The house burned down to the ground. Nothing left but the embers. It wasn't long before that had the ambulance arrived. Arriving at the scene, I couldn't imagine what they were feeling. Whether they despaired over the lost lives, bodies charred having turned to ashes or disappointment towards themselves for not making it in time, or perhaps both. My face hidden behind the trees surrounding the area. I could imagine the surprise they must have felt as they spotted me amongst the trees, a body slumped on the ground. Black stained and tear streaked cheeks and a runny nose was what came into view as they cautiously walked closer. A survivor. A survivor that made them rejoice. A survivor that they wrapped in a blanket to shield away from the cold chilly December air.
The screams ringing in the slumped body's ears. Unknown to those around in the outside world and going unnoticed. The world that was lost to the person wrapped in the blankets and placed on a gurney to be strolled away and into the bright lights of the ambulance. The lights blinding like hot suns as they dilated the pupils of the weak and slumped form, unable to adjust to the lights he vainly tried to block the light by closing his eyes, something that brought him little relief. Sighing he felt tired, the people around him bustling around him as they tried to check him for injuries. The only injuries consisting of minor burns and splinters that were deeply embedded into the skin of his fingers and palms. The pain lost to the stranger as the nurses treated his wounds once they had arrived at the hospital. Lost in a daze the boy wished this was all a dream and that sometime soon he'll wake up to the banging of Laura's fists onto his door as she wakes him up. The smell of breakfast as his mom cooks breakfast. The pitter patter of his little cousins playing and his aunts and uncles conversing. The occasional cry of a baby and the laughter and liveliness filling the Hale Residence.
'Yeah.....soon I'll wake up and this will all be a dream.', thought the now cleaned and treated patient as he closed his eyes and thought of the family he knew he had lost.