Prologue
Terror flooded the girl's body, she was frozen with fear. Panic struck and confusion settled in. The sound of the fire alarm was blaring over her puzzled thoughts. She checked the clock; it read 3:17 AM. Was she dreaming? She threw herself off the bed and stumbled her way across the room. The fire hadn't reached her bedroom, despite the incredible heat that had. Had it reached her loved ones? Where was her mother? She heard no screaming or crying. She shuddered at the thought. Thankfully her feet were moving faster than her mind. She grabbed the door handle without thinking. She quickly jerked her hand back, applying pressure to the sight of her fresh burn. The girl fumbled over to her dresser, opening the first drawer accessible. She pulled out a white, Cape Cod, tee shirt her mother brought back from a business trip and wrapped it around her hand. She went back to the door with her makeshift mitten and threw it open.
The girls' eyes went blank. All she could see was the furious blaze of fire on the second floor of her small Victorian home. The smoke quickly surrounded her. Her throat began to tighten and she struggled for fresh air. The lack of clean oxygen took a toll on her being. She was losing focus, and felt like giving up. She fell to the ground in a weak attempt to move forward.
She sat still for a moment while the room continued to spin around her. She closed her eyes, trying to grasp what was going on. Where was her mother? Brother? Had they gotten out safely? She knew they would never leave her. She sprang up at the thought. She wasn't going to give up on them. She was determined to get everyone out safely.
Everywhere she looked was just a mess of smoke and flames. The stairs were charred black, the bathroom door was nonexistent, and the floors were patched with holes. Her hand was throbbing and her breath was shortening, but that was the least of her problems. It was her vision of hell intensified. Here she was, alone and unaware of her outcome. Her only determination to keep moving was her family. Where were they? Why was no one calling her name? She covered her mouth and continued onward to her mother's room. She tried to call out, but choked on the thick smog in the air. She tried once more. It was no use, her voice was a whisper compared to the screaming of the smoke detector. No one could hear her, she felt pathetic.
She flung the door wide open and ran to her mother's bed. "Ma!" she cried. Seconds passed with no response. "Mom get up! We need to get out!" her voice trembled. Tears welled in the girls eyes. She violently shook her mother's body in hope of awakening her. Nothing. She collapsed, yet again, next to her mother's bedside. She grabbed her hand, and rested her forehead on it. The raging fire on the other side of the door was no longer a concern at the moment. Her mother was dead and there was nothing she could do. Why was this happening to her? How was this fair, she needed her more than ever. Who would take care of her and her brother? Her brother! She shot up, leaving her mother to lay in peace. Was this the last time she would see her mother?
The hallway was worse than she remembered. How had it worsened in such little time? She had trouble finding her brother's room in all the smoke. Her once so familiar home was unrecognizable in midst of the fire. When she finally found the general area of her brother's room, her heart sank. It was dark, but the fire illuminated the room like a thousand candles. She stood motionless. She had never seen anything so gruesome. She was hyperventilating. Her lungs couldn't keep up with the mixture of smoke and crying. She turned away and made a break for the stairs.
It was difficult to maneuver the half burning stairs. She stumbled a few times, barely making it to the bottom. She turned to find every room on the bottom floor a blaze. It was hard to think under the circumstances but she knew she had to get help. The kitchen phone was out of the question. Where would she go? The girl ran back to the front door. She stumbled across the path in her yard, grabbing onto the mailbox for support. She noticed the name Trovatelli that had taken her mother forever to get just right. She wiped the tears off her ash covered face. She was dizzier than before, incoherently running straight into the woods. She circled around a few trees.
"HELP! Someone, please! Help me!" She knew it was useless. She broke down on the wet floor of the forest. Tears were falling off her cheeks landing in puddles on the ground. The rain felt cool on her hot skin, but the coughing would not subside. The girl was exhausted. She mustered one last cry for help. That was the last of her energy; she passed out on La Push forest floor.