Chapter One:
Smoke filled my lungs, making me cough and jerk awake. The bed underneath me creaked as I jumped up, the flames trying to swallow my body as I ran toward my bedroom door. The usually cold floor was hot from the flames, covered in ashes in some places while it was collapsed in others. I carefully stepped as the door fell inside the room toward me, the force making the fiery wood start to collapse underneath me.
I screamed, my voice hoarse from the smoke rubbing the inside of my throat raw. I tried to run across the room, but tripped on a large burning coal. It singed my foot and I fell into the fire hole that would be my kitchen ceiling, landing on the table. It almost collapsed under my weight, but thankfully it didn't.
The kitchen door! There was the starry night sky right out there, which meant fresh air! I rushed across the ashy and fiery floor, trying to touch it as little as possible. I pushed the door but it wouldn't budge, sticking to the paint. I ran into it, pushing it with my shoulder. It fell outward, taking me with it. I breathed in the night air, coughing like mad. I ran to the front of the yard, looking for my mother. Father was out on business so I knew he wouldn't be here for a while.
The barn was up in smoke along with all of the crops, flames completely engulfing our small log house. We had just moved here a year ago and now everything was ruined. I fell onto the grass, slipping into the darkness.
I woke up to someone shaking me, shouting at me loudly. I opened my eyes slowly, although everything was blurry and the sun was bright. Once my vision cleared, I realized my father was shaking me. And he was furious.
"Where's your mother?" he shouted, his fingers digging painfully into my shoulders. I was smaller than him, being I was only fourteen and he was a grown man. "Where is she?"
"I don't know," I whimpered, tears rolling down my soot covered cheeks. He stopped kneeling beside me, yanking me to my feet by my arm. I cried out, the tears streaming down my face from the pain now. I couldn't see much as he shouted at me again.
"You lost her! You let her die in the fire! Do you realize what you've done?" He slung a dozen curse words at me, most of them I had never heard before. I was about to tell him I tried to find her, that she didn't come out of the house. Then he slapped my across the face, his hand covered in soot as I fell backward.
"It should have been you!" He shouted, watching a small trickle of blood run from the corner of my mouth...