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I fell asleep dreaming of that special moment you only read about in romance books or see in movies. The moment when the handsome all-around good American hero walks up to the wallflower-heroine having seemingly noticed her by magic, as if even while trying to be completely inconspicuous and lurking in a corner, she could still shine enough in the darkness that he would see her light.
When I closed my eyes my heart was no longer heavy and there was a little spark of hope that maybe someday that girl would be me.
Then I couldn't breathe and there was smoke everywhere. My limbs felt almost weighed down and my head was spinning. I tried to move, but I could barely raise my head.
I didn't know what was happening and I didn't have the strength to make a sound. I remember the fear of dying in that room being the only clear and crisp thing in my mind, and then… then there was nothing.
When I woke up next, I was safe, crushed against a solid chest, and looking up into the deepest pair of hazel eyes I'd ever seen in my life.
I could feel the cold wind on my cheeks and it smelled like fire.
I remember looking around and seeing flaming orange tongues licking up at the windows and smoke coming out of the building, and then I was out of it again.
Later on, I was told an electric malfunction had caused the fire. The building was so old, it should have been condemned years before, rather than divided up into units to rent to students, but the owner had not cared about anybody’s safety. The fire alarm had taken forever to trigger and two people had lost their lives.
Isobelle hadn't been inside, thankfully. She had decided to pull an all-nighter in the library on campus to cram for a test.
But Flora had been.
The smoke had gotten inside our apartment from under the front door and her room was the closest one to it. It had filled up with carbon monoxide that much faster. We were both asleep and felt nothing and only the fact that my room had been a little way from the door had saved me. We were both carried out at the same time by firefighters, but while I was unconscious yet still breathing, she was already gone.
The paramedics tried to revive her on the spot, but there was nothing they could have done.
I feel tears roll down my eyes and dry them with the back of my hand. Every year, October is a very difficult month for me.
I close my eyes and see the smoke, the fire, and then, just as the panic starts to stir inside of me like an evil beast that's been poked awake, I hear Phillip's voice again. See him as he holds my hand in that hospital room.
The firefighting gear no longer weighing us down, the mask off his face, those dark eyes so intense, so earnest, and the reality of what had happened to Flora still being kept from me.
"What's your name, little doll?"
"A-Aurora."
He smiles. "Like the princess?"
I roll my eyes. "Yeah…"
He chuckles. "What's the pout for? You don't like being named after a princess? You know, you kinda look like Sleeping Beauty does in the Disney movie, only better."
I blush and avert my eyes. "Wait? You actually know that Aurora's Sleeping Beauty? Do we need to get your man card revoked or something? How come you know about Disney Princesses?"
He shrugs. "Eric, my older brother, has a passel of little girls and I'm the funny uncle. I have to know all the princesses."
"Aww, that's so sweet!"
He strokes the back of my hand with his roughened thumb. "You could definitely be my princess, Aurora."
"And why is that?"
He grins. "Well, my name's Phillip, little doll. If that's not fate, I don't know what to call this."
My father's a doctor and he had been away on a three-day-long convention and since I have no other immediate family I was alone —Belle had crashed hard at the library and would find out about the fire only the next day.
I was still sick and drifting in and out of conscience because of all the smoke I had inhaled and all the while Phillip was there. He held my hand, comforted me, calmed my fears every time they flared up.
I was pretty sure it wasn't protocol for him to hold me or even being there in the first place. And he did even more: when panic finally got the best of me and I could not fall asleep, he sat on the little hospital bed, gathered me in his arms, and cradled me while I rested, his deep voice murmuring sweet nothings in the shell of my ear.
I fell for him instantly and whatever might have been going on in his mind, I knew it wasn't a simple attraction to his handsome looks or gratitude for his actions that held my heart captive while I snuggled with him.
