What Separated Us Brought Us Back - Short Story

Prologue

This time, it is my first story to be written on Wattpad. I'm still relatively new to this by the way, so cut me some slack.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a fan-fiction. It is purely based on my own ideas. However, it is still a fictional story, so all the places and characters are not real.

~ ~ ~

Prologue

In a dark, dimly-lit, secluded cal de sect in a small town community near the city of Caddisville, there stood a humble, single-storey, brick-built house. It's occupants were a single-mother and her twin children, Fred and Alex, whom were both aged five. The father, however, died in a car accident before the twins' were conceived.

As residents, they have been here for the last five years. The twins had just celebrated their fifth birthdays a week ago. After having their evening meal with their mother, they returned to their beds and fell asleep. Their mother followed suit a few hours later. Before long, the house was as silent as the night.

Suddenly, at the stike of midnight, all hell seemed to break loose. First came a loud thud, followed by a faint crackling sound. Shortly after, the unmistakable acrid smell of thick smoke slowly spreaded and enveloped the interior of the house. All this kept intensifying over a short time span.

The house was gradually being scorched by bright, orange flames.

By the time the mother had awoken and realised the extent of the situation, the fire was all but uncontrollable. Even so, she swiftly set about attempting to extinguish the raging fires, but it was becoming increasingly challenging to accomplish.

Eventually, even the twins got awoken by the heat of the flames. Having finally registered the situation, they quickly evacuated their room. Once they reached downstairs however, the flames were now unextingushable and their mother was lying motionless on the scorched, plywood floor.

"Mummy! Mummy!" the girl, Alex, cried in despair. "Please wake up! We need to get out of here!"

However, she did not respond. She was already succumbing to smoke inhalation.

"Lexi!" the boy called out to his twin sister. "We need to get out of here now! It is too hot in here!"

"No! I want to stay with mummy!" Alex stubbournly refused.

The intense effects of the flames was slowly engulfing the entire house. Both siblings were also growing weak from both smoke, tiredness and dehydration caused by the heat.

But at that moment, sharp-eyed Alex spotted an exit: a partially-collapsed wall.

"Let's go! There is a way out!" Alex screamed over the flames.

"I'm not leaving mummy!" Alex still refused. "Get help! We can save her!"

Hurriedly, Alex grabbed something from their mother's hand: a green jade bracelet that was still intact.

"If we don't see each other," Alex spoke in between coughs, " remember me and mummy with this."

That was the last she said before collapsing due to fatigue. With the last of his energy, Fred threw himself out of the burning house. By now, the fire department had been called to put out the flames and a huge crowd had gathered around Fred, who was in the midst of shock and horror from the flames.

The last he remembered, before blacking out, was someone crying out to take him to hospital.