Devastating Embers

Shortly, we arrived at the studio. We were greeted by two young men, John and Rigby. 'You must be Allie and Toby.' Said Rigby, shaking Toby's hand and then mine. 'So, let's get down to business.' Added John, leading us to a studio. It was a modern building with at least 20 recording studios. Toby and I were led into a room named Studio 6A. 'Ok, just get into the box, put the headphones and we'll get started. We agreed and got into the soundproof box and put on the headphones in front of us. John pulled his thumb up at us and we gave him the thumbs up to start recording. The music started and so, the recording began.

When we had finished recording, Rigby opened the door and told us. 'We're just going to get some coffee, be right back.' I nodded and off they went, closing the door behind them. I kissed Toby and he decided to make a vlog describing what we were recording. When he had done, we both just had a chat and played games on my phone.

An hour passed and we were starting to wonder where John and Rigby were. 'God, how long does it take to make a coffee?' I asked Toby. 'Certainly not this long.' He replied. Then, at the corner of my eye I saw smoke coming from under the door of the studio. 'Toby, what the fuck is that?' I exclaimed. Toby then looked at the door as well. In a panicky voice, he said 'Allie, we need to get out of here.' So we both ran out of the soundproof box and tried to open the studio door. I pulled and pushed with all my might but the door wouldn't budge. 'It's locked!' I shouted. Toby started kicking the door again and again and again until it fell backwards. Then we saw where the smoke was coming from. The whole building was engulfed in flames. We both stood there, shell shocked for a moment. 'Cover your mouth and nose. We're gettin' out of here.' I did as I was told and I followed Toby as we ran down the stairs which were close to falling apart.

As we were running down a corridor not that far from the exit, we heard an odd creak above us. We both looked up to see a crack in the ceiling that was getting bigger and bigger. Then the roof made a really loud creaking noise. Toby's eyes widened and he shouted 'Look out!' He lunged towards me, knocking me to the floor, causing him to also fall to the ground. Then something horrible happened. The roof collapsed onto Toby. I covered my eyes with my arm to stop dust from getting in my eyes. I heard the ear splitting sound of things falling and smashing behind me. When the sound had finally stopped, I pulled my arm away from my face. There was dust and debris everywhere, but soon the dust cleared and I saw a pile of debris on the floor where Toby was meant to be. 'No, no! Toby!' I shouted, crawling towards the enormous pile of debris. I started digging through it wildly. Finally I found Toby's face. It was covered in bleeding scratches and he barely had his eyes open. 'Toby! Oh god, are you ok?' Weakly, he replied 'N…no. I..I can't get out.' 'Don't worry, babe, I'll get you out!' I managed to grab his shoulders and I pulled with all my might, but he wouldn't budge. 'My…legs….hurt.' said Toby. 'I'm going to get you out of here, don't you worry!' 'N…no, Allie. G…get out….of here. L…leave me.' 'No way! I'm not leaving you here! You'll die!' 'I…I just want you to…be…s…safe.' Toby managed to pull his arm out of the pile of rubble that covered him and he pulled off the necklace I had given him, which was half a heart that had 'Allie' on it. Underneath my name was the word 'buscus'. I had the other half of it, which had Toby's name on it and the word 'Double' underneath it. Together, both the necklaces read 'Toby + Allie' and underneath that it said 'Doublebuscus'.

He placed it weakly in my hand and pushed my fingers over it. 'If I d…don't make it out, r…remember what w…we are. W…we are D…doublebuscus. Th…that's who w…we are and..' 'Who we always will be.' I finished, tearfully. 'Go, A…allie.' I looked at him for a minute, now with tears running down my cheeks. 'Ok.' I eventually wept. I then kissed Toby gently and whispered 'I love you.' Weakly, he whispered 'I love you too.' I crawled away from him. This broke my heart into a billion pieces. I didn't want to leave him but the way he had spoken to me persuaded me to go. Not for my own safety, for him. Just as I reached the end of the corridor, I turned around to look at him. He held his head up, but then he closed his eyes and his head gently lay on the floor. I cried as I saw this and continued crawling down the corridor.

I finally saw the exit. There was a fireman there and he dragged me out of the burning building and into the back of an ambulance. I was checked over and all was OK except for a few bruises, scratches, minor burns and minor smoke inhalation. I sat in the ambulance with a blanket over my shoulders, waiting, hoping, praying that Toby would get out alive.

