Phoenix Drop High (ON HOLD)

Chapter 16 - Burnt To The Ground

        Aphmau's POV

       "Moooom! I'm home!" I yelled. I heard the rustling of my mom getting up from the couch. When she came, she had a smile plastered all over her face. "Sweetie! I missed you!" She said while hugging me tight.

       "Mom... can't - breathe!" I grunted. She reluctantly let go and faced me with a pouty expression. Fake, of course. Drama class may have helped you in high school, Mom, but not now!

        "I'm going to go to my room." I said while grabbing my bag of dirty clothes. I trudges up the stairs and went into my room. I closed the door and looked around my room, gazing into the purple walls. You can't judge me for having practically everything in my room purple and white with some black here and there. Okay that was a lie, you can.

Everything this year was going smoothly. My parents are proud of me for keeping all - except for one - A's, especially since I'm in all AP classes. My favorite class this year is probably English, since I have Mrs. Witmer as my teacher. Some people say she's weird or mean but I like her.

Ding! I reached to go grab my phone, looking at my notification. It read: A new Chapter of Phoenix Drop High by ThatGirlMaddie123 has been published. I love her stories, except the few first chapters had some grammar mistakes. But I overlooked that, since I could relate to it. (Just don't... Just... Just no.)

        I sighed and laid down to take a nap, thinking about all that happened at the dance to Garroth's place to Laurence and a whole bunch of other stuff while closing my eyes slowly.

   "Levin! Malachi! Wake up! The house is on fire and we need to move!" I shook their shoulders violently. Levin groaned and Malachi's eyes snapped open.

They both say up quickly and followed me without saying a word. Garroth and Laurence were out on a supply run to Scaleswind and Dante was out on patrol. There were no guards.

Telling the boys to go to Zoey, I grabbed the vis stone Garroth gave to me a while back. "Garroth!" I spoke into it. "If you can hear me, tell Laurence to come back to Phoenix Drop immediately! There is a fire and - " I was cut off by a creaking noise, then a loud snap!

I quickly threw the vis stone out the window, hoping that if I don't make it out of here alive, Levin or Malachi will find it and contact Garroth.

The thick smoke filled up the air, causing me to cough and shut my eyes halfway. Now it was hard to see a thing. "Mooooom!" I heard a scream. My heart stopped. Levin! I sprinted downstairs to the voice, bumping into cases and other objects along the way, and saw Levin.

There was part of - what once was - the upstairs floor that was blocking Levin's way to the door and there were no windows for his to exit through. "Levin! Don't worry I'll get you out of there!" I yelled. How could Zooey manage to leave Levin? Was Malachi okay? A million questions races through my head as a struggled to climb over the barrier.

The smoke in the air was becoming thicker, and I could barely see three feet in front of me. I searched around for Levin and saw him covered in black ash. "Levin!" I said as a pulled him in for a hug. That's when I remembered the underground basement.

"Follow me!" I coughed while grabbing his hand and leading him downstairs. I faintly saw Zoey and Malachi backed up in a corner, trying to escape the flames. "Zoey! Go through the window and get Malachi out of here!" I yelled. Zoey nodded and used her magics to create a pathway to the window. They both climbed through.

"Mom, what about - ," Levin coughed. "What about us?" Right, we need to get out of here before the house falls apart - or worse, explodes. Squinting my eyes to see, and waving my arms around, I saw a pathway, but it was risky. It was a slim pathway that lead almost to the window. We would have to jump to the window to get out, but it's worth the risk.

Leading Levin by the hand, I jumped to the start of the pathway. "Levin jump and I'll catch you!" I yelled. He hesitated. "Levin jump!" I ordered. He jumped and I caught him, almost stumbling into the flames. Setting him down, I continued down the skinny pathway until it ended a few feet away from the window.

If anything, I wanted Levin to go first. "Levin, if you jump now, you'll be out of the fire, okay?" I told him. He nodded, but also said, "Mommy, promise you'll make it out alive, okay?" I smiled, and felt a tear drop from my eyes. I didn't know if I could, but I promised him anyway. "I promise, Levin."

I gave him a brief but sweet hug, and nervously let him jump. His shoes clacked as they landed just in front of the window, and he went through the small hole that Zoey and Malachi went through.

Now it was my turn. I took a step back, and readied myself to ju - CRACK! I was thrown off balance and landed in the flames before quickly getting up and jumping just in time before one of the beams broke down. I could feel the heat of the flames on my back as I rolled around on the itchy grass. I felt like Thorgi for rolling in the grass.

Finally, the heat stopped, and I looked at my surroundings as I stood up. The house was burnt to the ground and the basement had collapsed. Our home Kawaii~Chan and Brendan worked so hard on was now... gone. Forever.

I gasped as I woke up. Another one of those dreams? I looked at my clock and it read 7:48PM. I groaned and rolled out of bed to get into pajamas. Guess there's never a bad time to get comfy, right?

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of uploads, even though I said I would upload during the week. My schedule has been pretty hectic and I could find the inspiration or the time to sit down and write an 800+ word story. But I hope you guys enjoyed this story and let me know what you think of Aphmau's new strange dreams that she's having. Do you think they have any meaning? Anyways, stay tuned until the next episode!

   - <3 Maddie