Selenophobia

Chapter 1

Warmth. Like a blanket wrapped around me and smelled like the summer campfires. Hugging me like a friend who hasn't seen me in forever yet something wasn't right. I heard someone yelling my name in the distance. Desperate for me to open my eyes.

"Luna! Luna please!" I heard them cry, I think it was my sister. I opened my eyes and then the screaming was clear and close. The warmth had amplified and burned. My sister, Ocean, was pulling me out of the bed once she saw I was awake. "Luna! We have to find Mom and Dad!"

Our home, the only place I've known, was being burned to the ground. Ocean and I ran out of our room and into the hall. Adrenaline and fear burst into me making my legs run swift next to Ocean.

"Luna! Ocean! Are you okay?" Mom said as she saw is run down the hall towards to living room. Mom grabbed our hands and pulled us downstairs with her swiftly. Her face was burned as was her hand but she kept holding on trying to run down the stairs with us

"Where's Dad?" I ask as we all stumble down the steps. Mom looked at me in a way that knocked my young heart down to my feet. Mom didn't answer. We escaped into the dining room until we saw something. It looked like a human. He laughed, this must be a had dream, his arm was fire but he wasn't screaming. Instead, a sick smile creeped onto his face. He laughed deeply and slow.

"Girls, go. . . . please." Mom asked. We didn't move. "Now!"

Ocean and I sprinted through another hall and looked through the inferno for somewhere to go. Ocean was gasping of breath and collapsed. She wasn't getting up. I pulled on her arm to get her up. It wasn't working. I found myself more terrified than I've ever been.

"Ocean! Come on! We have to get out!" There was no pathway to the front door and no way to get out. Until I saw a window. I ran towards the window with all the air I had left in the suffocating environment, I was trapped. I thought for a minute. If I break the window I can easily get Ocean and I out. Its snowing outside so my heat can regulate a bit and provide a soft thing to land on. And luckily were on the bottom floor. I grab a table lamp and unplug it. I throw as hard as I can and shatter the window. I smile with the little hope I had. I grab Ocean's arm and picked her up. I struggled under her and did my best to toss her into the snow without cutting her with glass. When I was sure she was safely on the ground I did a parkour thing I've seen my cousin do once. It seemed like it should have been easier since I bet Valerie wouldn't have cut her hand up.

As once I was in the snow I grabbed Ocean and took her far from the flaming house. The spectacular fire creating light against the dark, jeweled sky. Under me lay sparkling snow, battered with the blood from my hand. The cold bit at the back of my ears and the warmth from the fire warmed my face. Ocean's eyes fluttered and I grinned, tears in my eyes, luckily she wasn't dead. I gazed back up at the house hoping for Mom and Dad to come out. I felt like the most cliche show excuse ever.

I heard sirens, they were too late. The house wasn't even salvageable now, why should they bother. The ashes of our childhood home added onto the snow, tinting the beautiful white with a gray that filled me with despair, every memory, every moment. Gone. Up with the smoke and sparks that once was my home. The lights from the firemen's truck appeared in the distance. Ocean and I looked in their direction until something quickly broke out the window and flew away with massive wings. It was too quick to identify what it was exactly, it seemed human in a way. Then I looked back to the window. Mom stood there, infuriated and sad, she plunged herself out the second story window.

"Mom!" Ocean and I screamed. Mom's limp body fell helplessly to the ground, or so it seemed. It looked like a film of water covered her, like a shield and supported her as she hit the ground and dissipated. I shook it off, it was most likely just shock, not a lot of 7 year-olds have this happen to them. Mom stood and grabbed Ocean and me and pulled us into a hug, she began crying more than ever. I stared back into the flames, blazing up towards the moon. And then it hit me. Dad wasn't coming back, his life went up in flames with the home we once lived in. I continued to gaze at the inferno as a man, a paramedic, carried me away.

The firemen and paramedics helped us out and asked questions, after awhile we were taken to the hospital. The sterile stale smell always had bothered me. It made me sick just being in there, and extremely sad to see how many people were also torn from their families to work for someone to go back to theirs alive. I didn't pay attention to anything the nurses were doing. I kept thinking about Dad, everything I've ever done with him. I didn't even know what time it was, the next few days I was in a haze. Just hoping for my sister and Mom to be in the same shoes that I was in.

Except I didn't have shoes, they burnt up with our home and Dad. It was now when I noticed I was alone in the room to cry, how long was I here? Had they asked me questions? I looked to the window, the sun was rising, orange painted the sky like a Vincent Van Gough masterpiece. The only true beauty I will see in a very long time now that my father had gone. He was an artist, his mastery of color was matched by no-one. I cried, losing Dad was like nothing I've ever felt before, I remember crying or bratty things as a younger child. Not getting my way, for the heck of it, this . . . this was true pain, true loss. How do people survive this kind of Torture?