Burn

She fell to her knees on the hot pavement as she let out a mortifying scream. The rocks beneath her sliced through her tender flesh, but the pain in her heart outweighed all else. She blinked hard, attempting to clear her eyes of the blur of tears and found herself horrified again at the sight before her. The view still shook her core, it still made her loose her breath. It was gone. Not just her house, but her whole life. To anyone passing by, the sight would simply be sad; a house, engulfed in flame, burning down the remnants of a family’s life, but it was much more. The lives of two people are engulfed in those flames and the lives of two people are gone.

She reached down and grasped her hands together, still able to feel the touch of her husband’s strong hands. Only seconds early, he carried her out of the house to safety, only to grab her hand and promise her he’d be back before he ran into the house once more. She was naïve, she believed him. She had hope that burned higher than the flames in her house that he would be back and he would return with her precious angel. Her hope was murdered, however. Neither of them returned and both were gone.

She wondered why no one had saved them. Why had no one been there? She tore herself up inside, thinking of how stupid she had been to insist on living so far from civilization years ago. All she wanted was some privacy to raise her beautiful daughter and now it had cost them their lives. She had never felt so alone before. She wanted him to hold her, she wanted her husband to come say that everything would be alright. He could never do that again though.

She slowly stood up on wobbly feet, barely able to compose herself enough to catch her balance. The tears could not stop and her heart could not calm down. She was in overdrive. How could she move on past this moment? How could anything good come from this? She wasn’t sure of the answer, but she was sure that there wouldn’t be anything after this. She would be alone and she would always be tormented by the loss of her precious family. She needed them and without them, she could not go on.

She took a step towards the house. The fire was getting stronger and the strength could be felt as heat on her face. She made her decision. The fact was that she had no where to go and nothing to do without them. There was nothing she could do to fix it though. She had to make this right in the only way she could.

She took another step towards the house and the heat intensified. It calmed her and made her feel at home. Honestly, she would rather burn alive than live without her love and her angel.

So she walked in the house before it collapsed.