Chester's eyelids flickered as he tried to adjust his sight to what he was seeing in front of him. He could hear screaming, far away, tearing through the crackling noise of the fire.
His sister. Amber was in danger.
He tried to shout at her, but the smoke was choking him too much, making it impossible for Chester to speak at all. He started coughing, his eyes watering while he still tried to find his way to Amber through the fog that was both clouding the hallway and his mind.
He threw himself to the ground. He had read somewhere that when there was too much smoke, you should crawl so you don't breathe it in, so that's what he did.
He still couldn't make sense of anything, his body was acting on its own and he followed his instincts to lead him to his little sister's room.
When he got to the door, fire was covering it. There was no way he could get in, his sister was trapped.
He looked around, clutching his hair, trying to find something, anything he could use to bust the door down and rescue Amber.
Chester was about to give up and just use his own strength to get through the door, covering himself with his jacket, when his whole body tensed and he gasped into his hand.
Someone was there, just behind him.
He couldn't think his heart could beat faster, but he had been wrong. He was there to kill them both. The young blonde man had to rescue Amber as fast as he could. He got on his knees and got closer to the door before he groaned and quickly kicked near the handle, a couple of inches above the fire, ignoring the burning sensation that covered his leg. He heard a cracking noise, but it wasn't enough. Perspiration was now dripping into his eyes, and he felt that soon, he wouldn't have enough strength left in him.
He gathered the last of his energy to kick the door one more time, hearing a louder crack, and successfully breaking the wood just above the knob.
However, his foot got stuck. He was getting closer and Chester knew it. He pulled his foot, almost falling back into flames but thankfully steadied himself in time.
The smoke was suffocating him now and with his foot still stuck, he could feel the fire spreading on the wooden surface and getting closer to his leg. He screamed when he felt the unbearable overly high temperature of the blazes touching his leg.
Soon his leg would be on fire and he would get to them. He'd take Chester and Amber away. He'd kill them.