Going Up in Smoke

Ready to Ignite

Song of the Chapter:

"Rock Your World" -Shanks Mansell

Step aside because this anger's gonna ignite

Breathing in, screaming out
Tear the ductape from our mouths
You know, we'll lay our hands down
When we're cold and dead and gone
But we don't sleep tonight
No
Break it in, shake it out
Take the time to work it out

The majority of Eliryn's classes went pretty well for the remainder of the day. She skipped lunch in the cafeteria, choosing to avoid the amount of people staring and the task of trying to find a place to sit. That could be a problem for tomorrow. She was now sitting in her car after school, plugging in her phone to the aux cord. She got lost in thought for a moment, thinking about the accident again.

Flashback:

Eliryn woke up strapped to a gurney in an ambulance. There was an oxygen mask attached to her nose and mouth, helping her breath. Her eyes were glossy from the tears pouring from her eyes but she didn't notice. She looked out of the ambulance doors to see the flames still burning bright across the road. Her house was completely destroyed at this point and it was nearing a collapse.

"Where are my parents?" she yelled through the mask.

The paramedic shook his head at her, telling her she needed to calm down and take deep breaths. She sat up and threw the oxygen mask off, not caring about the searing pain in her leg and arms. She jumped from the amublance, looking around wildly for her parents. That was when she saw them. The body bags laying neatly on the grass. There were two. One for each of her parents. She screamed and ran towards the black bags, unzipping them before she could be stopped. She needed to know for sure that it was her parents in those bags. The charred faces of her mother and father would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"Eliryn!!" someone yelled, breaking her out of her trance.

She looked around wildly, noticing she had managed to get out of her car. Her cheeks were streaked with tear stains. She wiped away the wetness quickly, standing up and meeting Asher's eyes.

"I'm fine." she croaked.

"You most definitely are not!" Asher all but yelled, grabbing Eliryn and pulling her into his chest.

She didn't know how much she needed a hug until he gave her one. He smelled like an early Fall morning, brisk and earthy. She squeezed his torso with her arms and pulled away quickly after, looking up into his eyes.

"Sorry." she said, wiping the streaks from his shirt.

"You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. I do want to know though, why would you even bother with me? We only just met."

"You needed it. I don't need to know you to know that." he shrugged.

"Well, thank you. Not many people would do the same. I swear I'm okay though." she tried to force a smile.

Asher looked at her as if he knew that she was lying through her teeth, but he didn't call her out. Instead, he smiled and walked away, leaving her alone to face the fire once again. Thankfully, not many people were in the lot yet, and those that were didn't pay her any attention. She got in the car once more, drove out of the parking lot, and vowed to figure out why her blackouts were starting again. Yes, this had happened before. After the accident, Eliryn would essentially relive the moment in her mind over and over again. When this happened, it put too much stress on her and she would black out or have panic attacks. She had stopped having them after going to therapy, but it looked like they were making a ghastly return.