Never Born

Burning Beginning

Shaila was always quiet, but now she wished she didn't have to be, she was... she survived school and she liked understanding how and why things worked. All the things that she knew had been shattered, she's considering why the world still worked and how. she had always thought that she could finally be happy whenever she finished school. That was what she thought originally but that wasn't exactly true. If only I was just a little faster! She thought in anguish.
Her daughters, Emma, and Evelynn, weren't any older than 3 months, and their house's yellow, peeling walls had already crumbled to ashes, and she couldn't do anything anymore. The comfortable wood stove with the rusted edge where she always spilled everything on was nothing now. Shaila and their little house, was no more. Her husband, with his goofy, lopsided smile, would have to run the family by himself now. Oh, but here I am, complaining about being helpless. Mr. Smart cat better not have lost his other eye when I threw him. Shaila had been a mother of twins with a silly, yet surprisingly responsible husband, Martin. They had been living in a rickety old house for a few years after Shaila had graduated. The couple had settled down and Shaila had twin daughters.

      Several months later they had settled back down from the chaos of being a brand new family, first children, and new home.  Later, Shaila had burnt some food in the kitchen. That wasn't the problem until her pink, plaid apron caught fire, she quickly ripped her now ignited apron off and threw it up in the air, where it brushed the cabinets and fluttered smokily towards the worn wooden tiles. Shaila struggled to stamp it out. A minute later she successfully stamped out her apron, only to look over at where the growing heat pricking her back came from.
She saw a campfire-sized fire, slowly and hungrily climbing up her wooden cabinets, eating and discarding her house without a second thought. Shaila who had been startled at first started to lose her grit,
she called 911 and tried to douse the flames with a large pitcher of water. It seemed to work, but it wasn't going out. Nervous and disoriented she went to her little girls' bedroom to get them out before stopping the fire.
      She burst into the door to see them sleeping soundly, surprisingly.
Shaila carried them gently yet tense and headed out the front door with a grim, ghostly look on her face.
She laid them on the grass and looked back at the house with a sense of longing and sorrow. She stared at the attic and the hairs on her neck prickled. The attic window was being scratched at by something. . .oh no... her expression went from dim to grim. She hadn't rescued her cat, who was still trapped in the attic for sleeping inside the fridge on top of the lasagna.(They had not the slightest clue as to how he got there, Martin said he probably just opened the fridge door, but how could a cat as old and  Shaila started to consider her options. Go in and risk your life for a chance to make it out both alive, which could end her and her cat, or stay alive and guarantee that you live and the cat most likely dies. Shaila looked at her phone, 911 still hadn't picked up and it would probably take longer to actually dispatch a team, and even more time to come here, and then the time it took to extinguish the fire. 911 was not an option to save anyone else who was still in the house, which wouldn't be one much longer. It seemed like an obvious question with an obvious answer to many, especially because the cat was not only old, but very odd. he had lost an eye from an illness when he was a kitten and his right hind paw wasn't in good shape, but what was strange was his personality, he acted almost human.
To her surprise, her legs moved jaggedly towards the house, without her permission and for a moment she wasn't even controlling herself, but she knew that it was her. deep down, she couldn't let him go. Not yet, he had endured college with her. She couldn't let her comrade who endured getting his back soaked in tears when Shaila couldn't handle it, he never ever bit her, not once. he was one of a kind. She burst open the door and was hit with a wall of smoke. It burned her eyes, she covered her mouth with her shirt. She made her way towards the door up to the attic. You can't leave me yet! You didn't wait for me to get the money for your- her train of thought stopped for a moment as she held the door handle and it was locked. She thought quickly for where the key was. Dashing down, the flames roared quickly and unpredictably. She made it to her and martins room and burnt her hand as she opened the door. "Ouch!" She opened the drawer where the key was located and grabbed it. It was very hot. Shaila grabbed a nearby piece of cloth (which turned out to be a sock) and wrapped the key in it. She scrambled up the stairs and carefully placed the key in the hole as to not burn herself. She scorched her fingers again as she twisted the key. When she saw what was inside the attic and what the fire was doing, Shaila nearly lost herself in fear.