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Ihaveto.
There’s a tug in my chest, one I can’t even begin to understand.
Looking from her to my father, I make a snap decision.
“She’s just a kid,” I say.
“There will be consequences!” he warns, his black eyes narrowing. “Leon!” His teeth grit and his nostrils flare but for some reason, right at this moment, I’m not afraid ofhim...
I’m afraid of what will happen if I don’t saveher.
“Mama!” she screams, disappearing back into the house and spurring me into action.
Looking around frantically for something to break the glass, I eventually spot an ornamental stone nestled amongst the shrubbery beneath the window. Wrapping my hands around it, I lift it against my chest then with as much strength as I can muster, throw it through the window. The shattering glass is loud, but not loud enough to drown out the girl’s screams.
“I’m coming!” I shout, elbowing out the shards sticking upwards from the frame before climbing over the ledge. The newly broken window causes a vortex of smoke to billow outwards, blinding me momentarily as I lose my footing and slam into the hardwood floors, my knees cracking. A jolt of pain rushes up my spine and I curse loudly as a shard of glass embeds itself in my knee.
There are more screams, but her cries are drowned out by the sounds of the building creaking and groaning as the fire consumes it bit by bit. Crouching low to the ground, I cover my nose and mouth with my jumper and move towards the door that opens into the hallway. The heat of the fire is a vicious animal to my right as I take a step towards the stairs.
“Stay there, I’m coming!” I yell, uncertain if she can hear me, but calling out regardless.
“Wait!” a broken voice, hollowed out and hoarse, begs me.
My gaze flicks towards the sound and I stumble back in shock as a woman steps out of the flames, her body wrapped in a halo of fire, her clothes are alight, her skin blistering and bubbling. I don’t even know how she’s standing, let alone talking, but she is. My mouth opens in a silent scream as the heat of the flames quickly engulfs everything behind her.
“Please. Let herlive,” she manages to choke out, the words garbled, bursting like bubbles from boiling lava as she falls to her knees and raises her hands imploringly. With the next breath she’s entirely consumed by the flames. Death has taken her now.
“Mama!” the girl cries as her mother’s body is stripped of skin and muscle before my very eyes. The smell of burning flesh makes me gag, and I watch as her eyeballs pop from the sheer heat of the flames.
I don’t think about the danger.
I don’t think about the brutal consequences I will endure for disobeying my father.
I don’t even think about the possibility that I might burn alive myself.
All I can think about as I run towards the little girl is why her mother begged me to let her daughter live rather than asking me tosaveher.
Years later, it all becomes clear.
