Below the Sky

Chapter 8: Lila

Chapter 8. Lila

I awoke to smoldering heat. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was a wall of fire, red flame the only thing in sight.
"Riana! Riana!" I yelled. Riana stirred beside me, not entirely up yet though.
"Get up Riana," I shoved her, trying to wake her up. "There's a fire!" I screamed. Riana finally awoke, looking up. She at last noticed that there was a giant wall of flame surrounding us, and jumped up.
"What do we do?" She yelled at me.
"I don't know," I said. I looked around, frantically, trying to find a way out. I noticed a clear enough path to my window, and pointed at it.
"There, we can climb through the window."
"What about everyone else, they surely don't know that there's a fire yet," Riana said.
"We can escape ourselves, then try and call the fire department and get everyone out. We won't be able to help though if we're roasted alive because we stay put." Riana finally agreed at my logic. I reached out my hand, and she took it.
"Here," I grabbed two blankets, and instructed her to tie it in front of her face to block out the smoke. I did the same with my blanket.
"Okay, are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Riana clutched my fingers as if they were the last thing keeping her alive. We stood up, and sprinted over to the window, ignoring the moments of burning from passing through some fire.
We finally reached the window, and I grabbed for the latch.
"It won't open!" I shouted. I tried yanking on the glass more, but it wouldn't come up.
"Here, let me try," Riana said. She let go of my hand for a second, just to open the window. With all of her might Riana thrusted the window, and at last it released, letting in fresh air.
"Okay, no we have to climb out of it, and try to make it to the ground without breaking an arm. I'll go first," I said. I swung one leg over the windowsill, and gripped the edge. I slowly lowered myself down to where I was hanging from my bedroom window. It was still a pretty long drop, but I was above grass, so I hoped that it wouldn't be too tragic of a fall.
"Are you sure you can do this?" Riana asked me. I looked up at her, and said, "what other choice do we have?" Then I let my finger tips slip, and fell down.
The fall lasted less than a second, but it still took my breath away. I landed with an oomph, sprawling out all over the grass. I quickly checked myself for injuries, not feeling anything to major. My ankle felt a little sore from the landing, but other than that I felt fine. I stood up, dusted myself off, and looked back up at Riana.
"Just climb out until you're completely hanging, then let yourself drop. Try to land in a way where you don't try to stick it, let yourself fall down on impact," I yelled back up to her. Riana listened to me, and climbed out until she was hanging by her fingertips.
"Okay, now just drop." Though it was pitch black outside, and she wasn't facing me, I knew there was fear in Riana's eyes. However, I also knew that there was determination.
Riana dropped, and landed in a heap, just like me. She sat up though, and didn't seem to be too hurt.
"Are you okay?" I asked her.
"Ya, I think I'll be fine," I gave Riana my hand, and helped her stand up.
"Let's go try and get everyone else out," she said. I nodded my head in the dark.
We raced around the building to the front of the door. When we reached the start of the house, Riana immediately went to twist the door knob.
"Wait!" I yelled at her, "feel the door first, to make sure it's not hot." Riana touched it gently, then pulled her hand away. "The door's so hot it could be on fire," she said.
"That's not good, that means that the fire's there, and we're not going to be able to make it upstairs."
"What do we do now?"
"I have an idea." I raced back around the house to Oliver's window. There was a drainage pipe that ran up the side of the building close to Olive's room, and maybe I could climb up it, and alert him to the fire.
"I'll be back," I told her when we reached the pipe. I squeezed her hand, then grabbed onto the plastic, and began to climb. I continued myself to have a decent amount of muscle, but climbing up the side of my house, in the middle of the night, when I was already tired from being exposed to so much smoke, was not easy. I managed though, and finally made it to Oliver's window. I pounded on the glass, and peered in. Oliver's room was only distinguishable by the fire engulfing it. There wasn't a person in sight.
I started to panic. Where was Oliver, and Maya, and Mama and Papa? Did they get out, or they stuck in a house that was slowly being eaten by a raging flame? My heartbeat sped up from the anxiety, and I felt a little dizzy.
"Are you okay?" Riana called up to me. I felt too woozy to answer.
"Lila, what's going on up there?" Riana yelled. I heard worry in her voice, but I still couldn't bring it in me to answer. I felt like if I were to speak, I would fall down.
"Lila, I'm coming up there!" Riana yelled. I felt weight being added to the drainage pipe I was clutching for dear life, then suddenly I heard a noise. It was a creak, then the pipe gave out.
Riana hit the ground first, since she was closest to it. She managed to get out of the way quick enough to avoid being crushed by the pipe. I on the other hand, was not so lucky. As the plastic fell, I continued to hold onto it. It hit the ground with a great impact, and next thing I knew everything went dark.

