Puella Magi Rei ♥️ Magica: Afterglow

Chapter 19: "Chaos and Lost Hope"

".. N-Nngh.."

Ami winced, her eyes slowly opening as a blaring white noise ringed in her ears nonstop. She tried to crawl to her knees, but the light pole on her back made it impossible.

"..D-..Dad.." She whispered, before violently coughing, the smoke filling the streets beginning to get to her. ".. Dad..!" She grunted, as she placed her hands firmly against the sidewalk, blue energies swirling at her finger tips as she began to raise herself upward. ".. Get.. Off..!" She shouted, before arching her back upward in a quick motion, the light pole rolling off and slamming against the concrete as she slowly stumbled to her feet.

Limping her way across the street, her pace quickened when she saw the amount of devastation that had been inflicted on not just her house, but the entire neighborhood. Tears immediately began filling her eyes as she hurried onto the foundation of her property, climbing over fallen beams and crouching underneath fragments of the second floor of her house, before coming to a halt.

She scanned the floor for any signs of her father, until her eyes met a hand, sticking out of a pile of burnt debris.

"DAD!"

Ami shrieked, pedaling as hard as she could toward the service entrance of her father's casino, the only part of the structure that hadn't been swallowed in fire. She yanked it open and sprinted into the smoke.

..

".. Stairwell.. Stairwell.."

She whispered, breathing in and nearly choking on the toxic smoke. She reaches through the hot air, to find the door handle to the stairwell. She grips it, the doorknob burning her skin as she yanked it open.

"Dad! I'm here!" She called out, before letting out a hacking cough. She falls to her knees as she reached the apex of the second floor. She wheezes, trying to see through her watery eyes as the fire made it impossible to climb any higher.

"N-No--!.." She cried out, as the floor underneath her began to shake. ".. Don't let.. Him die!.." She begged to nothing, as the support beams underneath her began to whine and snap.

Dropping to her knees as painful memories of another life flickered through her mind, she began pulling the rubble away from the hand, tears of anguish filling her eyes as her lips curled into a grimace.

"..I've seen my father burn to death.." Ami whispered, tears pouring out of her eyes. "I've seen old friends die.. A-and die again, and you know what?! It sucks! But I had to get over it! I had to be strong!.. Gin!.." She hiccupped. 

Letting out hiccups of horror, she quickened her pace as she threw burnt two-by-fours to the side. "I can't be strong.. Not again!" She whispered, her voice wavering as she began to lift larger slabs of debris away from the pile. ".. So dammit.. You cannot be dead!.. Please don't be!" She let out a panicked cry, until finally uncovering her father's burnt face, his mouth agape as if he had been screaming in agony, his eyes burnt and lifeless.