For You

I

My heart thumped loudly in my chest as my lungs filled with the fires toxic fumes.

You may be confused right now, so let me explain:

For the past few weeks I've been receiving strange emails from someone. The only thing they told me about themselves was that their name was Allen and that they've been trying to get ahold of me for a very long time. At first, I just ignored the emails after reading them, deleting them from my history. Eventually they became so frequent(at least two a day), I finally emailed him back, telling him that whatever prank he was trying to pull wasn't funny and to just knock it off already.

He responded almost instantly, the email only saying 'I knew it'.

That was the last time I had heard from him;

well, until tonight.

I could clearly see his silhouette staring at me from the other side of the street, his face was the only thing visible; lit by the raging fire. I could hear my moms muffled weeping, her face pressed into my dads shoulder while she cradled my baby brother.

Allen's face, although his features sharp, had a tender look placed on it, as if he felt pity for me. He held up his hand, a small wave was given, and then he vanished into thin air. I blinked and stared down the now empty street in shock.

My mind was soon pulled back into reality, however, when a blaring fire truck pulled onto our street, cutting into my line of vision.

A week had passed since the fire. We were able to salvage the bottom part of our house, since the fire started upstairs. Sitting down at the computer in my parents office, I clicked on the email icon but when I scrolled down to sign out of my dads email and into mine, I saw an email address that looked all to familiar. Without thinking, I clicked on the email and saw that it wasn't just one email, it was dozens, going on a timeline far before I had even heard of Allen.

I couldn't believe it, my dad knew Allen? The guy I had seen at the end of the street looked only a year or two older than me, making him a collage kid(if he went to collage).

Scanning over the most recent email, it was one from Allen, saying that he had gotten me to respond and that if my father didn't 'return' me to where I belonged, there would be great consequences. That confused me because I didn't have anywhere else besides my ash filled home to be returned to.

Knowing that the consequence Allen had mentioned was my house burning, I now understood why he had a pitiful look on his face. Closing out of the browser, I stood up from the cushioned desk chair and walked out of the office.

Due to my lack of focus though I failed to notice my dad walking toward me until I completely collided with him. Looking down at me with a raised eyebrow, I could see confusion and worry etched into his face.

"Peter, what's wrong? Did something happen?" I mumbled a 'no' as a response but he wouldn't let that slid so I glanced up at him and said, "You mean other than half of our house burning down? No dad, everything's peachy."

I brush past him while he continued to stare at the spot I had just been in, blinking in surprise. I had never talked back to him, not once in my life. Sure, we've had our moments and we've bickered, but never where I say something rude and walk away. It just wasn't something any of us did.

Later on, my mom found me in my room, reading a book. Sitting on the edge of my bed, she hesitated when she slowly pushed my book down, gaining my attention. She sighed, "you know, the fires been hard on all of us, Peter. Your father was just asking if you were okay."

Glancing sideways, my door suddenly become more appealing I say, "well then he should have known that it upset me and just let it slid but noooooo he just has to put his nose into everyone else's business." My mom tried to but in but I held up my hand, silencing her. "I know he's 'just making sure I'm okay' but don't you think that even if I had problems, that I'm old enough to solve them. If I really needed your help in something, I would come to you mom, you know that."

She gave my a stern look before saying, "you promise?"

"Promise."

Her green eyes softened and she leaned forward, giving me a hug, before kissing my forehead and standing off of my bed.

looking back at me as she grasped the handle of my door, she said "You know I just want the best for you." but before I could say anything, she had already shut the door.