𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆

Chapter 8

And then he had disappeared back into the house, vanished into the thick black smoke that was soon followed by the flames.

Flames devoured everything, hot and licking the sky and bright orange and green- she thought she saw green flames. She wouldn't tear her eyes away until her father came back out with her brother, and then they would flee the monster.

Every house was ablaze on her street, and on the street behind it, and she thought perhaps the entire city was burning. The smoke filled her nose and burned her throat and made her gag, so she clung tighter to her stuffed bunny with one arm and rubbed furiously at her eyes with the other. They were running, as if she was crying, but it was the smoke ... it stung so, and it made everything look green. There was an ugly cloud in the sky - the monster's face, she thought, with a frightful tongue or some such thing crawling out of its curled lips - and it glared angrily down at her, vividly clear despite the smoke.

"DADDY!" she screamed again, then gagged. Her mouth filled with what felt like dust, and she could barely see the house, and where was Daddy?

And though the sirens still howled, no one came to help. She squinted through the smoke at the windows of her house - fire glinting green - and sobbed as half of the house collapsed into a plume of black smoke. "No!" she mouthed, and knew she could not wait for the sirens to come any closer. She had to find her family! She had to save them!

She bolted toward the house, ignoring the smoke and the flames and the monster in the sky, intent on finding the others. The grass was littered with bits of burning wood, and the ashes fell upon her like dark snowflakes, soft and grey and gentle, tumbling from the sky. The sky is falling down ...

But before she could reach the house, strong arms swooped her up, and she was held tightly against a firm body. "Daddy?" she whimpered, but this man did not smell like her father, and when his voice murmured in her ear, it didn't sound like him, either.

"It's all right," the man said, and he ran full stop away from the house.

She strained against him, her gaze still fixed on the house. "But my daddy! My brother!"

"You'll be okay," he said soothingly, but his voice was hoarse.

"No," she whispered. The smoke swirled around the house and it disappeared from her view as the man carried her away. "Daddy!"

She cried then, even though she thought crying was for babies, and hid her face against the man's shoulder. His hand rubbed her back tentatively, and she didn't look up until she felt the smoky air around them disappear and the sound of the sirens halt.

They were still on the street, she realized, for she could recognize the burning houses around her. But the man had somehow taken them into a big glowing dome; it was as big as her house, but the walls were curved and seemed to be pulsing with light. The sounds and smells of the outside world were blocked, and around them, she saw at least a dozen other people sitting on the ground. Some were shaking silently, wrapped in blankets and sipping from large mugs. Others were screaming and banging their fists against the walls of the dome futilely. And nearest to her, two other children were being held by two women.

"Is she all right?" one of the women asked, and the little girl realized she was talking to the man who was not her daddy.

"Seems to be," he said. She looked up at him then and saw a young face - hardly older than her brother, she thought - with a mop of bright red hair. He smiled slightly at her, then set her on the ground.

"You have to go get my daddy!" she reminded him, then turned earnestly to the two women. "My daddy and my brother, they're still in the house!"

"And your mum?" the woman on the left, who had red hair just like the man's, asked quietly.