After what felt like hours, I finally saw two firemen carrying a stretcher out of the studio. I immediately threw the blanket off my shoulders and ran as fast as I could towards the stretcher. I gazed onto the stretcher to see a lifeless looking Toby. The scratches and bruises to his face made him look almost unrecognisable. His skin was pale and he looked dead. Tearfully, I cried to the firemen 'Is he alive? Please, tell me he's alive.' One nodded and replied 'Yes, he's alive but he's in a critical condition. He needs to get specialist treatment as soon as possible.' I nodded and stroked Toby's face as he was carried into the back of the ambulance. As the ambulance whizzed off towards L.A's best hospital, I sat by his side holding his hand to my face. I whispered to him 'Baby, please, please wake up.'

When we finally arrived at the hospital Toby was quickly rushed to the E.R. I wasn't allowed to come with him but I was shown to the relative's room. There I waited anxiously for news but hours went by and I hadn't heard a word from anyone. I paced the room, sick with worry. What if he'd died? What if I couldn't see him again? Then finally, a nurse came in. I looked at her and she sat me and herself down. 'Miss Parker, your boyfriend is in a bad way.' She said gently. 'What's the matter with him?' I asked. 'He has a minor burn to his ankle, various scratches, bruises…' 'I know that, but why is he in such a bad way?' She sighed. 'I'm afraid he's fallen into a coma. It means his brain has turned itself of because of the smoke inhalation. He's on life support and, I'm afraid, if he doesn't wake in 2 months, the life support will be turned off.' It was then my whole world came tumbling down. Coma, doesn't wake, turned off. Those words echoed in my mind over and over again. I felt faint but I stayed strong. I had to see him. 'Can I see him?' I cried. The nurse nodded and led me through the hospital. We eventually reached a ward called 'Intensive Care Unit' and seeing that ward made me realise how bad Toby must have been. The nurse showed me to a door to the room. 'I'll let you go in alone.' She said, walking away. I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.

I walked in. I was greeted by the sound of constant beeping. Ahead of me, I saw a figure lying motionless in a hospital bed. Toby. He had all sorts of wires coming out of him and he had tubes coming out of his mouth. I slowly walked towards him and kneeled next to his bed. It didn't look like Toby at all. He looked so pale and lifeless, not like he used to be at all. 'Oh, god. Toby, can you hear me?' There was no response. Then a doctor came into the room. I looked at him, my eyes filling with tears. 'Here's Mr Turner's jacket.' He said passing it to me. 'Thank you.' The doctor swiftly left. Holding the jacket in my hands reminded me of the times where I had snuggled up to him on the sofa. The soft, cottony texture would never leave me. Suddenly, I remembered the necklace in my pocket. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at it. I then looked up at Toby. I decided to put it on Toby. Gently, I lifted his head and put it around his neck. After that I just sat on the end of the bed and cried onto his chest. Visiting time was over and I was forced to part from Toby. It broke my heart of course but I left nonetheless. Sitting outside the hospital, I decided to call Kalel to tell her what had happened. Luckily she picked the phone up.

'Hey, Allie. How are you?'

'Not too well actually.'

'Why, are you sick?'

'No. It's worse.'

'Oh, god. What's wrong then?'

'There was a fire, Kalel.'

'Shit! Are you Ok?'

'Yes, I'm fine. But..' I began to cry. 'Toby's in a coma.'

'But there was a vlog up a few hours ago!'

'I know. We were oblivious until we saw smoke coming from under the door. He must have uploaded it before we found out the building was burning. But, yeah, he's in a coma and I hope he wakes up because they say he might not.'

'No! That's terrible!'

'They're turning life support off in 2 months.'

'Oh, Allie, I'm so sorry. You know, you are more than welcome to stay with me and Anthony for as long as you want. I'll pick up your dogs on the way to get you.'

'Really? Thank you so much, Kalel. Are you sure it's Ok if I stay?'

'Of course it is, what after all you've been through today, you need to stay with someone.'

'Ok, thanks so much.'

'It's the least I could do. I'll be at the hospital in about 20 minutes.'

'Ok, see you then.'

'Ok. Bye.'

'Bye.'

For the next half an hour, I sat on a bench thinking everything over. Why hadn't the men come back to get us? Why wasn't there a fire alarm in the room we were in? Finally Kalel arrived in her car. She stopped the car in front of me and I got in. The dogs were in dog cages in the back of the car. I closed the door behind me and started to cry. Kalel gave me a hug. 'Hey, it's OK. I'm sure he'll pull through.' She soothed. 'You didn't tell anyone, did you?' I asked, wiping the tears from my eyes. 'Only Anthony, and I told him not to tell anyone, even Ian. If I found out he has he's dead meat.' I chuckled and we drove over to Anthony and Kalel's house.