There were two people stuck in the burning building of the apartments.
Arlo and another person who we later discovered was the little girl a floor down from us, the one who always lent Arlo her pink bicycle was trapped inside the flames.
"My baby- she's in there! Please- you have to do something! Anything!" A dark skinned, ebony woman sobbed, hugging her cardigan to her shaking body as she desperately pleaded to the officers around her, frantically pointing at the flaming building and clutching onto them in utter hysteria as they tried to calm her.
It was as if I was watching everything in slow motion through an out of body experience, watching myself stand there among the chaos and moving people, staring at the fire that was eating up my home and trapping one of my closest friends and youngest tenant.
Someone placed a hand on my shoulder, turning my pale face to look at them as Harry's green eyes bored straight through mine, my gaze falling to his lips that were moving but his words seemed to echo in the background, drowned out by the crackle of the fire and instructions of the firemen as he framed my stunned, disoriented face with his hands.
I wasn't fully aware that I was talking too, responding back as I found my arm move on it's own, slowly rising and pointing at the burning building in front of us before the name left my lips.
"Arlo."
Harry blinked, and soon his expression morphed into something similar to my own as he slowly released me in disbelief.
With the way Harry maltreated his brother one would question if he truly cared for his twin.
But the initial fear and panic that appeared over his features was a confirmation of just how much Arlo really meant to him, no matter how much he tried to hide it.
Still standing there in shock among the utter chaos I watched Harry attempt to turn and run towards the crackling building, yelling, shouting at the men and police officers who quickly stopped him from going in, holding him back as he kicked and struggled.
"That's my brother! Let me go my brother's in there!" Harry's desperate voice finally snapped me back out of my dazed mindset, the ringing in my ear seizing completely and the slow motion of the entire world resuming back to it's normal speed.
There was a sudden shriek that brought everyone's attention to the third floor, high up on the burning building where the silhouette of a man holding a small body appeared through the thick smoke.
The fire was becoming bigger, stronger and the water from the hoses seemed to do nothing to tame the flames as Harry and I stopped, everyone aside from the police officers and firemen completely pausing in horror as we watched Arlo, face covered in ash and skin red with serious burns as he cradled the limp body of a child to him.
We watched the ladder against the building to the window where Arlo and the little girl were become engulfed in flames and I found my legs moving before I could stop myself, getting closer to the building and bringing my arms up, as if ready to catch any of the two, from the small kid to Arlo's tall six foot frame.
Obviously I wasn't thinking clearly, or at all but I couldn't just stand there and watch.
Harry must have thought the same thing because I felt his shoulder brush mine, making me realizing he was standing besides me, the both of us looking up arms raised as if ready to catch whoever would fall.
In conclusion, Harry and I both looked like dumbasses with open arms in front of a burning building below the third window, standing side by side.
And then, the little girl's mom joined us on my other side.
