⎾05 | NEARLY KILLED⏌
"Samantha! Get up! Get up!" shouted Diana, as she was shaking me violently.
"What?" I groaned, slowly opening my eyes.
"There's been a fire! Get up and grab all the buckets you can!" Mrs. Barry yelled from the hallway.
I immediately shot up out of bed and ran towards my closet, throwing on a heavy white coat. I looked out my window to see a bright orange light gleaming from afar. That was Ruby's house.
"Diana! It's Ruby!" I yelled, running down the stairs. "It's the Gillis' house!"
"Poor Ruby," Diana said, putting on her jacket.
I handed Diana two buckets and took four myself. Diana and I then raced to the carriage and hopped inside along with Mr. and Mrs. Barry. Minnie May was too young to go, so she stayed home with Great Aunt Josephine. I could hear distant screams coming from the house, and that only startled me more.
It normally took five minutes to get to Ruby's house, but we got there in four. When arriving, I noticed half the town was at the house trying to put out the fire.
I jumped out of the carriage and rushed towards the buckets, handing one to each of the men. Most of the boys were already trying to put out the fire, but I noticed a familiar one up on the roof.
It was Gilbert.
He was trying to put out the fire upstairs, and he was sitting against the windowsill pouring buckets after buckets of water into the burning building.
"Samantha!" A familiar voice called.
I turned around to see Anne and Diana standing next to each other, smiling happily. I knew Diana had missed Anne dearly, and I was happy that they were together again. I wish I had a best friend like that.
I waved and smiled slightly, but was startled when I heard the sound of glass shattering. I looked up to see that the fire had taken out the windows. But as I looked through the windows, I recognized that the doors were all open.
"A-Anne?" I asked, pointing up to the windows. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Fire obviously needed oxygen to spread. So why were the doors all open?
"The doors! Oh no, what should we do?" Anne asked me, while Diana looked at the both of us with confusion.
"Anne, we don't have much time," I began, my eyes searching for the entrances of the house. "I need you to take the downstairs windows and close them, I'll go upstairs and do the same, okay?"
"Okay," Anne answered, both of us breaking into a sprint towards the house bursting with flames.
"Samantha! Anne! Wait! No!" Diana screamed, but I didn't dare turn around. I headed straight towards the burning house.
As soon as I entered, a wave of heat attacked me, followed by a great amount of smoke. I immediately brought my sleeve to my mouth, trying to consume the least amount of smoke possible.
There were only a few open passages to get through, but I managed to find my way to the stairs fairly quickly. After running up the wooden stairs cautiously, I made my way safely to the upper area of the house.
I heard screams and cries from various people as they saw me through the windows. I went to the first room and shut the door, then the next, and the next. When running to one of the last doors, I looked to the window and saw those familiar hazel eyes, looking at me once again, with worry and confusion.
"Samantha?" He called, but I shook my head and closed the door, parting from him once again.
The smoke was filling up in my lungs faster than water filling a bucket. It was getting hard for me to breathe, but I continued to shut and block any possible airway that may cause the fire to spread.
Once I made sure every door was closed, I made my way back downstairs. I headed for the way I came in, but it was blocked. The fire had spread farther now, making it more difficult to escape.
"Ah!" I screamed, as a burning piece of wood fell next to me.
"Samantha?!" Anne's voice bellowed from not too far away. "Where are you?"
"Anne! Get out of here!" I shouted in reply.
I ran in the opposite direction, but that way was blocked too. I began to cough more and more—the smoke burning into my lungs. It took all my strength to stay standing. The smoke blurred my vision, and the heat became unbearable.
But, just when I thought all hope was lost, I finally spotted the front door. It took all of me to walk over to the door, and once I walked out the exit, I collapsed onto the grass—consuming the fresh air.
"Samantha! Samantha! You're alive!" said Diana, running over to me with open arms; Ms. Cuthbert and Mrs. Barry trailing behind her.
I continued to cough, and as I looked down at myself, I noticed that my coat wasn't white anymore. It was pure black, along with my skin. I was completely covered in ashes.
"Where's Anne?" I asked frantically, looking around for the red haired girl.
"I'm right here, I'm here," Anne panted, standing just behind me.
"Good heavens child! Are you alright?" Ms. Cuthbert asked, helping her up to stand.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you." Anne replied with a raspy voice, coughing every now and then. "I couldn't have done it without Samantha."
"Girls, you sure gave us all quite a fright." Mrs. Barry said, draping a blanket over each of our shoulders.
I thanked my aunt for the blanket and nuzzled myself into it. I had no idea that I would make it out alive.
"It's slowing down!" Gilbert yelled from the roof. "Just a few more buckets!"
"How did you know how to do that?" Diana asked, holding onto my arm as if I would run off again.
"Fire needs oxygen to spread," Anne explained as I tried to catch my breath. "Closing windows and doors deprives it. Samantha took the upstairs windows and I took the downstairs windows. That's the only reason why we made it out in time."
"Samantha Darling and Anne Shirley have slowed down the fire!" Jerry yelled to the people surrounding the house. "They've done it!"
I heard mutters from around the area, people looking at Anne and I with delight and shock. I wrapped the blanket around myself tighter, shyly trying to hide from everyone's gaze.
"Don't ever do that again." Mrs. Barry said, hugging me tightly.
—
It wasn't long before the sun rose and morning appeared. The fire was finally out, and Ruby's house was covered with ashes.
I was barely recognizable in my condition. My hair was as black as night, and so was my skin. It was so easy to not be seen last night, but now that the light was shone, so was I.
"Blimey, you don't even look like yourself, Samantha." Jerry said, looking at me with his eyes widened.
"Yes, I'm aware." I said as I looked down at the grass.
"So, it's settled then." Mrs. Lynde said. "The Gillis' will be billeted out to the Barrys, the Cuthberts, and ourselves."
My eyes glanced over to the boys, who were discussing how they were going to do the major repairs and how they would take a week.
"We owe you all a great deal of thanks. Especially dear Anne and Samantha, who risked their lives for us and took such quick action." Mrs. Gillis said to Anne and I.
I smiled politely, and turned to Anne, hugging her at my side, "I truly could've done it without you, Anne. Thank you."
"It was a pleasurable act of bravery," Anne replied with a smile. "I'm glad you were with me to do it."
Beaming, I smiled and turned back to the large group of people huddling around the area. As the woman decided who would be taking who to which house, I decided to walk back to the Barrys'.
"Hey, wait up!" A familiar male voice called from behind me.
"Why is it that you are always chasing me?" I questioned, turning around.
"You always leave so fast." Gilbert said, his gaze never leaving my eyes.
"I have no reason to stay." I said simply.
"Why did you run in that house?" He questioned, looking at me with curiosity.
"To slow down the fire, of course." I replied smartly.
"But you were nearly killed." said Gilbert, his expression growing soft. "Why did you volunteer to go?"
"Sometimes..." I trailed off, shifting my boots in the dirt awkwardly. "You have to choose between what is right and what is easy."
Before Gilbert had the chance to reply, I turned my position and sighed, looking up into his eyes. "Good day, Gilbert."