girl meets the secret to life | lucaya & riarkle

29. Girl Meets Sacrifice.

I woke up to a beeping sound.

My alarm.

But it only seemed to get louder, more interrogating.

I reach my hand out, and try to slam my alarm clock off.

But the sound won't leave. It keeps getting louder and louder.

I open my eyes, and look at the alarm. Very, very annoyed.

But that's when I notice it.

The alarm isn't on. It's just siting there silently.

Beep, beep, beep!

That's when I smell it.

Smoke.

Then I hear it.

Crackle, pop!

I slowly turn my head, and I see it.

Flames. The walls around me are on fire.

"Fire!"

I jump out of bed, and try not to panic.

But the house is on fire! The whole house is on fire!

I run into the hallway and shout at the top of my lungs.

I'm answered by screaming and crying children.

"Daddy! Daddy, help!"

I stop for a second, everything around me seems to, too.

Tessa is in the twins' bedroom. She can get them.

So I need to get Isaac and Elizabeth.

I scream at the top of my lungs to Tessa, just in case she can't think straight.

"Get the twins outside, now!"

I run to Isaac's bedroom, which is the closest to mine, and see him, crying.

"Daddy!"

"It's okay, Isaac!" I shout, dodging the flames that had spread to the floor.

Nothing will stop me from getting to my child.

I pick up Isaac, and throw him on my shoulder.

"Daddy's got you, buddy," I tell him.

With that, I jump over a scrap piece of wood.

Bang!

Wood was falling off the ceiling, beams tearing apart. The fire was eating everything in it's past. It was destroying everything.

My son and I cough on the smoke and ash in the air, the fire was spreading so quickly.

Elizabeth screams so loudly, my eye drums split. The sound of her terror sends chills down my spine, I rush to her bedroom.

The fire was licking the edge of her bed.

I run into the bizarreness, the flames, the broken beams of the roof and walls.

I grab her, probably seconds before the flame could touch her.

I rush out of the bedroom, my coughing children on my arms.

The door is right there. Just down the stairs.

"We're almost there guys!"

We were all crying now, scared for each other.

If I can't get them down these last ten steps, I might get us all killed. We might get sucked into the flames like the rest of the house.

My bare feet hit the hot floor, and I yelp in pain.

No one cares about your feet, your pain, Lucas. You have to get the kids through that open door.

And with three strides, a duck, and a jump, we stand on the grass.

Our family stands there, in tears, we were all sobbing in the grass.

Me, Elizabeth, Isaac, Grace, Bethany, Tessa, and-

And-

No Maya.

Where is Maya?!

"Oh my god! She's inside still!"

Without a thought, I turn to my kids and blow them a kiss.

"I love you guys."

And with that, I run inside.

By now, the railing of the staircase had burnt off. But the stairs were only hot and weak.

I rush up them, and turn left.

The hall's walls were in flames, and it was black. I can barely see a thing.

But I still try my best to avoid the fire, and I rush to the room at the end of the hall.

I make it, thankfully, and throw the door open.

Maya Hart was sleeping.

She was sleeping, through the screaming, and the fire.

"Maya! Get up!" I yell, rushing around the orange, thirsty, flames to get to her.

"What?!" She yells sleep-fully, lifting her head.

That's when she sees it.

"Oh."

And she screams like she's being attacked in hell.

I scoop her up in my arms, and rush around the flames.

As I run down the hall, coughing my lungs out, I begin to slow down. Not now, not now!

I can feel myself collapsing, too much smoke, too much heat.

I practically throw myself down the stairs, but I'm still on my feet. I'm still running.

Until I'm not.

Until I've collapsed on the floor, unable to get up.

And Maya can't get up either.

And that's when I make the choice.

Get up and save her?

Or get up and save me?

Life or death?

It doesn't take long to decide.

It takes every muscle, every bone, every bit of strength in my body to get up, and lift her.

And god, it hurts.

But I do it.

And with the last power inside me, I throw Maya Hart out the burning door and onto the grass.

With the rest of my family.

And that's when I collapse again, and something else does too.

The door, it collapses, and it makes any entrance impossible.

Or any exit.

Someone screams.

And that's when the pain begins, that's when the fire begins to burn my back.

And this, I think to myself before I cry out in agony, is how Lucas Friar dies.

In a fire, saving his family.

---------

. . . . .

🔥🔥🔥🏡🏡🏡

Yes I know, I hate myself too.

------