It Started With A Fire

Prologue: Unexpected Plans

"Hello?" the familiar voice of Stacey says as she answers the door very tired-like. Her black hair is in tousled waves, her pajamas wrinkled. I don't blame her. It's maybe one in the morning. Her eyes widen when she sees the flames behind me. She frantically looks at me, becoming worried when she doesn't see my fiancé.

"Can you watch Benjamin?" I ask her and she nods taking the baby from me when I hear Maura scream. Ohmygod. No. this cant be happening. What happened to my love? Is she okay? I need to get to her. The need is almost as strong as the breath that forces in and out of my lungs.

"Call 911!" I yell to Stacey as I run back towards my burning flat. It is almost entirely engulfed in flames. I kick open the door and cover my mouth so I don't inhale that much smoke. It barely helps.

I look around at my flat that is drenched in flames. Nothing is recognizable anymore. At all. I can barely make out the shape of the love seat that we had. Our TV is melting, our pillows are gone, just soot now. I can't even see ourselves in our picture frames due to the reflection of fire, heat cracking the class.

Shit. Where's Maura?

"MAURA!" I scream her name multiple times running around the flat. Where is she? I can't breathe and I know she probably can't either. I search all the rooms downstairs, leaning on a wall temporarily to attempt to get fresh air, but I can't.

"Hunter! I'm up here!" her voice cracks. Relief floods over me. I gather my composure, slicking my hair back and run up the stairs to where I heard her voice. Where is she? I don't see her as the tears begin to burst through my eyes. I can't lose her. No. I can't. That's simply not an option. I love her. I love her so much and I can't live without her.

"Hunter!" she screams again and I hear hope in her voice. I snap my head towards where I heard her and there she is. She's trapped in a corner by flames on the opposite side of our bedroom.

"Maura," I say, relief flooding over my voice causing it to crack. I run over to where she is even though I can't exactly reach her and it kills me inside. There's a fire separating us and it makes me so angry and sad. Too many emotions flood through my to pinpoint one exact one.

"I'm so scared Hunter," she cries and my heart shatters. I should be protecting her. I shouldn't of let her come up her. I should've done everything that I could to keep her from coming up here. I should've made her leave the flat and wait outside.

"Don't be love. C'mon. jump through the flames. You'll be fine. I promise," I tell her. I hear the floor above me creaking and I know that it is about to cave. I'm not certain that she'll be okay, but I'd rather her deal with a few burns than be dead. She'd still be beautiful to me regardless.

"I can't!" she screams and tears start to form in my eyes from other reasons besides the smoke.

"Yes you can! It's the only way! Think about little Ben! C'mon love!" I try to encourage her, but I see the doubt in her eyes. Our son can't grow up without a mother. Why did this have to happen to us?

"I can't!" she yells again this time with more frustration. She's crying. I know she is. I need to show her that she can get over here. I need to get her out of here and I can't do that if she won't move. This ceiling is going down in any second. So I do the only thing that I can think of doing in this moment and I jump through the flames to her causing her to scream.

"Yes you can. I'll be right here with you," I say taking her in my arms. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would to jump through the flames. It feels so right to have her in my arms again as she hides in my shirt, my fingers running through her musty hair.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course baby. Now come on. On the count of three, we'll jump. Okay. One, two, three!" I yell and we jump, our hands never letting go of each other's. We're almost all the way through the gap when the ceiling collapses above us. She makes it over, but it catches me, pinning me to the ground causing me to scream out in agonizing pain. I close my eyes, clutching my fists trying to hide the fact that I'm so badly hurt. I'm coughing so bad now and the blood pounding in my ears only faintly allows me to hear Maura's screams. That's the only thing that can draw me back to reality. She tries to move me, but it just makes it worse. Eventually, she just collapses next to me, sobs wrecking her body.