Puzzle Pieces

Nightmare.

Dawn was settled into the room after a couple days, he would sometimes talk about mechanical stuff for a short period of stone before he changes the subject, he was secretly a bit afraid of someone else working on his mechanics. He remembered always being scared when the mechanic that built him said he would be taking something apart or add something new. He never really told the others this information, he will someday, just not now.

Anyway, the group of boys had spent a while talking until they all soon grew tired. It was late after all. They slept peacefully, well, four of them did. One child, one mask wearing boy, was having a nightmare.

Tommy shot up from the bed, it was a room he was familiar with. Posters on the wall, blue paint, everything he remembered it looking like. He coughed violently, smoke was on the room. He quickly crawled out of the bed and ran towards the door, he grabbed the handle and immediately recoiled. It burned. He bit his lip and coughed some more, he quickly grabbed his blankets and wrapped it around the handle to pull it open.

The hallway was filled with even more smoke, some fire was blocking the end of the hall, "Mom?! Dad?!"He shouted, tears were spilling down his cheeks but the heat made them dry as fast as they fell.

"Tommy! Hurry, get down here!"A frantic women's voice called, it was followed by loud coughing. Tommy swallowed hard and hopped down the stairs, skipping steps.

He managed to reach the bottom, he saw his mother in the living room, trapped underneath thr heavy parts of the ceiling. She had blood dropping down her forehead and some burns were visible on her arms, "Honey...I'm stuck here, you wouldn't be able to carry this, okay? I don't know where daddy is but you have to go, okay?" Tommy was a thin, lanky child. He was skinny and had little to no muscle, lifting the ceiling off his mother was out of the question.

"M-Mom.."Tommy quietly said, if the heat wasn't so intense he would be bawling.

"GO! Get out!"She ordered, she winced at that as her body ached.

"I-...I c-can't leave you..!"He insisted.

"Tommy, honey, go..."She said softly. Tommy took a step back, then a few more. He squeezed his eyes shut and ran out of the living room, the flames licked against his skin and he whimpered ain pain from it. Only a few feet from the door, he stopped. The wall and ceiling had shifted and fell, just at the door. Flames on the top of the pile.

He violently coughed yet again, and he turned around, only to have ceiling fall behind him, the wall that wall between there and the kitchen fell, fire instantly saved against his face, singeing his hair. He threw his arms up over his face and yelled in pain. He stumbled back a few steps, he backed up against the other wall and pushed his way through the only other door there. Inside, there was still fire.

Tommy's chest heaved and his face burned and pain was everywhere. He let out choked sobs and only managed to navigate around to a corner of the room. He moved his hands off his face and looked around. He let out another yell of pain, and another from terror. A motionless figure laid on the ground, flames on him. His breathing was irregular and fast, he managed to moved away from the corner.

He was in the study, he hurried over to a bookshelf that had little fire and grabbed a heavy book. He grunted and backed away into another wall, next to a window. He won't die, he won't let the fire take him as well, he won't let it win.

He struggled the lift the book up and tossed into into the window, glass flew out. He tried his best to ignore the protests his body put up to his movements as he reached over and dragged his body up the window. He tried to avoid the glass but it manages to tear his clothes and cut his skin. His arms, legs, and face bleeding and burning.

He yelled in agony as he stumbled our the window and into the front lawn, he put his arms over his face in pain. He screamed.

Tommy's eyes opened wide, Nick was standing on the ladder of the bunk bed and skating his shoulders wildly. He sat up and Nick moved away, obviously worried. Tommy looked around an saw the others awake, out of bed and on the ground staring up at him. A lamp was on.

"Tommy, you were having a nightmare. You were whimpering and mumbling! We really didn't know what to do brigades wake you up."Dawn said.

Tommy put a hand on the side of his face, his mask was on, he sighs in relief, "T-Thanks..."

"Tommy, you were talking about a fire...are you sure you're okay?"Uni said, frowning slightly.

"I'm..I'm fine, really. It was just a bad dream about..eh, well, a fire.."He explained vaguely.

"Tommy..."Cory said, "We..Well, all of us had some bad experience like that. That's why we are here, remember? So..if you ever need to talk 'bout it.."

"I...someday, someday I will."
______________________