• Shock Horror

    Tory


    Sebastian had gotten me back to my room unnoticed, despite the longest tour he took me on. I wouldn’t lie, he was amazing. Just being in his presence gave me a rush of happiness, even with my shield up. It had to be his personality. And despite his efforts to get me to take my clothes off, he was unlucky. It was never going to happen. It wasn’t like it mattered anyway, I was leaving an possibly never coming back here.
    I started collecting what little things I had brought here when Seth had got me from work. It hadn’t been too much, just a small bag with a few things in it; a notebook, a spare pair of shoes, my phone, purse and a gun.
    As I thought about what I brought, I noticed that my notebook was missing. s**t, where’d it go?! I can’t leave it here, that would be leaving evidence behind and that would be a bad move for me.
    Groaning, I looked on the desk. Scattering papers and pens all over the floor to clear the desk, I was keeping an ear out just in case there was a heavy thud of a book with the papers.
    ********! It wasn’t there, where else would it be if it wasn’t on the desk? I thought to myself as I ran a hand over the top of my head. Where did I last have it? I don’t remember –
    Realisation hit me square in the face, the bed! I had it last on the bed when I was writing in it. I scrambled to the bed and threw the covers off, listening for that heavy thud. The pillows were next; I threw them away in half annoyance and half anger.
    It wasn’t on the bed! Under it perhaps? I got down on all fours and looked into the dark, dusty space. There, under the bed, was a shape of a notebook. I could faintly see the yellow colour which confirmed that is was mine. Inside I was jumping for joy that I had found it and didn’t have to leave it here. I reached in for it and grabbed it by the edge before I had realised that there was a funny smell in the air.
    Was that… Smoke? It smelt rusty and like wood when you burn it; it was smoke! The building was on fire! I got up off the floor with the notebook in hand. I didn’t notice that my hand was in hitting distance so it hit the metal pole with a metallic thud. I hissed at the pain that ran up my hand to the crease of my elbow and up into my arm.
    I ignored the pain and went to the window, red and nasty flames engulfed the side of the building. My eyes widened as I watched the unusual pattern the fire went in; it wasn’t normal. This fire wasn’t normal because someone was controlling it.
    Time to get out, I thought to myself as I pushed away from the window and made my way to the door. It's like a nightmare to me; I wasn’t the one to cause this but then who was?
    “Fire!” I hear someone down the hall yell.
    Oh great, they only just realise now that the building is about to burn down around them. I truly had wished that someone had noticed earlier.
    The hallway was filled with smoke, the fire was nearer than I had thought but not close enough that I could feel the heat. I saw the blurs of people rush by, all going one way, so that must be the way I should go as well.
    Plunging into the smoke filled hallway, I inhaled a mouthful of smoke before I covered my mouth. I tried to follow the blurs that passed by me, I tried to follow the vision of their heat but my mind was too fuzzy to process it.
    Ahead I could see a blur, I decided to speed up in attempt to stay on his tail but that was a mistake. The blur was coming towards me and only at the last minute did I realise it, moving to the left so he didn’t fully collide with me. Instead, I collided with the wall, knocking my elbow against it, also the arm that I had hit previously.
    My arm came away from my mouth as I sucked in a tortured breath, inhaling smoke as I tried to cough it up again. I moved my arm back into place and coughed behind it.
    Gritting my teeth, I moved off the wall I had perched on and started on, not knowing where I was going because the blurs had stopped appearing. The only thought running through my head was ‘Air, clean air!’ I needed to desperately get out of here.
    Footsteps came up fast behind me, they didn’t sound like they would be stopping any time soon or else they hadn’t noticed me yet. I turned slowly, just able to see the dark face of someone before he collided with me.
    He sent me flying into the opposite wall; I slide to the floor with a heavy thud like it was slow motion. The pain that I was holding back washed over me like tidal wave, along with the new pain from the very hard wall. My body felt so heavy that I couldn’t lift it because of the smoke that filled it.
    My hand fell away from my mouth again, it was too heavy. I coughed up the smoke just to inhale more and more. I can't see myself getting out of this without a miracle.
    Through the haze that is in my head, I can hear my name being called. Over and over Tee, Tee, Tee was being called. It's like there are bees buzzing around me, saying my name over and over.
    I’m coming, I thought distantly, after I’ve had my sleep.
    “Tory!” Seth yelled from a distance.
    I opened my eyes to see light coming through the smoke screen in front of me, it's in the shape of a door with a shape of a man in the middle. The exit, I thought dimly, it's the exit of the building and Seth is standing there waiting for me.
    I started to get up on my hands and knees, my arms wobbled at the pressure and don’t want to keep me up but I will them to. The exit was just so near that I had to get out, I would get out.
    Up on my feet, I staggered a little before I regained my full balance and start to make my way to the light. I will make it; even if Seth has to dra – A scream, vibrating against the walls and through the smoke, had me stopping dead in my tracks.
    The scream of a young girl snapped me out of my train of thought. Someone is still in here and she sounded so young, so frightened. The strings around my heart pulled in different directions, one going towards Seth and another going to the girl. I looked at the door where he was standing and closed my eyes that suddenly have tears in them.
    I’m sorry, Seth, I thought loudly so he can hear. I’m so sorry, Dad.
    I turned into the smoke filled hallway that was as thick as fog and gathered my concentration. My shield went up around me easily, like always. There’s no trouble or need for effort as I run deep in the building.
    “TORY!” Seth screamed out to me.
    The people thinned out, not many passed by as I ran in the other direction and only by their surprised curses do I know they are there. The heat grew and the smoke thickened around me, as I got further into the building, blindly following the screams of the girl. Her screams were loud and whimpers echoed off the walls but I couldn’t tell where her screams were coming from.
    I called out to her, “Where are you?! Keep talking.”
    I heard a distorted reply. “I’m going to die!”
    “I’m coming to get you, you won’t die!” I yelled back at her.
    “Help me, please. Oh God, please help me,” she cried back a little louder.
    I could tell where her cry came from now, upstairs was the way to go. I ran in the direction of it, looking for a staircase by the slight glow of my shield through the heavier and heavier smoke. Her screams were quieter, feebler; as I get closer and the longer I take to get there.
    “Just keep talking to me,” I called out.
    “…My mother is dead but I can see her…” she sobbed out.
    I sucked in a breath at the hurt-filled declaration. “Just stay with me.”
    Ash fell down around me like snow. I could feel the heat through my shield and my breath seemed to be coming faster because of my surroundings. I found stairs in this twisted maze of corridors but hesitated at the foot of them. They were burnt in places that would make them break and flaming in other parts. They’d surely break if I stepped on them.
    I put a testing foot on them. It shifted under it and creaked loudly as if it is about to give way.
    “I’m going to die, I don’t want to die…” she choked. Silence fell shortly after.
    “Stay with me!” I screamed in panic.
    My mind was made up because of the silence. Whether the stairs give way or not, I will go up them. I plunged up the stairs, no time to think of consequences if I had made the wrong choice.

