It takes a few days before the building is somewhat stable and Cry asks me to go with him. I accept of course. I can’t leave him alone in a time like this. We enter together, his hand clasped tightly around mine. It hurts a little bit but I don’t complain - He’s been through a lot. We both have mirrors. I hold a hand mirror but he has a full body one. We stop in the main room and a gasp escapes me as he sets the mirror down. The walls are black and peeling and everything is in ash. I don’t even know what he could be feeling at that moment. I place a hand on his shoulder and he places his over mine as I bring my mirror close. We look together, seeing black charred walls. We wander through rooms and look through them all, seeing the damage. Entering Cry’s room, My breath catches in my throat as I can see the reflections of his room on the corners of the mirror. The room practically doesn’t exist. In my world, the walls have caved and the roof is full of holes but for me, it’s just a abandoned building. In his reflections, in his world, it’s his room. Everything he owned resided there and now, it’s gone. Cry’s quiet sobbing soon reaches my ears and I approach with haste, taking his mirror and setting it down before engulfing him in a hug to try and comfort him. He wraps his arms around me and holds on tightly. We stay that way for a little bit before his grip tightens and he smothers my face into his chest. I can hear his panicked heart and shaky breaths as he mutters two words to me.
“Don’t look”
“Don’t look...?” I murmur quietly, struggling slightly against Cry’s increasing grip. His heart keeps getting faster and he’s beginning to hyperventilate, scaring me more. “Cry, what’s wrong?” I ask. “Don’t look” He repeats, voice shaking desperately. It just scares me more and I struggle against him. “Cry, let me go. Let me go” My voice is shaking. There is something wrong. Something very, very wrong and I can’t do anything about it. I know it and Cry does too. “Don’t look” He repeats once more, grip almost suffocating and bone-crushing. My heart begins to race. Something is wrong! Something is wrong!
“Cr-” My voice cuts out as a deafening explosion sounds. The force isn’t great and we don’t feel it but it’s enough to make me jolt my head away from Cry’s grip. “DON’T LOOK!” He screams but it’s too late. I can see it all. The fire. The heat. It was then that everything clicked for me and I started to scream. My house is on fire and my parents are home. Cry races over and places a hand on my shoulder but I shrug it off as I bolt out of the room, running out of the building and down the streets. I can hear Cry screaming for me to stop but I’m not paying attention as I race home. There aren’t any firetrucks near the house yet but I can hear the sirens wailing through the air.
“Don’t!” Cry shouts, already knowing what I am going to do but I ignore him, continuing to run towards my front door. I’m just about to reach the handle when Cry loops his arms under mine, dragging me backwards. I kick and scream profanities in English and Swedish as he pulls me back further, ignoring all protests.
“Let me go!” I screech as he pulls me back and turns himself away from the fire, using his whole body as a blockade as I try and push past him. My mind is frantic, not trying to sidestep or trick him, just trying to plow through and get to the house. My parents! I need to save them!
The roof begins to cave with an almighty crash and my mind clicks. I can’t get in there. My knees begin to tremble and my shaking breaths pick up as a scream tears from my throat. Vision blurs for me and soon I feel my feet no longer touching the floor. I think Cry picked me up. My arms wrap around him and he turns me away from the fire, watching it burn away. I don’t know how he feels. It’s just a building for him but I can hear my parents scream. It frightens me and I scream louder but it is drowned out as firetrucks screech to a halt near me and Cry. Men shout as they clamber out, hoses kicking into action and beginning to douse the building. Cry just holds me and rubs the back of my head and neck to try and soothe me as his fingers also dance along my spine in such a calming manner that I succumb to it, loud screams becoming sniffling and sobs. As the fire dies down, men rush in and begin to search around, shouts still in the air. I don’t look yet. I don’t want to see what happens, I’m too afraid to.
“Found them!”
“They found them!”
“Felix look, They found them!”
My feet touch the ground again and I bolt, running straight over to the firefighters who are bringing both my parents out, coughing and spluttering. I cry out a mix of their names but they pass, heading straight to the ambulance. I try to follow but the ambulance leaves. I’m left there, just watching it go before I feel a hand settle on my shoulder. A strong-looking ambulance officer lifts me up and carries me to another ambulance, setting me down and draping a blanket for shock over my shoulders before checking everything over.
“Who was that boy?” The ambulance officer asks as he checks me for any burns.
“Who?” I ask in response, genuinely confused.
“The boy who was holding you” The Fireman says. My shoulders drop and my eyes open wider.
“The boy?” I ask before chuckling. “That’s Cry”
Both men freeze. My ‘Imaginary friend’ is nothing uncommon around the town and many people think I’m mad, no matter how many times I insist but I think that this time, I broke through.
“Cry?” They both ask me in sync. I look over to where he was, seeing the space void of him. I turn back and nod.
“Cry” I reaffirm.
