Chapter 15

    The hot flames surround my body and sting my skin, it's choking presence burning my nostrils. My lungs are begging for me not to breathe as it gets clogged with fuming smoke, but I can’t help it.

     Crawling out from underneath my mother’s desk, I look around in a panic, coughing into my hands weakly, before opening my mouth to cry for help. I can hear the shrieking alarm of a fire truck and the shrilling sound of police cars from the streets through broken windows, I can even hear the terrified screams and shouts of the people living in our apartment building, but what I can’t seem to hear are the voices of my parents.

     That thought alone scares the hell out of me and I panic some more. I make a move to stand to my feet despite my buckling knees, but before I can even make it up, I’m suddenly engulfed in flames as the roof above me gives out.

~*~*~*~

     I slowly aw