The Lit Match

Burned Down

My world was lit on fire.

Literally. Like, my entire city was burned down. My parents burned with it. My little sister and brother burned with it. My school burned with it. My friends burned with it. Everything burned with it.

At the time that the entire city burned, I was in my room. My room is obviously in the city. But that's the thing. Everything burned. Everything, but me. Me and my room. It's a really extraordinary phenomena. Every nook and cranny outside of my room did burn. But me and my room were just sitting there, safe from all the things that were happening outside. Not even the smell reached me through the small key hole of my door.

Synthia didn't burn either. She's my pet snake. Really good company, I've had her since I was three, when I found out I could talk to snakes. As I grew older, I found out I could talk to much more animals. Bears, cats, dogs, elephants,... you name it. At this point of my life, I'm pretty sure I can talk to all of them, not that I've tried it with all the animals in the world, but I'm pretty sure I can.

Why I can talk to them is a different story. The reason is very simple. Us, Edikos, are a special race. We are born with special talents and powers (mine, for example, is talking to animals). There are only about a hundred thousand of us, most of us live on our home island: Ediara. But a couple of hundred years ago, a few thousand of us went away. To the rest of the world. Particularly the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greenland (but just one family went there), Iceland, West-Europe, the United States and Canada, since our island is only a few hundred kilometres away from it. But by now, we're pretty much everywhere.

You might've noticed, but our island is exactly where Atlantis is supposed to be. Because our island is Atlantis. The lore of Atlantis is true, with a few mistakes. First of all, we're a little more to the northern side of the world, not as close to Africa as it is believed. Second of all, it's not Atlantis, it's Ediara, like I already said. Third of all, it's much smaller than thought. And fourth of all, we are born with magical powers.

But no one knows about us. And no one is supposed to know. If anyone finds out, we will be enslaved and used as machines. Something that happened a long time ago.

Right now, I wish I had a cooler power though, one who's a little more useful in combat. Because I am going to find out what happened to my city, why me, Synthia and my room stayed safe, and why no one else in Ediara suffered from the same fate. And when I do that, I'll avenge everyone who lived in the city, and destroy the people who did this.

And maybe my power isn't that useless. I could perhaps make an army of animals. A few spy snakes here, a few elephant soldiers there, a few dog servants here (yeah no that sounds bad, maybe dog helpers), and so on. Of course I won't force them to, only if they want to. I love animals, I would never hurt them. My favourite animals actually are -I'm pretty sure you guessed- snakes and dragons. You probably didn't guess the second one though. Dragons are just awesome. I actually have a snake and a dragon tattooed on my back. The dragon goes from my left hip to my right shoulder, and the snake goes from my right hip to my left shoulder. The heads are on the left and right side of my neck.

As I'm looking around my room for the last time, I realised I probably won't see it for a long time. I still didn't understand how this happened. Why did it happen? Not a single burnt place. The bed I was sitting on while all of this happened still right there, with my white duvet and pillows with a black palm leaf pattern on it was untouched. My chair and desk were still there, my chair was a bit uneven but it had always been like that. My viridian walls were untouched and as green as ever. Synthia's vivarium was still as clean as it was 4 hours ago. Everything was still the same.

Right now, I'm packing my bags. Just the essentials: a few clothes, food for about two weeks (for me and Synthia), my phone and laptop (yes, we have those on Ediara) and two books, cause why not. I put my backpack on, put Synthia in my sleeve -she loves it there- and closed the door of my untouched room, to enter a world made out of ash. As I walked toward the living room, or at least what remains of it, I was glad my room was on the first floor. What would've happened if it was on the second? Would it still have been safe? Well, that doesn't matter right now; I just tried not to look that much toward my right, where the remains of my mother were and the traces of my tears that had fallen when I realised what had happened. I still can't believe all of this happened. How did I lose everyone in just a blink of an eye? And that's not even metaphorical. I don't know about you, but I asked myself this question at least a hundred times, 'How did everything burn so fast?' I mean an entire city couldn't burn in just 2 hours could it? How did I not hear anyone scream? Did it have anything to do with how I couldn't smell anything either? How did no one try to get me out of my room. Did everything really burn in just a minute? But I didn't have time for such things. Right now, my main goal is to get out of here and find out what happened. Why did it happen? And the most important question, what now? Will I just have to live with the fact that I lost everyone? Will I be able to bring them back?

As I walk out of the door I can still see the remains of our car, and at the end of the street, where my dad's shop used to be, I can still see a dead body of a woman and her baby who she's clutching to in hopes to protect it. She failed.

I knew her, she was our neighbour, I even baby sited for that baby. His name was Amoro. I still can't believe all of this happened. I'm just wishing that someone wakes me up and tells me all of this was a nightmare. That none of it is true. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen. And even worse, I have to walk towards them. If I go the other way, I'll end up to the shore no matter what, and I don't really have a boat. the way leading to them is the only way to the nearest city. If there even is one. I'm just assuming that Clastra, my city, is the only burnt one. But who knows, maybe there are more. I slowly walk towards the shop, hoping to be able to keep my eyes closed, but of course I end up opening them. I see her body and I see Amoro's body as well. Not to far from them, right next t my father's, is the burnt body of my little brother. My little sister's body was in the kitchen, I was glad I avoided that place on my way out. I don't think I would've been able to hold it together if I had seen her as well. My eyes were still puffy from the weeping I did an hour ago. But I continued nonetheless. I started walking and walking, trying not to look around too much. But I still had to see where i was going, so glimpses of this and that were unavoidable. I saw my best friend's house, Kaira. Her dog was on the lawn, I always talked to him. Kaira was a cheira, she was able to manipulate solid things. We always played with Isaac -her dog- using our powers. She would make toys for him, and I talked to him. Sometimes even Synthia played along. We always had so much fun.

But i walked further, pushing those memories as far as I could. The last thing I need right now is to have a break down. I started running, Making my way to the next city, Rodil.

Whoever did this, you better watch out.

I'm coming.