Why was everything so white and blinding? It was like the entirety of the sun was weighing down my eyelids. I groaned, and tried to open my eyes, but it was pointless. My brain wanted to go back into a deep sleep filled with nothing but darkness.
"Lila! Lila!" I heard a voice. Who was it, where was I? I moaned again, and tried another futile attempt to open my eyes.
"Oh my god Lila, I'll get the doctor." There was that voice again, but who did it belong to?
Another voice joined the mix, this one much deeper and scratchier. "She was in a coma for a few days, so opening her eyes and adjusting to consciousness might take a while. She might not be able to be fully awake for the next few minutes, to days," the lower voice said. The softer one replied, "You mean she's not fully awake?"
"Her brain is aware of itself again, but her body isn't ready to get up yet. Do you understand?"
"Ya, sure. Do you know when she will fully awake?"
"It's hard to tell, but just be patient. Lila's resilient, she'll come around to it." I heard footsteps retreading, and felt my hand being touched. The person with the soft voice must have grabbed my wrist, trying to feel closer to me.
Oh why couldn't I just open my eyes? I wanted to be awake, I wanted to enter myself into consciousness again. Trying just wasted my energy though, so instead I started to sink lower, lower into my cot...

This time when I awoke, and tried to open my eyes, my attempts were not in vain. After a few tries, my surroundings came rushing into focus. I was in a hospital room, with no windows. I was laying on a cot, with plain white blankets and pillows. A girl with brown, mid length hair, was sitting next to me. I recognized her immediately as Riana, of course. When she noticed that I was awake, she immediately let go of my hand, and ran out of the room. After about a minute, Riana rushed back into the room, a doctor close behind her.
"She's awake, fully yet?" Riana asked the doctor. The doctor was wearing a white lab coat, and had a clipboard in hand.
"I think she's fully awake. She should be back to normal in a day, at the most." Riana's face fell, but still she had to be excited that I had returned to consciousness.
The doctor left the room, clearly satisfied with me. Riana resumed her position in a chair beside my bed, and reached for my hand again.
"Do you think you can speak?" She asked me. I tried to let out some sound, but nothing happened. I tried again, and a small squeak left my lips.
"That's okay, I'm just glad you're awake." I suddenly looked around, a frantic look on my face. Riana must have known what I was thinking, because her face suddenly fell.
"Your family is alive, if that's what you were wondering," she said. I felt a short moment of relief, but that second was short-lived, because I could tell that there was something that Riana wasn't telling me.
"After you fell, the fire department arrived. They put the fire out, but not before it could cause a lot of damage. They're still not sure of the cause of the fire, but they're looking into that. The firefighters rescued your parents first. They were locked in their room, flames on every side. Then Maya and Oliver were saved. Your parents are hurt, but they'll be fine. Maya's a little scarred, and shaken up, but other than that she's not too bad. Oliver—he's in critical condition." I felt my breath catch in my throat. My sweet, kind brother, on the brink of death. How could not so long ago I was wrapped up in Riana's arms, feeling safer than I ever had, and now this. It was all too much, and I felt tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. I let them fall, what had happened to my family was horrible, and I deserved to mourn it.
Riana squeezed my arm, and leaned forward. She reached down, and kissed me. This kiss was wetter than our other ones, the moisture of our lips mixing with the salty tears streaming down my face. She conveyed her loss, and sorrow for my family through the kiss, and when we broke apart we both felt more solemn.
"I'm sorry," Riana said. Then she sat back down in her seat, still gripping my hand.