Below the Sky

Chapter 9: Oliver

Six days earlier

"Hi Oliver," I whipped around, a whisk in my hand. Maya approached me, grinning. "Whatcha doing?" She asked.
"I'm baking something," I said.
"What're you baking?"
"Well I guess that'll have to be a surprise," I reached over and touched her nose, getting some batter on it.
"Hey," Maya squealed. She wiped off the batter, and walked over to get a closer look at what I was doing. I was leaner over a bowl filled with all the ingredients needed to make brownies with. The whisk I was using was covered in gooey batter, and when I spun around to face Maya a bunch splattered everywhere. "Oh shoot," I said. I placed the whisk back down on the counter, and started to clean up the mess.
"Are you making brownies?" Maya asked. She stooped down and helped me clean up.
"Ya."
"Can I help?"
"Sure, just don't make it any more messy in here." With that Maya grabbed the whisk, and stirred the contents in the mixing bowl.
"Okay, we just need to put them in the oven now," I said. Together, we balled up the brownie mix, and laid it out on a pan covered in olive oil. The oven was already preheated, so all Maya did was grab an oven mitt, and slide our brownies inside the hot stove.
"Okay, now we just wait," I told her. Maya slipped off the oven mitt, and pulled herself onto a chair facing me.
"I'm sad that we're back from our trip," she said.
"Ya, but could we bake brownies there?"
"No," Maya giggled. She was fourteen, but acted much younger than that.
"See," I said.
Suddenly we heard a crash. It came from upstairs, and me and Maya immediately rushed out of the kitchen at the noise. The sound came from Lila's room, so we hurried in there.
When we opened the door, we found a very disgruntled looking Lila and Riana, both laying in heaps on the floor. Lila's bedside stand was knocked over, and the lamp that once sat on top of it was now reduced to shards of glass.
"What happened?" I yelled out to them. Lila looked up at me, and quickly scrambled away from Riana.
"Me and Riana were just—talking. We must have accidentally knocked over the table," she said. I got down to her level, and started to pick up the shards of glass.
"I'll go get a broom and dustpan, stay here. Maya come with me," I quickly left the room, not ignoring the fact that Riana and Lila seemed to not want to unwrap themselves from the blanket they were tangled in.
Me and Maya hurried back downstairs to the closet. After a few minutes, I found the broom and dustpan, and then we both ran back to Lila's room. This time when we arrived, Lila and Riana were standing up.
"Okay, I'm back," I said. I spent about five minutes cleaning up the shards of glass littering the floor. When I was done, I returned the dust and broom, and came back to Lila's room. She and Riana were sitting on the bed, keeping a noticeable distance between them.
"Okay, I'm gonna go," I said. I left the room, and walked back to mine. As I walked, I thought of Riana and Lila, laying in heaps on the floor. How though they should have, hadn't gotten up and unraveled the blanket they were raveled in when the lamp broke. How they always seemed to only want to do anything if it was with each other. I had a theory about their relationship, but I wasn't entirely sure...

About fifteen minutes later, I'd found Maya, and we were pulling the brownies out of the oven. They had baked perfectly, and Maya was especially excited about this. She popped on into her mouth, and after she got over how hot they were and burning her tongue, she sighed with pleasure from the taste.
"These are so good Oliver!" She exclaimed. "Here, have one," Maya shoved a brownie into my hand, where I respectfully set it back down on the counter.
"Sorry Maya, but I don't want to make the same mistake you did," she giggled at that.

That night I slept restlessly. The night was perfect for sleep, but no matter how hard I tried, it would not come. I must have tossed and turned for hours, before I gave up and decided to go downstairs.
I walked out of my room, and was a little confused that there was light coming from the bottom of the stairway. I figured that someone must have just forgotten to turn off the light though, and shrugged it off.
My assurance was quickly forgotten, when I almost walked into a blazing inferno. The entire bottom floor of the house was on fire, and swiftly making its way up the stairs too. Next thing I knew, I was back in my room, stuffing a cloth in the crack in my door to stop any heat.
I then resolved to pacing my room, stressing about what I should do.
There was a fire, a hell of a big one too. My family was still in the house, and as far as I knew no one had any idea about the fire. However, if I left my room to try and warn them, I would be jeopardizing myself.
Before I could change my mind, I was wrenching open my door, and running outside. The flames had made their way up the stairs at this point, and were reaching out with thick tendrils of heat, grabbing for anything to burn. The fire was quickly making its way to Maya's room, so that's where I went first.
"Maya! Maya!" I yelled when I pulled open the door. "Maya! There's a fire come on we have to get up!" Reluctantly, my sister pulled herself out of bed. When she noticed the flame making its way towards her though, she hastened herself. "Come on, we have to get Mama and Papa!" I grabbed her hand, and pulled her out of the room.
At this point, the smoke was so thick we could barely breathe. The fire was engulfing us, and about to enter Mama and Papa's room.
When we arrived in our parents room, we noticed that they were already up.
"Oliver, Maya, oh thank god," Mama said when she noticed us. She buried us in a hug, then pulled away, checking for injuries. Suddenly though, her face went pale. "Where's Riana and Lila?" She asked.
"They're not in the hallway, maybe they made it out in time," I said. A thin tear trickled down Mama's cheek, but it quickly evaporated from the heat in the room.
"Okay guys, we need to figure out a plan," Papa said. He tried to open the door, but immediately closed it when flame threatened to come into the room. "Okay, so I guess we're not leaving through the front door," he said. "I'll try the window." The window was stuck, and would not open.
Papa yanked on the window more, and more. It would not budge. "Laurel, come and help me," he said, strained. Mama hurried over to aid. Even with the two of them, the window refused to be opened. "Okay, I might have to break it," Papa said. He grabbed a window, and threw it at the glass as hard as he could, but even force wouldn't make it free us. We were trapped.

We waited in that room for what felt like hours, the air getting more, and more toxic to breathe in. After a while, everyone had tied pieces of fabric over faces, to try and keep out the smoke, but even that eventually became futile. Eventually we resorted to sitting on the floor, as close to the window as we could be, coughing into our face coverings.
Maya scooted over to me, and rested her head on my shoulder. "Do you think Riana and Lila got out?" She asked. A tear marks traced lines down her face.
I looked at Maya, and said, "I know that Lila and Riana are resilient, and they wouldn't just give up. We have have faith, and trust them to take care of themselves."
Maya sniffled, "I just—really want them to be okay, you know?"
"I know," I said. I took Maya's hand, and squeezed it a few times in reassurance. "We'll live to see tomorrow, I just know," I said.
"How do you know that?"
"The truth is, I really don't, I just have to believe in order for it to come true." After that was silence. At one point, Mama must have fallen asleep, because I heard soft snores coming from her and Papa's side of the room.

There were flashing lights, so many of them. I felt wet, and cold, but also comfortable at the same time. I was laying on top of something that wasn't the hard floor, but instead soft and warm.
"Maya," I groaned out. If anyone heard me was unknown, because next thing I knew was complete blackness again.

The next time I awoke, I didn't feel wet or cold anymore. My arm ached though, and my throat felt really scratchy. I opened my eyes, and looked around, my eyes flying to my arm first. There was a needle sticking out of it. Why my throat was hurting, I wasn't sure, because I fell asleep again after that.

"Oliver, Oliver!" That voice sounded familiar, but I just couldn't place it. Someone touched me though, and my eyes flew open, tracing the source of sound. Was that—really Lila? The girl that resembled my sister so closely threw herself on top of me, engulfing me in a hug. "Oh my god Oliver, I was so worried," she said. It had to be Lila, but how she survived the fire I wasn't sure.