Red Star

Before the Fire Part 7

Ralph watches as she pockets a gun, puts the torch in her mouth, picks up the box and opens it.

"Memory stick with a star sticker on it." She identifies almost with a laugh, unsurprised, throwing him the stick across the barn.

He turns it over in his free hand, and sighs.

"It's a game to them, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Rosa nods, trying to pry floorboards apart in investigation. "It's okay. I'm good at games."

"Aren't you scared?"

"Harmless," Rosa mumbles. "If all they care about is playing games and sending us on a worldwide goose chase, then they can't be spending much time on planning to hurt us."

Ralph nods, but he doesn't believe her, and he's pretty sure Rosa doesn't believe her own words either.

"Hey," Rosa says, hooking strands behind her face. "I'm gonna check the rest of the barn out. Do you wanna check the perimeter for anything fishy?"

Ralph nods, pocketing the memory stick. He leaves the barn, the heavy wooden door slamming behind him. He moves around the farm, and it's eerily empty. He walks across the fields, continually checking back to the barn for any sign of Rosa.

Ten minutes later, he's on the other side of the farm and the wooden barn is a speck in the distance. Ralph looks out across the farm, seeing the prosperous trees and the dry grass that crunches under his feet. It's clear that no one has been here in a long time. He takes another look before deciding to head back to the barn and help Rosa.

He turns, and is just in time to see the entire barn explode in an engulf of flames.

"No!" Ralph yells helplessly. "Rosa!"

He runs, sprints across the fields, tripping over logs and branches. He has to make it to her. He has to.

He hears her screams, piercing through the desolate, silent Austrian countryside.

When he finally makes it back to the barn, the inferno is everywhere, covering every single wall.

The door collapses in on itself, revealing the extent of the fire inside. It's worse than it looks. He sees Rosa, tears streaming down her face as she covers her mouth with the arm of her jacket, coughing in a painful wheeze.

"Rosa!" He screams, realising that his throat is already hoarse. He doesn't remember screaming. He doesn't remember crying either, but the salty tears that fall out of his eyes evidence otherwise.

"I'm trapped!" Rosa yells over the sound of part of the roof collapsing. "There's fire on all sides of me, Ralph!"

"I'm gonna get you out!" Ralph shouts back, determining the best way to enter. He zips up his leather jacket. It should block the fire a bit. There's fire everywhere, flames licking the walls.

"No!" Rosa shouts. "Don't try! You'll get hurt! It's everywhere, Ralph, you'll get burned!"

"I don't care," Ralph sobs, coughing from the smoke. "I'm not letting you die in here!"

"Ralph," Rosa says, her voice small and hoarse and strained. "I'm scared of fire."

He opens his mouth to reply, but then sees Rosa cough once more, in a splutter of wheezes, falling to the floor. Without thinking, he's through the fire, walking through the flames to get to her, blocking his mouth with his forearm. The heat is insane. His legs begins to burn and his hands sting in pain as he reaches through flames to lift Rosa and carry her out. Her hair is scorched her face, once pearly white, is covered in black soot.

Holding her to his chest, he carries her through the path which looks the least severe and kicks down the wall of the barn, which gives way in a shatter of burned wood chips.

Once out, he carries her to the fields, the whole farm being overtaken by smoke. As he moves, he whispers words of love, stemming from the feeling of potential loss. This can't be the end.

Three hours ago, he begged Rosa to prevent him from falling in love with her. Now, he is certain that it was already a lost cause.

He lays her in a field of daisies, tapping at her face in the pursuit of waking her. He moves his hand across her nose and her mouth to feel for breath.

No luck.

His tears fall onto her face in a torrential storm.  He will not let her die. Not like this. Not before they've had the chance to stop them.

He opens her mouth and brings his onto it, in a kiss that means more than love.

He breathes all the air in his lungs into hers, pumping at her chest with his hands in the way he was trained to, counting in the way they told him to. He ignores the pain that burns in his limbs. This is more important.

"Come on Rosa," he sobs. "You can't die. Not today. We need to sightsee."

He opens her mouth to breath more air in, but then she sharply inhales, her eyes fluttering open.

She coughs and splutters as Ralph brings her to a sitting position, holding her close.

Rosa lifts Ralph's face and brings it to hers, connecting their lips in a way that wasn't life or death this time.

It is in this moment that they both realise that everything has changed. Nothing will ever be the same.

"You just saved my fucking life." Rosa whispers, in disbelief, her voice scorched and weak.

"I thought..." He starts, but is overcome, sobbing into her shoulder as Rosa takes in the fresh air.

"You just want to take me on a date." Rosa laughs, realising her throat is well and truly burned.

And they sit in this way for a while, Ralph resting his forehead on Rosa's shoulder as he cries, Rosa looking up to the sunset, tears streaming down her face, taking shuddering breaths.

~

The song of the chapter is 'love' by daughter.