    Charlotte

    I was going to die; this fire would be my killer whether it was from the smoke entering my system or from the heat. I was surely going to die right here, right now.
    That lady wouldn’t make it in time to save me; she couldn’t survive the heat any more than I could. Because she was trying to save me, she would die as well, just like my mother. No one could stand this pressure.
    Sweat was pouring down my face, soaking my blonde hair that had turned brown from the ash and my now burnt t-shirt. Burns covered my arms from the falling debris in the roof; they covered my legs as well.
    I would die. Despite the trouble my mother went through to save me, to give her life for me to live mine.
    I’m so terribly sorry, mother, I couldn’t do as you had wished, I thought to myself.
    A beam from the roof fell, burning along the now blackened surface a few feet away from me. I watched as the flames engulfed it quickly and wondered if it would be that quick with my body.
    My eyes slowly drifted shut, finally emitting defeat and getting heavy. People would be screaming for dear life if they were in my place but me, I just took it as my fate. My fate was to die, here and now.
    The voice of the woman cried out to me, I couldn’t understand what she was saying at first. That was until it sunk in my head that she was still alive. My eyelids shot open in shock, still alive? No, it was just not possible…it couldn’t be.
    “Where the bloody hell are you?!” she screamed out.
    “Here,” I croaked quietly. I coughed and tried again, louder this time. “I’m here!”
    The door swung open, it hit the wall and fell off its hinges then went through the burning wall, making a giant gap. The wall crumbled a little but it stayed in place, it would fall very soon.
    My eyes fixed on the doorway, smoke descended inside my room but that wasn’t the important thing I saw. It was the glowing ball that caught my attention and the woman inside it, smoke would move around it and there was at least a meter of light around her.
    Smoke entered my lungs without me realising until I started to cough. She rushed to my side as I bent to the side and coughed harder. Air, beautifully clean air, instantly hit me and I started to take big gulping breaths, thinking it wouldn’t last long.
    “Are you alright?” She asked me as she crouched to my level.
    “Fin…ne, just…Need… Air,” I said back, I looked up at her and was amazed.
    She glowed like the bubble around her; it was like an angel was sitting next to me. Her looks, the dark-red blonde and pale blue eyes, looked familiar, it was like I knew her but I hadn’t met her before.
    “You’re the pixie blonde,” she growled, my mind was fuzzy and I wasn’t sure if I had heard her right. Pixie blonde?
    “I don’t… I don’t understand what… What you mean…” I mumbled out, eyes blurring.
    She completely dismissed it and came towards me. “My name is Tory and you are, sweetie?” she asked, helping me to stand at the same time.
    “Char… Charlotte. My name is Charlotte,” I said, trying to stay upright on my feet.
    “Can you walk?” she asked again, her arm went around my back when it looked as if I would fall.
    “Kind of,” I mumbled, half to myself, half to her.
    “Here, I’ll help you walk out of here,” she said, dragging my arm over her shoulders to help support me.
    “Alright, I think… I think I’m alright to go,” I said without confidence.
    The floors creaked as our feet went across them, my heart raced inside my chest thinking that the floor was going to cave out from under us.
    “Calm down,” Tory murmured.
    I hadn’t noticed my breathing had sped up and became louder until I was told to calm down. I nodded fast and tried to control it with every ounce of will I had.
    Ash and embers flew from the roof as the fire sped throughout the building, some moved around the outside of the bubble. It was like being inside a snow globe but in reverse, the ash outside instead of in and the people on the inside.
    Tory led us to a staircase, I shuffled my feet because I was getting tired of walking, but my eyes widened at the sight of the stairs. I dug my heels into the floor as hard as I could.
    Tory looked at me with worried eyes. “What is it, Charlotte?”
    “Those stairs will not hold both of us,” I murmured, staring at the stairs.
    “Don’t worry, it will hold us but not for long,” she assured me. “Trust me, Char.”
    I thought about it, I could hear the roar of the fire and the heat as it indicated that it was getting closer. It would nearly burn down the whole building with us in it, if I didn’t go down those stairs.
    I took a deep breath. “Alright. I trust you.”
    She grabbed my hand and we both took off down the burning staircase, hoping that it would hold both of us long enough to get to the bottom.


    - Even through, I was fire, I was still deadly afraid of it.