Gone

27

I knew it was still dark out that morning on January 9th, 2019. The day was broadcasted all over the news. The air was heavy and thick. I'm not entirely sure what woke me up, but I know either the heated floors or Kelsey's panicking forced my eyes to open.

"I smell it... I smell...fire!" she fidgeted.

"You're hallucinating... wait..." Chloe stuttered.

"Oh my god," Taylor freaked while coughing and trying to catch her breath. This time, Kelsey was not in any way hallucinating.

"We HAVE to get the fuck out of here!" Chloe screamed, forcing herself to stand up.

"We can't just leave! They'll catch us!" I warned, trying to stand up as well.

"We have to get out of here or we're going to die!" Taylor screamed out, running for the door. She didn't grab the door handle which I thought was clever, oddly enough the door was left slightly open. We didn't exactly know where to run to since the flames were coming from the kitchen area. I felt the sparks fly and hit my leg and watching the room across the hall's wall burning into ashes made my heart fall into my stomach, making me realize this was in fact actually real. With everything going on and Taylor and Chloe's screams, I didn't see Kelsey behind me, nor in front of us.

"Where's Kelsey?!" I called out, panicking and hyperventilating.

"I don't know!" Taylor coughed, getting lower to the ground to avoid the smoke, and crawled into Bryson's now old room. I bent down too and realized that even the wood flooring was burning up.

"We...need to...get out of here..." Chloe screamed out, coughing hysterically, and trying to breathe properly. It was Taylor's idea to escape out the window that was facing the shed. As the three of us huddled below the window, Chloe forced the window open with the help of Taylor. Just as the window cracked open, an infinite amount of smoke poured into the outside, while the three of us practically coughed out our lungs.

"You mean, you lit the house on fire?!" I heard Lukas scream out. Who was he talking to? I wondered.

"Fucking moron!" I heard Kevin spat in anger. That meant only one person was left to be at fault-Bryson.

"C'mon, we have to get out of here!" Chloe cried, struggling to breathe, while she climbed out the window.

"But, we can't leave Kelsey! I have to find her!" I screamed helplessly.

Chloe screamed back, "Kassidy if we don't get out today, it will never happen!" The seriousness in her voice was more vivid than I had ever heard come from her.

"Okay! You guys go, I'm going back to find Kelsey!" I then crawled towards the door of the room and didn't stop, even though she and Taylor called out for me to come back. Through the heavy thickening black smoke, I could see someone in the dining room.

"Kelsey!" I cried out, immediately coughing intensely after. I could see her struggling to move on the floor and a couple of coughs came from her. After a few minutes of pushing and pushing myself to cling onto her arm, I finally made it.

I then yelled into her ear, "Kelsey! We need to go!" She jolted, seeming as if she wasn't fully conscious.

"What?!" She gasped, immediately coughing. Then, something fell out of her pocket as I attempted to set her up.

"Why...why do you have a handgun?!" I freaked, just as I felt some ash fall onto my leg.

"I, don't know..." she muttered, trying to put the gun back into her pocket as her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

"Kels, don't give up, we can make it through this!" I was surprised I was able to prop her up and move her down the hallway. Just as I got her into Bryson's room, I checked her breathing. No... I put my hand over her mouth, it was faint, almost gone. My heart froze, just as I did.

"KELSEY NO! BREATHE! BREATHE!" I began shaking and couldn't stop at all. Heated tears began falling down my cheeks as I tried my best to shove her out of the window. As she fell out of the window and onto the grass, I jumped out as well. I tried my best to immediately get her to start breathing, but still no luck.

"BREATHE DAMN IT!" I cried furiously.

"What's wrong with her?!" Chloe's voice echoed from a small distance.

"SHE'S NOT BREATHING!" I screamed while my eyes were pouring tears out of them. I laid on her, balling my eyes out. "You can't do this now Kelsey... please! We just made it out! FUCK!" Chloe then laid her hand on my back and spoke.

"Kassidy look!" I raised my head and through my watery eyes, I saw Lukas and Kevin hop into the car, leaving Bryson behind.

"NO!" I slammed my fist onto the side of the house in nothing but resentment.

"I think the cops are coming!" Taylor's voice spoke from behind me, just as the sound of sirens became a little louder each second.

"I'm not leaving you, Kelsey! Just please... please!" I held my hands up to my eyes and cried so much. Chloe then grabbed her wrist.

"I mean, she has a heartbeat..."

"She does...?" I tried my best to not get my hopes up, but just as the cops pulled in and started yelling at Bryson, Kelsey carefully opened her eyes and took the handgun out of her pocket.

"I wanted to finish them..." she whispered, shaking nonstop.

"Kelsey!"Chloe, Taylor, and I gasped. Suddenly, an ambulance rolled in, and I saw Bryson being taken into a cop car in handcuffs. An officer was heading our way, and in all honesty, I was scared of the cops, oddly enough I felt safer with Lukas than an officer.

"Hello girls...?" the officer began, "My name is Officer McCoy-" before he could even finish his sentence, Chloe jumped into his arms and hugged him, and began crying so hard.

"Kels, we're... we're free..." a smile appeared on our faces without any hesitation. We all had black smears and cuts and too many bruises to count. I turned to see Taylor and hugged her so hard, within seconds, all of us were crying and shaking because this was too perfect to be true. Officer McCoy called for backup and the four of us demanded we be taken to the hospital in the same ambulance. Just before they closed the door, I watched as firefighters attempted to put the desolated burning house that we had been forced to stay in since October out.

"I'll meet you girls back at the hospital alright?" Officer McCoy stated. We nodded our heads and held onto each other, not knowing what would happen next.