The Price of Perfection (editing)

Chapter 12

And that's when I heard the scream.

I turned around and saw Lillian standing there with a shocked, no scared expression on her face. At first I thought it was because of the birthday display that was put out for her but soon realised it was something different. There was a fire.

Small flames seemed to rise out of seemingly nowhere. There was smoke rising to my eyes. I was already looking for the source of the flames and it wasn't too hard to see that one of the many candles had fallen. We were all shocked and immediatly another ear piercing scream filled the air. But this time it wasn't my mother. 

Looking towards the door I saw Emily, our usually freakishly happy neighbour, looking inside at the burning room with wide eyes. That seemed to break me out of my spell and I shouted at everyone to get out. The oven was on and there was gas in the kitchen and I didn't exactly want anyone to blow up. No matter how heartless I was, I wasn't that mean. 

Lillian ran out the door and down the stairs without a look back. I saw hurt flash in Brians eyes - what a mother, eh?

I thought he was just going to stand there all day so I quickly hurried him out of the apartment. There was lots of smoke in the air now and it was getting hard to breath. I coughed while desperatly trying to get down some air. 

It would have been a good idea to leave the building but I knew I couldn't just leave all my neighnours here. I ran around, frantically knocking on poeple's doors. A few had already noticed the smoke but since our run down old building lacked smoke detectors not many were aware of the fire. 

A bit of our ceiling fell and you could clearly see inside due to the open door. Thankfully the hallway and the stairs were made out of cement so the fire didn't spread so quicky. Most of the residents of the small run down building were gone so I was about to leave with Brian too. I looked ahead at the growing rectangle of light I could see from the open door and ran towards it.

Then I stopped.

With one last look at sweet freedom I ran back towards the apartment. Voices shouted at me to stop and I heard footsteps behind me. I didn't notice it then though. I only had one thing on my mind.

I know it shouldn't have been so important but it was. Although the thing wasn't absolutely amazing, it meant something to me. It was almost as if I could pour my thoughts into those objects into those things and they would keep my secrets hidden away from the world.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the apartment. Most things were still recognisable and thankfully I heard the fire truck coming this way. Hopefully I would be out before they were here.

Suddenly running the short distance to my room, I screamed when a piece of burning wood fell in front of me. I managed to step around it and get to the door of my room. 

Thankfully the fire hadn't spread too much here and I could breath without smoke clogging up my lungs. I knew exactly which drawer to look through and with the box in hand I ran back out.

And the way was blocked. 

There, in front of the door to freedom was a great big bit of wood, burning but there was enough of it to block my way. If it was lying on the ground I would have risked jumping over it but it was way too heavy for me to lift on my own.

The flames had spread further in the room and seemed to be eating up everything: the room, things and the very oxygen.

I looked around me whilstracking my brain for any more ideas. The window was a not considering we were four floors up. The airduct was too small and that was basically all the exits out of the room.

With the fire licking my skin, making it burn and my hair singe, I took one last smoke-filled breath. This would no doubt fail but it was the only thing I could do. I wasn't just going to sit down and die without a fight was I?

Then, I charged at the door, expecting to feel the block of wood juts throw me back and burn me. Surpisingly though, I just kept on running. I opened the eyes I didn't realise I had closed just in time to see myself crash into a certain someone. Brian, of course.

He looked incredibly worried and scared and we both fell down as I crashed into him. Parts of both of our clothes were set alight but right now the only thing on our minds was to get out of here. Luckily the door was still there and we made it out. 

I briefly saw people with bright clothing rush towards me and pat me down, trying to extinguesh the flames. I had a brief thought that I should be in lots of pain right now and then I blacked out

*        *        *        *       *       *       *

Lights.

People.

Whispering.

I opened my eyes a millimetre only to shut them tight again. The light burned my eyes and I had a sudden thought that I was blind. With determination I forced myself to oen my eyes again, just to make sure I wasn't.

I sighed in relief as I saw blurry forms come onto focus. But the relief wasn't to last long as people crouded around me at the first sign of life. 

I managed to get myself to sit up and I winced as I felt a sharp pain on my arm. I tried out my other muscles to see what was working and found out that besides the fact that my arm hurt like hell and my leg felt sore I was alright. 

Then I tried to speak.

ahhhh! Cliffhanger. Ok, i admit not a very good one but you know...meh!

And u can blame the short chapter on BVBCat6 because her chapter was VERY short as well. Oh and I felt sorry for everyone so despite the fact that I DID NOT GET ICE CREAM, i still uploaded. <3 

- MInahil:)