TIL DEATH DO US PART

{PROLOGUE}

I woke to the smell of smoke and the sound of screams.

I had been sleeping soundly in my bed, but when I coughed myself awake, I recognised the screams.

It was my mother and sister.

Overcome with panic, I dashed downstairs without even throwing on a dress over my shift to see if they were alright.

Perhaps it was just another one of those vivid nightmares, I was having them rather frequently as of late...

Yet a sinking feeling in my stomach told me that I hadn't imagined their screams.

Once I was downstairs, the smell of smoke was so strong I felt as if I were suffocating. I was suddenly very hot, and there was so much smoke ahead that I could barely see.

Coughing, I stubbornly tried to see through the smoke anyway, but to no avail.

"Mother?" I called out, straining my ears, listening for anything that might indicate they were safe. "Elizabeth?"

No answer.

Trying to remain calm, I walked forwards, hoping that I was walking towards the front door of our cottage. Fortunately enough for me, I had indeed gone the right way, as my hand found the doorknob. I turned it and made my way outside into the town square, only to be met with a horrible sight.

Everyone was screaming and running as raging flames seemed to consume everything--buildings, animals, even people--and the smoke was even worse outside than it had been inside the house, somehow.

Children cried for their mothers and coughed on all the smoke in the air that was slowly filling up their tiny lungs.

Mothers frantically called their children's names, screaming hysterically as their husbands stopped them from running back into the flaming buildings to search for missing children.

Horses, dogs and people screeched in pain as they ran through the streets on fire, trying to outrun the flames searing their skin...

Somewhere in the distance, an abandoned baby wailed, crying out for help...

And the smell-that awful smell...

I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. I was trembling from head to toe, and my breath was coming in ragged gasps. How could this happen?

This couldn't be happening. It's just a nightmare...

Just another horrid dream that feels real, but isn't...

I can't consider the alternative-that this is real and actually happening.

This can't be happening.

It just can't...

"What are you doing standing there?!" a man yelled. "Run!!!"

Suddenly I find myself gasping for air. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

This is really happening...

This is real.

Terrified, but determined to survive, I do as the man says and run, faster than I've ever ran before.

I run through the village, skirting around people and animals on fire and lost children and grieving mothers because I know I cannot help them, and set my sights on the cobblestone road ahead.

After running for what feels like an eternity, the road finally seems to be getting closer.

"Almost there..." I whisper to myself, as encouragement of sorts.

But just as my bare feet are about to touch the cobblestones, something hard hits me over the head from behind. Someone cries out in shock, I crumple to the ground, and my vision goes black as the world fades away.

~~~~

When I wake again, the world is silent.

The screams of tortured souls have gone, the crackling and roaring of flames is no more, not even a single dog can be heard.

Just eerie silence...

I briefly wonder if I am dead.

It would make sense, since everything seems to be white...but then, why am I still breathing?

Soft, white powdery flakes drift down through the air and land on my face, getting in my eyelashes and hair. I blink them out, then try to sit up.

Why is it snowing in summer...?

But I let out a strangled gasp as I realise, with horror, that it is not snow at all.

It is ash...

Lots and lots of ash.

I look around me, mortified. The fire seems to have gone out, but at what cost?

There are no more houses.

No more buildings.

No more land.

No more horses. No more dogs. No more animals of any kind.

No people.

No life at all...

Only charred, black wood, the horrid smell of burnt flesh and cloth, and white ash everywhere.

The strong and putrid smell of burnt flesh and cloth is especially strong by a burnt heap beside me, and I walk over to it with dread, expecting to see a dead dog or perhaps a mother that stayed behind to try and find her child...

But what I find instead is far worse.

My little sister's badly burnt and misfigured face is staring up blankly at me, her pale blue eyes staring off into nothing at all, her mouth open in a silent scream that will never be heard, because she is dead. My sweet little sister, Elizabeth, is dead...

I collapse onto my knees and cry out as tears begin falling down my ash covered cheeks.

"NO!" I scream, as a sudden stabbing pain in my chest overwhelms me. "You can't...you can't be dead! Elizabeth, wake up!"

I gently pick her up in my arms and cradle her face as more tears fall.

"I know you're alive, Lizzie!" I say desperately, sobbing. "You have to be! You can't leave me!"

But as my sister's lifeless eyes continue staring past me, I cry even harder.

"Lizzie, please," I beg. "Please...don't go...don't leave me all alone..."

The only response I get, however, is more ash silently falling from the sky.

"THIS ISN'T REAL!" I scream. "THIS ISN'T REAL!"

But I know that it is...

I just can't bring myself to accept the reality, that everything I've ever loved is dead and gone.

I cling to my sister's body and cry over her corpse for hours...which turn into days...

But once she began to rot away, I knew there was no use in crying anymore.

She was gone...reduced to ash...

Just like everything else.

With a heavy heart, I bury her just outside the town and place a flower--the only one that survived the fire--on top of her grave.

"Goodbye, Lizzie," I whisper, as one final tear slips off my cheek and onto the flower's petals. "I'll never forget you...I promise..."