"Amber!" Irine shrieked my name from the other side of the bedroom we shared. My eyelashes fluttered open from a deep sleep and that's when I saw it.
Smoke. Intruding and invasive. Slipping in under the door jam. Swirling and rising to the ceiling. Slowly becoming heavy and thick in my lungs. Blocking oxygen. Stinging my eyes. All in a matter of seconds.
"What happened?" I cried out, whipping back the thin sheets. Irine rushed over to the window and pulled back the curtains, revealing the dark night. "Why is there a fire?"
"No, no, no, no, no." Irine stumbled back from the window, covering her hand with her mouth and shaking her head violently. "This can't be happening."
I sprinted over to the window to find men in fatigues spread out in a circle that wrapped around the orphanage. Each stood with eyes trained to the building, guns ready. Three metal machines were parked off to the side on the edge of the woods. I could hear the rest of The Misfits yelling to each other as they discovered the smoke and fire.
One man from the line stepped forward and shouted, "Come out peacefully and you won't get hurt." Stiffly, he stepped backwards and resumed his place in the line.
They're trying to flush us out, giving us the choice to either join the army or die.
I tripped backwards. This couldn't be happening right now. It was probably because there were too many of us to just surrender peacefully. But no matter what the excuse was, no matter what the alternative was, we couldn't stay in here. We had to leave.
"Is this for real?" Irine asked behind me.
I nodded, "Yeah, now come on."
Irine cursed and followed me as I opened the door. Smoke stormed in and we dropped to our stomachs. The roar of the fire was louder beyond the door, but we still couldn't see its flames. James, Sam, and Lauren were already out in the hall, coughing and army crawling towards the stairs.
"You guys okay?" Irine cried out to them. "Where's Thomas and Kaylie?"
Sam practically pushed James down the stairs and shouted back, "I don't know."
Irine's body violently racked with a coughing fit and I yelled, "Go with them. I'll go check their room."
She nodded and scooched down the stairs behind Lauren. I scurried over to the bedroom Thomas and Kaylie shared, finding the door already open and Thomas kneeling over Kaylie's body.
"Thomas!"
He whirled around to face me with wide eyes. Panic was etched into his features and dented his forehead with worry lines.
"Go!"
"Kaylie-" His face was twisted with pain and fear dominated his innocent blue eyes.
"I got her! Go!" I shoved him out of the way and didn't waste the time to watch his figure disappear into the smoke. The fire didn't start too long ago but the old building was growing weaker by the second and I knew of the large possibility of it crashing down on Kaylie and I. Gently, I scooped Kaylie into my arms. Her blonde hair fell to the side and her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.
I should have known. I should have known their bedroom would be the first one bombarded by the thick smoke, it wouldn't have been blocked by the door because Kaylie liked to keep it open. Just in case, she said. I should have known her lungs couldn't have taken the amount of smoke she breathed in like a bigger pair of lungs could. I should have gone straight to her rather than spent all of that time trying to understand our situation, and why. Instead, her body lay limp in my arms, more smoke than Kaylie at this point. My heart lurched into my throat and tears pricked my eyes at her helpless state as I scooched her over to the stairs, cradling her gently in my arms.
"You're going to be okay," I murmured softly. "You're going to be o-"
My words cut off at the transformation of the downstairs. I was halfway down the stairs when I saw it. The whole floor was covered in flames. Orange and red licked every surface, incinerating anything and everything at the slightest touch. A crash came from the back of the orphanage, loud and threatening. My arms shook and my stomach knotted up in complete and utter fear.
"It's okay, Kaylie. We're going to make it out of here. All in one piece," I whispered, reassuring myself more than her. The smoke thickened, hanging in the air like a gray and menacing fog. I slid down the rest of the stairs, pancaking myself to the floor as much as I could while still maintaining a secure hold on Kaylie. Despite my efforts, smoke filled my lungs and stung my eyes. It was unbearable to see and unbearable to breathe. My breath was rattled and wheezy and sounded like wind rushing up a mountain, tired and desperate, no matter how hard or how deep my oxygen intakes were.
