Where Are You

Preface

I breathed the smoke in and I spat it back out. Once again I was caught in a fire but this time I had no warning. I pushed through the flames trying to find my mum, I had to find her. I had abandoned her before and I wasn’t going to do it again.

            I could imagine the words that Emma, Steph and Haley would be yelling at me in this moment. They would be telling me to get out of the building before I burnt with it, but I couldn’t leave the woman who raised me in this building. The flames licked the cardboard boxes that were scattered everywhere, creating more flames. I tried calling my mum’s proper name out and even yelling ‘mum’ out, but there was no reply. The smoke made me choke but I had to keep going. 

            “Mum!” I screamed out. “Where are you?”

            “Alexis,” a voice returned my call.

            It wasn’t Eliza but it was someone I knew and trusted. I spun on my heel and ran back the way I had come.

            “Jared!” I called out his name at the top of my lungs.

            “Lexi, I don’t think that your mum would be here,” Jared said.

            “She’s gotta be here,” I protested.

            “They’re going to take her with them because they know that you’ll keep coming after her,” Jared replied.

            I paused. Jared was right they would have taken her with them. I took a deep breath hoping to breathe in air but it was only smoke that I inhaled.

            “Okay Jared I’m coming back,” I called.

            I sprinted towards the sound of his voice. I could see him standing in front of me. His sapphire eyes were a lighthouse that guided me. As I reached him a beam of fire fell to the ground separating us. I heard a groan and I knew that Jared was hurt.

            “Jared!” I screamed.

            There was no reply.