Where Do Broken Hearts Go? | Unexpected Series Book One

Chapter 15: Broken Glass and Bad Dreams

Beth's POV

The heat is all around me.

It's radiating and no matter where I move to I can still feel it.

It's not me that's heated thought, it's the air that surrounds me. Although it's the middle of the day, it is eerily dark.

My hands reach out in front of me before moving to the side of me and I feel nothing. I stumble blindly having no idea where I'm walking to and I'm screaming for help though no one answers me.

I suddenly stumble into something hard that scratches my skin.

My feet that were walking on a smooth, flat surface now starts to crunch underfoot and becomes angled as I walk up it.

More things scratch at me as I walk into them though I still cannot see what they are.

Then I hear the crackle.

And it turns into a roar.

My vision suddenly becomes clear and I can see where I am.

I can see them.

I can see him.

The orange uniform he wears and the yellow helmet is visible amongst the blackened trees and scrubland.

Piles of burn wood, bricks and tin of where houses once stood are reduced to crumbling, burning ruins.

The terrain is now steep and full of trees.

It won't allow the truck to drive up it so hoses are connected to each other to allow the men to walk into the scrub to save the houses that still remain standing.

I stand and watch as the wind suddenly changes direction and a lone man begins yelling, but it's too loud and the others can't hear him.

I can't hear what he's saying.

I try to walk over to him but I'm not moving anywhere.

Everything is a whirlwind around me and even though my legs are moving, my body is not taking me anywhere.

Why can't I move?

Then there is silence.

And before I can comprehend anything, it roars over the top of the hill.

A massive orange wall that stretches for metres into the sky and consumes everything in its path.

It destroys everything it touches.

I still cannot move as I watch the men stumble as they attempt to run back to their truck.

Their voices can barely be heard as they shout to each other to run.

They'll make it back to the truck and they'll be safe. They'll be safe and protected.

Except they never do.

I watch him fall as the wall of orange fire engulfs him.

Then I can't see him.

Then there is silence.

~~~~~~

I sit up straight in bed as I gasp for air, but I can't seem to get enough as I inhale large amounts, my eyes wild as I try to process where I actually am.

I'm drenched in sweat, the covers tangled around me as I try to forget the images of my dream.

Or rather my nightmare.

I was never there.

I never saw it happen.

But I relived every detail more than once when a royal commission was demanded to determine how such a horrific event could occur, who was to blame and what measures could be implemented so as to ensure it would never happen again.