Conflagration

 *Author's Note-  I hope you all enjoy this short story! I wrote it almost 2 years ago for my English class, and just figured I'd post it on here since some people seemed to enjoy it :)

        The crunching of leaves was all Jordan and Chloe heard as they wandered the uninhabited streets and alleys, as they usually did when their insomnia kicked in. Jordan's purple hair blending perfectly with the violet sunset, fading into a beautiful red that was almost part of the fallen leaves. She stood 5'1" while Chloe towered over her at 5'10". Jordan was an aspiring Photographer. Chloe, was a local journalist. They were looking for inspiration as they roamed the quiet streets surrounded by abandoned houses near the west side of Paris, France. Stopping at every cracked alleyway, trying to discover the stories hidden behind their abandonment. Then Jordan saw it.

         It was an older house, or probably just looked like it from the poor and unkempt state that it was in. Smoke stains spewed out of the window frames and doors, or what was left of them. The roof was caved in, with spikes of wood piercing out. The house had this warm, inviting sensation to it, like the house was calling Jordan to come inside. She walked up to the soot covered doorframe, and just stared inside of the house, to what seemed like hours.

          As soon Jordan's foot hit the charred wood floor, she felt warm, like the kind of heat that radiates around on a sunny day.

          "Well.. Are you coming in?" Jordan spoke as she saw Chloe staring into the house like there was something unpleasant about it.

          "N.. No.." She said as she broke out of a trance. "I'll just sit over here on the bench"

          "Suit yourself"

          The living room was stripped of anything significant, all that was left was half melted radio. She tried to turn it on, but to no surprise, nothing emitted from the speakers. What seemed to be a thin, soot covered blanket curled around the corner of the doorway into the kitchen. The huge window burst open to the world outside. Peeling green wallpaper barely hung to the walls. Raided cupboards hung ajar, looking lonely. The countertops had ashes and weird carvings in them she noticed the skeleton of a mouse in the corner of the counter.

          She heard the hiss of cats near, causing her to glance around quickly. She noticed a railing, leading to a rickety staircase. Every stair was two by four, the rest were missing or broken. She slowly made her way up the stairs, which groaned with each step. She walked into the doorway of a bedroom, ridden with ashes. A broken mirror hung to the wall. Jordan glanced at it, noticing how big her eyes look. An ashy, bare bookcase and melted metal bed frame was all that consumed the room.

          Jordan started to feel extremely hot, like there was fire covering her body. She ran down the stairs, stumbling into the living room. She sprinted through the front door, only to realize that she was somehow back into the living room. She was confused, and bolted towards the door again, popping back into the living room. Heat seemed to overtake her body, she felt nauseous. Her head started spinning. She stumbled over her own shoes and fell to the ground.

          When she woke up, it was like she was in a whole new house, She woke up on a shag, white carpet, the melted radio she saw before had life and was now booming music. A tan leather sofa sat across the room from a small television. Jordan stood up, head pounding, She stumbled into the kitchen, filled with sunlight. The window was open and full of stained glass figures on the windows. An apple pie was cooling. The wallpaper was bright green and clung to the walls. The staircase was repaired, the walls of it filled with painting. The new bedroom was huge, with white walls and huge mirrors, the bookshelf littered with books. A baby's crib sat near the window. She noticed a new door near the bed, which opened into a child's room. She heard the front door open, and in busted excited new voiced. She ran down the stairs, still in shock. Two children came in, both blonde and young. One looked to be five, the other three. The parents came into the home carrying bags of groceries. The children ran right beside Jordan, not seeing her at all. The parents walked right through her.

          "What the hell?" she thought. He followed the family into the kitchen, where the parents made supper, lit some candles, at the apple pie for dessert, sent the kids off to bed. Before the parents went off to bed, a gust of wind blew open the window, making the flame of the candle fly towards the curtain. The curtains went up in flames in a split second. Jordan tried to yell at the parents to warn them, but the fire spread to towels, and the wallpaper. Then to the table. The smell seeped out of the doorway of the kitchen, and the parents started to notice the smell. The fire caught onto the doorway when the parents saw, and tried to reach their telephone.

          "The kids! Grab the kids!" the mother yelled. The father burst through the flames into the kitchen and ran up the fire ridden stairs. By the time he gets to the children's room, it was too late. He saw both of them in the oldest child's room, unconscious on the ground. The father tried to get them awake, not to notice fire creeping into the room. He heard his wife scream from the living room, and tried to run back through the fire, This time it didn't work. His clothes caught fire quickly and went up in flames, his wife was breaking windows in the living room, trying to get out. She cut her hands badly , and didn't get all of the glass off of the sill, while climbing out, she got cut multiple times. Before she safely escaped the torturous flames, she lost too much blood. Jordan tried to get out of the house almost simultaneously as the women, yet every time she touches something, she got badly burned. She stared around herself as the flames enclosed her, Chloe's screams taking control of her mind, accompanied by the ringing of fire truck sirens. She couldn't do anything but scream as she felt her life dwindle into the darkness.