Narrative: Asmah

The Hungry Flames

From where I stood it looked like the flames were swallowing the house with its bloody red fangs. Suddenly the smoke drifted towards me, I stared at it with big panicked eyes. I kept on telling my legs to run but they had turned against me and into wobbly jelly. The smoke soon trapped me in its prison. I couldn’t help but fall to my knees, eyes closed and coughing. I could hear everyone’s voices calling, shouting my name. I felt a pair of arms grab me. ‘No! No! Its taking me into more smoke!’ I panicked as I struggled to open my eyes, my vision had blurred.

“Kate! Kate you’ve got to wake up! Please Kate. Please!” A voice cried as the pair of arms carried my to safety. I was still coughing as the person laid me down on the hot grass. The green, hot grass swayed in the breeze, tickling my face. Someone began to shake me violently, screaming my name over and over again. The screaming, coughing and shaking gave me a massive headache.

Slowly I opened my eyes to weak sunlight, after a few blinks my eyes went back to their normal clear vision. Mum, Dad and my older brother Jake were hovering over me, sighing with relief. I struggled to sit up. They all gave me a bone crushing family hug, but I didn’t return it. I was too weak to even force a fake smile.

“Please let go of me. I need air.” I whimpered. They let go with a nervous laugh from Mum.

“What happened?” I asked as I searched through my memories to know the answer, but it didn’t come, my memories were blank.

“Your father left some spare papers on his desk, somehow the papers flew off covering the electric heater causing a fire in the house. As we were running away from the house, you for some reason, stood there watching the house burn. We called your name several times but you wouldn’t move. Thankfully, Troy was able to get you out before the flames touched you.” Mum stepped back and there stood Mr Popularity, Troy. He grinned so wide I’m sure his cheekbones were hurting.

“So what happens now?” Jake asked.

“We’re going to move to a different house.” Dad said simply as if moving wasn’t a big deal to him, but it was to Jake and mostly me. I watched as the firemen put out the flames.

After a couple of days we moved to a new house, this house was more comfortable looking than our last one. From that day on my life became way different, but in some ways it stayed the same.