my head.

That night I dreamt that I was with a man who looked so much like Collin Mallard that they could be twins. The only difference was that this guy had blood red eyes. He was about a yard away from me, smiling. The smile made his face look like he had the intention of making me secumb to him, but his eyes were threatening. Scary. The pointy K-9 teeth peeking out from behind his lips only added to that scariness.

 

He held out his hand. "Come to me, Clair." And I felt the strongest urge to obey. I wanted to be closer to him.

 

My hand lifted toward him, and just as we were about to touch, I heard an ear piercing scream.

I shot up in bed, the blankets falling to my hips. My hands came up to rub the sleep out of my eyes. When I was done, I let my hands fall to my lap as I looked around my dark room. The memory of my dream came back to me, and I was about to slump against my pillows when i heard another scream.

 

I jumped out of bed and ran to the door. I felt blistering heat coming from the other side. A fire?

 

My first instinct was to move away from the door, and i was about to when i heard yet another scream.

 

Mom, I thought.

 

Without thinking I lunged at the door, ignoring the burning feeling when I touched the the metal doorknob, and flung the door open. I was met with the immediate light and heat from the fire. The fire hadn't spread this far down the hallway, so stepped through the door way. Peeking down the hallway in both directions, i discovered that the fire was coming from the back of the house, but there was smoke drifting up from the front stairwell.

 

"Mom!?" i called, coughing from the smoke. "Rob!?"

 

There was no answer. Even the screams from just a few moments ago had ceased. I went in the opposite direction of the smoke, to the stairs. I paused at the head, my eyes searching the burning foyer. The entrance to the kitchen had a pale arm lying motionless from it. As soon as i saw it, my mind quickly flashed to the clip of Snow White after she had bitten the apple.

 

I decended the stairs slolwy and carefully. When i reached the arm, my eyes followed up the arm to a smoldering body. The body belonged to my mother... And my mother wasn't moving.

 

My mommy was dead.

 

My mind was so hazy that i barely realized that i had sat down on the last step of the stairs. I knew my brother had been in his room, and his room was at the back of the house.... where the fire was. It was probably already engulfed by flames by now.

 

I felt tears flood my eyes. i was alone.

 

I glanced toward the front door. It was on fire, too. I saw no other way out, and, to be honest, I didn't really care. Major grief washed through me.

 

I don't know how long I sat there, crying, but eventually the smoke became to much. I felt myself start to drift off.

 

Through my haze, I felt something strong warp around me and pull me flush against them.

 

There was blackness for a moment, and then it was over..... I fell over a cliff into unconsciousness.