Ienzo awoke to the smell of smoke.
He had been dreaming in a deep sleep when his scent was marred with the acrid smell. The intensity of it was so strong, the boy immediately awoke, inhaling deeply only to erupt in racking coughs as even more smoke stifled into his lungs.
He was too tired to make sense of the situation, his mind muddled and confused as he squinted his watering eyes to protect them from the sensory onslaught. The scene before him was grim – the entirety of his room was filled with smoke that had been snaking under the cracks of his doorway, and the thickness of the stuff was building.
Smoke.
Ienzo's mind sharpened immediately as an instinctual drive kicked in. Smoke meant fire. There was a fire in his house!
His tiredness forgotten, the nine year old quickly scrambled out of bed after grabbing his stuffed animal and bolted to the door, quickly shooting a wary eye to the smoke that continually seeped out from the door. He didn't hesitate to open the door.
A large cloud of smoke billowed at his face, and he lifted an arm to cover his mouth from its curling fingers that so eagerly swam around his head. Ienzo coughed again, desperately, and his former instinctual adrenaline was quickly transforming into panic.
What if he couldn't get out? What about his parents?
Ienzo's eyes widened in alarm. He hadn't even thought about them, and he kicked himself mentally before glancing at their doorway. He cried out in dismay when he saw that it was encased in bright red flames that were eating up the wood, the paint peeling off in disastrous, elegant strips and melting from the intense heat where the fire licked it.
"DAD, MOM!" Ienzo screamed, his voice sounding broken and scared. When the only answer was the splintering and groan of wood as the snapping fire disintegrated it, the boy started forward for the room.
Abruptly an arm was put around his mouth, and Ienzo's body jolted as he let out a muffled yelp. He struggled for a moment, but the arm loosened its grip slightly.
"Ienzo, please, calm down! It's Dad!" Samuel reassured. His voice was strained, his tone that of someone who was trying to keep calm but failing, like cracking ice. Nevertheless, Ienzo felt an enormous amount of relief.
"Dad, t-the fire—"
Samuel's arm tightened around Ienzo's mouth, stopping him from speaking. His eyes conveyed such anxiety the nine year old didn't protest.
He had never seen his father so scared.
"I know, 'enzo. It's everywhere. I don't know how.." Samuel trailed off, then started coughing, putting his free arm up to his own face. "But we need to go, now. The smoke'll kill us before the fire does. And keep your arm over your mouth!"
With a quick motion Samuel slipped around Ienzo and took a hold of his hand, and began more or less dragging him for a surprised moment on Ienzo's part before the boy started running with him. He still didn't understand how this was happening. Yes, he understood the fact that there was a fire in their house. But why? How?
As they bolted through the burning hallways, the fire's heat was becoming more and more intense. It was everywhere, destroying everything, and leaving nothing. When he thought they had escaped it, there it was around a corner, or creeping on the ceiling as it burned from the upstairs. Ienzo's panic only grew, and at one point he whimpered loudly enough for Samuel to glance back in anxiousness to check if he was alright.
"It's okay, Ienzo, just follow me, and we'll get out of here… Your mother should be out already!" He called back, and then they turned the corner that began leading to the main hallway.
The two swiftly went down the hallway that went to the main entrance of the house.
Abruptly behind them, there was a loud groan, then a crack. For a moment there was silence, and then, slowly at first and suddenly swift, the stairway collapsed in on itself, followed by huge shards of burning plaster that hurtled like comets into the ground.
Samuel took that as an excuse to get the hell out of there.
They passed the living room, but Ienzo slowed down for a moment to look inside. The fire had swept its way through the room, the furniture now charred, pathetic heaps.
Ienzo suddenly noticed what the fire was destroying now, and again he cried out in dismay. His books were burning. All of them.
"My books!" The boy yelled loudly, tears prickling his eyes. Samuel looked inside the living room, then at Ienzo, his eyes sad.
"I'm sorry, Ienzo, but we can't stop for them," he said quickly, though he truly sounded disheartened and tired.
Ienzo attempted to stay and even try to get into the living room, but his father dragged him away powerfully, and after awhile, the boy's struggling stopped, and in a depressed state he began following his father again, tears now spilling over his eyes in small rivulets, but he didn't make a sound.
Turning to pull Ienzo forward, another even larger splintering noise sounded above them. Before they could even react, the ceiling of the hallway collapsed, slamming into the ground with enough force and heat that the two stumbled back. The once supporting beams were set aflame and disintegrating before them, and ultimately blocked their way out.
Samuel stared wide eyed at the fiery pile of disaster, backing up a step or two in disbelief.