It was ash and flames and fire and smoke. But it was only four more steps until the front door.
Three.
Two.
One.
A wall of heat rose up in front of me. Flames curled up and around the front door, swallowing it whole. I wanted to cry and scream and throw up all at the same time. Touching the door would mean burning myself until the bone showed. It wasn't an option. Another crash rang from the back and I knew the back door wouldn't be an option either. Sweat poured from my nose as I shimmied between the rooms.
"Help! Please!" But the fire's thunderous roar outmatched my desperate wails and I knew no one could hear me. What was the point of all of this? Because if it was for the army to proudly display the amount of power they had, we all knew it before this horrific show set our whole entire world on fire.
Windows shattered and an idea sparked in my head. I crawled over to the kitchen, carefully avoiding the flaming front door, and rushed over to the window quickly. It wasn't broken yet and after a delay from a fit of coughs, I found a chair to break it.
"Hang on one second, Kaylie," I muttered as I set her down. In one fluid motion, I raised up the chair and hurled it at the window. The glass screamed outwards and before the fire could block my last chance at escape, I curled Kaylie back up into my arms. Using the chair to boost myself up, I squeezed through the window, painfully ignoring the way my legs cried out from the stubborn glass shards remaining in the window frame. We tumbled out of the window, landing facedown in a heap on the grass. Wetness covered the back of my legs and I knew that blood painted my skin, courtesy of the glass.
As soon as we landed, Kaylie was ripped from my arms. I tried to fight back but I was too weak to make a difference. My muscles were jelly in my arms, my eyes were wooden balls in my skull, and my lungs were a balloon of poisonous gas. All I wanted to do was lay my head down on the grass and fall asleep. But obviously, that wasn't an option.
Arms grabbed at me, trying to force me into a vulnerable position. My head remained down as I tried to blink out the smoke that burned my eyes. But when the ringing from the roar of the fire began to fade in my ears, that's when I heard it.
There were cries of help and sounds of struggle as one by one The Misfits were dragged and tossed into the back of the metal machines. Debbie cried and screamed and cursed at the soldiers and guns were cocked. Moans and groans from the orphanage, my home, surrendering to the brutal fire.
But one sound isolated itself from all the rest. It made my blood run ice-cold and my heart stop pumping. My head snapped up and my eyes wildly searched for its origin.
A voice. One that I recognized. Then it stopped.
Slow clapping mocked me from behind, and the familiar gray eyes and smirk walked over so that they were one foot in front of me, close enough to touch. My heart dropped down into the grass and my tongue went numb at the sight.
"No." It came out as a plea and I lurched forward, fighting against the strong arms that held me in place.
"No!" This time it was stronger as my hatred fueled the adrenaline singing in my veins. I whirled around to kick one of the men between the legs, loosening my arm from the iron grip in an attempt to hit him.
He stepped back, unfazed. After a moment of shock, I was immobile once again and all he did was laugh. It was the guy from the village. The guy that flattered me with his smirk. The guy that made my heart skip a beat. The only person to ever see me make a mistake. The guy that saw me. The guy that refused to let me be invisible.
He stepped forward and gave me that same smirk, except this time I wanted to spit on it. He chuckled again and his voice rumbled, "I told you that we'd be seeing each other again sometime soon."
He stepped back and began to walk away when he turned around, sending me a wink and ruining my life. "But then, it was only a feeling. Right, Red?"
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thank you for reading and if you liked this chapter, VOTE!
have any opinions on this guy (name TBD) changed? or do you like that he's here, calling her Red?
any thoughts or reactions that you had while reading this? I have to say that I love Amber and writing about her lol :))
**please keep in mind also that all of these chapters are first drafts, edited just by me, so there will be mistakes!**
-Scarlett