The Ring

Chapter 1

Dedicated to Morbidcupcake for being the first one to read my story and giving me advice. You rock and thanks!

Fire. That's all I can see. Vibrant shades of deep red and bright orange. I'm trapped, my feet literally stuck to the ground. Smoke fills my lungs and stings my eyes. I frantically look around trying to find a way to escape, and that's when I realize where I am. I'm in my house and it's burning down. I'm standing right in the middle of my living room. Although it's still there the smoke thins a bit and I can see everything clearly. The dorky curtains my grandma gave my parents as a wedding gift. My father's collection of autographed merchandise from the NFL. The pictures on the wall behind our TV of me, my parents, and my cat Beezid.
Even though I'm standing in the middle of an infernoI find myself smiling at the memories each picture holds. My seventh birthday party at Disney world with Cinderella, Mickey Mouse, and Peter Pan. The day I found Beezid hiding behind our trash cans outside. My first day of school. And so many more. But just as quickly as the memories come, each picture bursts into flames and is reduced to ash within seconds. The smoke thickens again but now there is screaming somewhere in the distance.
"I know those voices!" I think to myself. But I couldn't put my finger on who they belonged to. Then it hit me like a train. "MOM! DAD!" I scream, and this time my voice booms out loud and clear. My parents stumble into the room leaning onto each other for support and coughing like crazy. "Oh my god! Hold on!" I try to run over to them but my feet are still stuck. "I can't move! You guys come on, you have to get out of here!" My voice rings out as clear as a bell, but my parents don't even spare a glance in my direction.
Oh my god they can't hear me! I realized with a horrible, stabbing feeling forming in my stomach. From there everything happened in slow motion. My mother trips and falls to the ground and my father races over to help her, but she collapses from not being able to breathe. That's when I hear the crack. I look up and realize the ceiling is caving in. I feel the color drain from my face as my eyes follow the crack travel across the white turned to black ceiling and stop right over where my parents are struggling to get up. "Guys! Move! Please! Please, look! It's gonna cave in!" I'm on the verge of tears and my parents still don't hear me. "What the hell are you doing? MOVE! PLEASE!" Just as my dad looks up everything comes crashing down. As the entire house begins to slowly crumble over my parents, there's a look of knowing in both of their eyes. Knowing that this is it, their time is up. They lean in for one last kiss and the next thing I know they disappear under a pile of burning rubble.
I'm screaming my head off as tears pour out of my eyes uncontrollably. Through my blurred vision I see my beloved cat knock over the already weakened bookcase while trying to escape her burning tail. The little bump is enough to sent the bookcase tumbling down, right on top of her; and just like that Beezid is gone too. The flames and smoke become more intense and I can no longer see anything. I can't hear anything but I know I'm screaming still. My clothes catch fire and right as the flames penetrate my skin...

I wake up with an ear piercing scream. I'm shaking and my pillow is soaked with my tears. I remember everything. My house burnt down with my parents in it. Everything's gone. I'm living with my grandma Beth in Montana on her ranch. My door bursts open and my room is flooded with light. I shield my eyes and feel a pair of slender yet strong arms crush me against a warm and familiar body. I look up and my grandma is holding me as if I will simply disappear. I bury my head in her shirt and she strokes my hair and rubs my back talking to me softly.

"Shhhhhh Addie. Honey you're okay. Everything's okay. It was just a dream."

My crying turns into quite sobbing and I slowly regain myself and calm down. She's right. I am okay. I'm fine. But my parents aren't. They're dead. Gone. I know it's not my fault, but I've always felt guilty that I wasn't with them when they died. I had slept over at a friends house and came home to nothing the next day. In less that 24 hours my whole life and everyone I loved was taken away from me. I moved out here to Montana from Wisconsin to live with my grandma and help her out on the ranch, which is nice. Grandma is amazing, she always knows what to say and makes ANY situation better.

"Grams, it was the same dream..."

"Oh Addie."

For a few minutes we sat in silence, with me in her arms as she rubbed my back in the way that always calmed me down.

"How about we go downstairs and make some chocolate chip pancakes and watch 'Say Yes To The Dress'?"

I nod and smile a bit. That's our thing. Chocolate chip pancakes and TLC. We love to watch that channel because of the insane people on some of the shows. We do it for fun when we're bored and when we need to forget the bad things in life. My grandma's just that cool.

Four gigantic pancakes and seven episodes of SYTTD later I feel better. The sun is just starting to peek out from behind the mountains and I decide to get my chores done early. The ranch isn't huge, we only had three acres and some chickens, five goats, and two llamas. Yes, llamas. Soon to be 4. Pansy, our female llama, is pregnant with twins and due any day. I thank grandma and run up to my room and throw on some jeans, a t-shirt, and my work boots. I tie my hair back into a braid and set out to the chicken coops. Just as I walk out the door our black lab Chippy jumps on me, licking me good morning.

"Okay, okay, okay!" I laugh and gently push him down. "I'm glad to see you too boy! Now get off of me!"

First thing's first: collect the eggs. I take a deep breath, throw on my gloves, and duck into the coop. 15 minutes later I'm finally done. For normal people with chickens, the process of egg collecting take a matter of a few minutes, but not for me. Our hens are jerks, they squawk and peck and one even bites. Which explains the gloves. Having a huge black lab running around barking doesn't make it any easier. Quickly, I sprinkle the chicken feed around their fenced in area and let them out for the day. I run the eggs back to grandma and go to feed the goats. They're just about the cutest things. They all have names and their own personalities, not one of them bad in any way.

"Morning guys!" I say in my most cheerful voice. Something about working out here makes me feel good and almost forget everything. I love it. I fill their food barrel, but as always, I bring them special treats. "There you go Fanny." "Good boy Ace." "I've got your favorite Snickers!" "How ya doing old girl? How's my Gwen?" I greet them all one by one. With the feeding done I race Chippy over to the field where Pansy and Jed are. They're off in the middle of the field eating weeds. I crawl over the fence and hid behind the random tree in the corner of the field. I whistle and peek around the trunk. Their heads pop up and they come running toward me. They stop a few feet away and wait for me like they do every morning. I make them wait a few seconds more before I jump out. Right on que we take off running toward the barn. They beat me today so they get two treats. I say goodbye and walk back to the house with Chippy.

Grandma is sitting at the kitchen table reading. I grab a glass of orange juice and get her cup of coffee. Then I grab my own book and sit down. I glance at the clock and It's only 6 A.M.! I'm usually not done until 8. Then again, I'm usually not up at the crack of dawn. I smile, satisfied with myself and dive into my favorite book, Peter Pan, for about the billionth time.