"Dad?" Ienzo asked frantically, his grip on his father's hand tightening. "Dad, what now?"
The scientist opened his mouth to respond, but another voice interrupted.
"Sam!" Evangeline yelled. They both looked in the direction of where the voice had come from, and Ienzo's heart seized as he saw his mother in the room they had just left, the room the stairway had collapsed in with her arm over her face. But the way her eyes were dulled, the boy realized she was getting weak, most likely from the assault of smoke.
Ienzo noticed his dad now looked extremely frantic, which didn't help the boy any, as it just made him even more scared.
"Evangeline, I thought you got out!" Samuel shouted.
She shook her head quickly. "I-.. the fire.. was blocking my way.. here.. I tried to get out through the.. side door.. it was.. blocked too," she responded, sounding weaker every time she uttered a word.
Samuel stared at her, his eyes wide and panicked. Ienzo realized that his mother was blocked by the stairway and couldn't come to them, and even if she did manage to make her way over her, they were trapped, too.
Samuel took a breath, closing his eyes. There was a moment where the only sound was the varied sounds of the fire, and then, suddenly, Sam turned to Ienzo, letting go of his hand and putting both of his on the boy's shoulders.
"Ienzo, listen to me carefully," the scientist said, his voice sounding urgent. "You need to go through the pile of the ceiling and get out of here, alright?"
Ienzo balked. He couldn't even comprehend what his father was saying. Go through the wreckage alone?
"B-but Dad, it-it's blocking the way," the nine year old stuttered, and he took a shaky breath. Samuel's lips set into a strained thin line, and the grip on his son's shoulders tightened.
"You can slip through that small opening on the left near the wall. See it?" Samuel quickly pointed at it, and Ienzo merely glanced, grimacing when he realized his father was right, and there was an opening he could get through.
"But you and m-mom—"
"I'm going to get to your mom and we'll follow right behind you, okay? Don't worry," Samuel replied, sounding confident.
Ienzo stared for a moment, trying to scour up same small scraps of bravery that he did not have. Samuel smiled reassuringly, and the boy swallowed nervously, trying to blink away the tears that threatened his face yet again.
"O-okay. But y-you guys gotta come right after I go, okay?" Ienzo said, voice quivering. Samuel responded with a tight smile.
"Of course we will. Now go!"
Samuel lightly pushed him towards the opening. Ienzo looked back at them one more time anxiously. His mother waved him on with a tired smile. The boy smiled back and turned away.
Ienzo slipped through the wreckage.
Behind him the roar of the fire was hellish, and he heard even more of the ceiling collapse. He flinched as it hit the floor, and just to make sure, he glanced back, though his vision was limited as the wreckage blocked most of his view. He said a small snippet of his father jumping over the blockade to get to his mother before the smoke obscured everything.
Dizzily, the nine year old turned away, instinct telling him to keep moving. Gripping onto his stuffed fox, he touched the door knob. It burned intensely, and with a surprised yelp, Ienzo tore his hand away and looked at the angry burn on his fingers.
Instantly he began to feel faint, and realized he had taken a large gulp of smoke when he yelped from the burn, and even now he was drinking in huge amounts of smoke as he desperately tried to gain comfort from the heat and was only met with subtle suffocation. There was no air. No oxygen.
Ienzo slowly began to panic again, but his mind was becoming foggy and sluggish from the lack of clean air. Slowly, he put his sleeve over his hand to protect himself from the burning metal, placed his hand on the door, and opened it.
The blast of fresh air from outside was enough of an enticement for him to get enough energy to trudge a couple paces away from the burning death trap that had once been his home.
He was vaguely aware of people rushing towards him, and barely reacted when strong hands gripped onto his shoulders and pulled him hurriedly away from the door, then picked him up. The boy coughed once or twice, his entire body shaking with the effort, before he looked back at the house.
Fire spurted everywhere in great gushes of red and yellow and orange, lashing the night air with angry whips. Most of the roof had collapsed inward, and the house seemed to literally radiate from the inside out, like an image of a contained hell.
"M-my parents," Ienzo managed to say groggily to the man who was holding onto him and was taking him farther away from the house and to the blaring red lights of a box-like vehicle. "My d-dad went to get.. my mom.." The nine year old took a quick breath. "P-please, someone ha-has to go.. in and.. save them!"
"We're going to try our best," the man replied.
"Please.. you have to.." Ienzo mumbled, his vision starting to darken. He felt himself being put down on something, then a plastic device was put around his face and fresh oxygen was poured into his mouth. Still his vision darkened.
Ienzo slowly looked back. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was his house aflame in the dark night.