The Red Reaper | ✔

The Fire

Fire.

All he saw was fire. Flames crackled in all directions. They licked the walls and everything around him, gnawing away at his home into ashy ruins. Acrid smoke was thick in the air, palpable on his tongue. Heat surfaced in tangible waves, confining him in a fiery prison. An anguished scream pierced his ears, alerting his attention. With fear gripping his heart and bristling his nerves, Felix swerved his head to the side.

Rebecca.

A petite child was folded in a quivering ball. She was tucked away and squished in a corner, avoiding the flames that were eating away at her cherished belongings and memories. Her expression flickered with heart-rendering sorrow. Doe-like amber eyes, gushing with tears, wide at the sight of Felix.

"Felix!" she screeched, her high-pitched voice grating against her throat. Adrenaline coursed within his body, urging him to rush over to her side. He had come back for her. He seized his sister by the shoulders, placating her frenzied fright with soft reassurances.

"I'm here. I'm here, I'm here, it's going to be okay," he whispered, barely sputtering out the words. He pecked her on the cheek and quickly scooped Rebecca up. Scrunching his features in effort, he lifted her body with all of the strength he could muster in his scrawny arms and made a bolt for it. He burst out of the room, his frantic breaths translating into jagged pants as he moved out.

Everything was falling apart.

A curtain that had been set ablaze nearly enveloped Felix and Rebecca in a horrific sheet of death.

"Felix!" Rebecca cried, a cracked note punctuating the end of his name. "We're almost there!"

It took Felix three seconds to process what she had said.

Door.

The door was closing in on his line of sight.  His energy was draining, the world a spinning blur, all the smoke he had absorbed squeezing his lungs with charcoal poison, but none of that mattered. He needed to rescue Rebecca.

Felix charged out through the exit, with Rebecca still wrapped in his arms. Sweat glossed reddened cheeks with a slick shine. Soot splattered the corners of his clothes. Sirens wailed in the air, blaring out shrill screams. Two firefighters came to their aid and assisted Rebecca on her feet. While they were escorting them to safety, a spasm of coughs erupted within Felix, assaulting his diaphragm with sharp punches.

Felix dropped to his knees, his legs caving in to the hard-packed ground. His throat stung with every hack that exploded from him. Voices resonated all around him, distorted and inaudible to his ears.

The last thing he witnessed was the horror bleeding through Rebecca's tear-streaked face. 

Then, he drifted off into slumber.

And he never woke up after that.