𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠 (Sᴀɴᴏ Mᴀɴᴊɪʀᴏ)

𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚

It was night time. Both police vehicles and fire brigades were present around one corner of the neighborhood. Sirens were wailing and hooting. There was an immense crowd present around just one house of the neighborhood. People were looking at the house as if it was a massacre, something serious had happened, something that they thought never would. It was painful to look at, the great house burning with menacing flames. In fact, the police officers and the fire brigadiers were too late, the house was on the verge of destruction and there was nothing left to save in that house.

Both the people and furniture in that house were already destroyed....

A young girl around seven years old stood beside a police officer holding onto the officer's pinky, her whole hand engulfing it. This particular day, this young girl had lost both her parents and older brother to the fire. She had also lost the house she lived in for seven years. There were no visible tears dropping from her eyes even though there were thousands of emotions running in and out of her eyes. Soot and ash covered the girl's face ruining her cheeks as she looked at the demolished house. The flames were put off quite easily but there was no point. The young child had lost her whole family. She was the only survivor. Her lips wobbled and her legs twitched urging her body to run into the house and search for her parents and brother. She wanted to have a little hope. She wanted to see them alive but the police officer's eyes held her back. The young girl already knew what had happened when she saw the police officer looking at her with a pitiful expression. She had lost everything in one night. It was a miracle that a seven year old looked at the demolished building without shedding tears but if anyone looked closely at the young child they could clearly notice the heartbroken face. Even though there were no tears, it was clear the girl was in extreme agony from the way her body trembled. The loud noises in the background didn't help her in the least. The girl was shaken, shaken to no end. Her mother's grief filled smile, her father's cries and her brother's pleas haunted her mind every moment that passed by. Her body trembled at the thought of it, at how her brother pushed her out of the window to save her instead of saving himself. It was a cruel thing a seven year old had to go through. It was a cruel burden on a little girl like that. All those thoughts of why she couldn't be the one who died instead of her family, why she couldn't die with her family and why she was the only survivor in the family tormented her mind.  Yet there was nothing she could do, she had to accept the fact that her parents and brother died.

What had her family even done to face such a painful fate? They had done nothing. Why did God always take the sweetest and the best people away from Earth so soon? Her heart could not stop throbbing at the belief that she would never see her mother's fierce smile, her father's stupid acts or her brother's overprotectiveness ever again. She couldn't accept the fact that the world would still move on even though her family was dead. The little girl was in so much shock. That was the reason she didn't cry. She couldn't process the fact that her parents and loving brother passed away leaving her alone. She was in her bedroom playing with her dolls when the house burst out loud with sparks of red color enveloping the two-story building. The little child was trapped in between the flames with nowhere to go here or there but her brother approached her ignoring the searing pain of his skin burning when he tried to get close to his sister trapped in the flames. The girl could clearly remember her brother hugging her before hurling her out of the window. It was a miracle that she survived a fall from two floors up without any injury or even a bruise. All she could remember were her brother's last words and his last expression before she fell out of the building.

"Live your life to the fullest, angel. We love you."

Those were the last words her brother told her. When he uttered the word 'we' the girl already knew that her parents had passed away. It truly tore her heart but something that truly tore her heart was her brother's expression when she was pushed out of the window, his smiling face urging her to live on and continue with her life with no fear of his own demise. At that moment she wondered why was she living... when everyone was dead. She even realized that she never even got to say goodbye to her fierce mother or her lovely father. Fate was really cruel to her. A fire brigadier approached the buff police officer who was holding her hand tightly. It was as if the police officer knew that if he let go in this moment, the little girl would surely jump to her death in hopes of being reunited with her family.