The pale moon sat in the clouded sky, calmly observing the dying world below. Amidst a cluster of dead, dry trees, a girl sat on a park bench. Her tiny frame was hunched over, heaving up and down quickly, as her ragged breathing slowly became more normal. Her long, white hair, draped over her long pointed ears, fell messily over her shoulders and face. Once she had caught her breath, she sighed deeply and leaned back into the bench. She stared up at the starless sky with a soot covered face and a pair of azure blue eyes, swimming with fear and confusion.
“So this is the outside world?” She muttered to herself, moving her eyes across the skyline to the ghostly skeletons of trees around her. The excitement of being outside her comfortable home for the first time allowed her to momentarily forget the events which had just occurred.
***
“Kuphila! Are you okay?!” A frantic voice called out in the darkness.
“Yes! Mother, I’m fine. Where are you?” A quiet, panicked reply came from within the dark room.
There was a sound of brisk footsteps and the thud of things falling onto the cold, wooden floor. Kuphila hesitantly walked towards the sound, hoping it would lead her to her mother. She felt a hand clumsily brush her shoulder, followed by another hand pulling her close to the unmistakable body of her mother. She grabbed onto her for dear life and shut her eyes, hoping that once opened, she would see a world filled with light once more.
“Calm down Kuphila, it must be a blackout, I’m sure the power will come back on soon, we should just wait until then.” Her mother reassured her, stroking the head of her frightened daughter.
The two stood together for another few minutes before they noticed a small glimmer of orange light from under the crack of the door leading them from the basement into the main part of the house. Cautiously, they weaved their way through piles of furniture and clothing to reach the staircase. They carefully walked up each step hand in hand before they reached the door and opened it. Kuphila gasped in horror at the scene she saw before her. The orange light they had seen from the basement had been the flickering of violent orange flames lapping at the door. The entire hallway was engulfed in hungry flames biting into the wooden furniture and walls.
“Kenny!” She heard her mother call out from beside her.
“Dad?!” She joined in, after realisation hit her like a punch to the stomach.
The two called out desperately in unison until a wooden beam, engulfed in flames, fell from the ceiling and silenced them completely.
Kuphila stood frozen in fear, while her mother recklessly walked away from the doorway and into the flaming hallway in search of her husband. Kuphila called out to her to tell her to come back, but her mother was deafened by her fear and desperation. After her mother had disappeared into the flaming tunnel, that was once a neat, welcoming hallway, Kuphila stayed in the doorway, questioning whether to wait for her mother, to look for her mother or to leave the house. She didn’t want to think about the option of her mother and father dying, so she stayed at doorway to the basement, patiently waiting, even after the flames had begun to spread closer to her.
She continued to stand amidst the inferno, until the flames were hungrily lapping at her feet. She yelped in pain as the fire engulfed her shoe. Her reflexes took control of her movements, and she bounded through the flames to the front door. Without another look back she staggered through the open door and collapsed onto the cool grass. She crawled away from the conflagration on her arms, dragging her flame engulfed feet behind her. Once she was enough distance from the house to feel safe, she sat up quickly and plunged her hand into the flame. She winced in pain as she tried to free her foot from the melting leather and tossed it onto the grass away from her, before repeating the process on the other foot at great speed.
After seeing her scorched hands, she heaved herself to her feet and threw herself across the garden towards the small, glimmering fish pond, still calm as always. Without a second glance, she plunged her arms into the water, receiving a sizzling sound followed by a stinging sensation. She took the chance to look back over her shoulder at her house. To her surprise and relief she saw a dark figure standing in in the doorway staring out at her. It took her a moment to determine whether the figure was her mother or father, but looking with careful scrutiny, she could see that the figure was neither. The flames had already begun to spread to the grass below the house, leaving the figure standing directly in the hungry inferno. The figure unnerved Kuphila, to the point where she jumped to her feet and began to limp away briskly from her burning home. Her bare feet hit the rough, cold cement with soft, rapid thuds.
She continued to walk until she could no longer see her house. Gleaming streams of salty sorrow ran down her cheeks as she slowly escaped to a place she didn’t yet know herself. She turned her head slightly to see if the person she had seen in the flames was following her, and to her unpleasant surprise, she saw that the figure was a tall man, in a long black cloak, seemingly unharmed by the flames. He was following her. She longed to run from him as fast as she could, but her feet were swollen from the heat of the fire and she was having enough trouble walking as it was. She limped awkwardly through the bitumen streets, covered in a duvet of darkness, having only the sombre light of a few flickering streetlamps.
Kuphila had seen places like this in her head. The nightmares that she had every night were always like this. In the terrifying dreams which plagued her sleep she would see a world of darkness. Black, scorched trees with curled, leafless branches covered the streets. Hideous and terrifying creatures crept in the shadows, snarling and hissing at one another in a symphony of carnage and fear.
She turned her head again and saw that the cloaked man was no longer behind her. She released a soft, gentle sigh of relief and slowed her walking pace. She caught sight of a small island of grass and what looked like a small forest of lifeless trees surrounding a rather comfortable looking bench. Kuphila let her feet touch the cool blades of grass, allowing the cold, soothing dew drops to fall on her swollen toes. She recognized that the grass was fake rather quickly, as her father had shown her how to tell the difference when he brought home a snippet of real grass. She walked to the bench and collapsed down, leaning her hands on her knees for support as she attempted to catch her breath, from the vigorous walking she had just been through.
