Lance was looking forward to a happy Christmas surrounded by his family. He had the rest of the holiday off and he found the perfect presents for his parents and siblings. They would never get their Christmas though, when a fire breaks out in their home.
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"Alright guys, it's time to get to bed," Rosa said starting to usher the children off to their bedrooms. Cortez followed behind her with a yawn. She gave each of them a hug and a kiss.
"I'll put them to bed mamá," Lance offered coming up behind her. She turned with a smile.
"Thank you, Lance," she said squeezing his face in her hands. He laughed and hugged her before turning and giving his papá a hug as well.
"Goodnight," he said. "Everybody better be in bed!" He cried running down the hallway before laughter started spilling out of the open doorways.
"You can't tell me what to do!" Mark yelled in retaliation as Lance tried to push his older brother to his bed. He laughed and grabbed Lance before tossing him on the bed with a laugh.
"Time for bed!" Rosa reminded them sternly, hands on her hips even though none of them could see her. There was a beat of silence.
"Yes mamá," they all chorused.
She nodded her head and looked over at her husband. They sat down on the couch in front of the TV waiting for the kids to fall asleep. About a half hour later they peeked in the rooms to check in case one of them decided to stay up to see Santa. Rosia quietly closed the door and gave a thumbs up to Cortez to start laying out their presents and filling their stockings. With a smile he did.
They laughed quietly as they put presents under the tree and hung the stockings back on the fireplace. They stepped back to admire their handy work and nodded in approval before heading off to their room.
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Lance had always been a light sleeper, despite coming from a family of dead to the world sleepers. He always had strange dreams and would wake up immediately when things didn't start going right. He had a lot of sleepless nights, but it was better than having nightmares. So when he started dreaming of fire and smelling smoke, he immediately jolted awake. He expected to wake up and instantly feel better and maybe even be able to fall back asleep quickly. He didn't expect to actually see black smoke drifting in from his bedroom door. His eyes widened and he hopped up, holding his shirt over his nose and mouth, cautiously tapping the door handle to see if it was hot. It wasn't and he prayed to God, someone just burned something.
No such luck. From down the hall, he could see flames covering the living room and was spreading towards the hallway. He burst into his parent's room with a scream and ran to his papá shaking him until he woke up with a grunt.
"Lance?" He asked groggily. Lance didn't wait any longer before tugging him out of bed followed by his mamá.
"The house is on fire," he said voice shaky. Their eyes widened as they woke up enough to notice the black smoke. They ran around Lance, confident he would follow them, and ran into the other bedrooms. Rosa to Mark's, Cortez to Caleb and Sophie's, and Lance to Marie's. They ran towards the kitchen hoping the flames hadn't reached it yet, but they had already reached the hallway and were forced to turn around. They ran back to Rosa and Cortez's room and slid up the window, before starting to crawl through it. Never had they been so glad that they lived in one story house.
They ran away from the fire, clad only in their pyjamas and socks or slippers. They coughed and gagged, eyes stinging from the smoke and soot. Mark shakily pulled his cellphone from the pocket of his sweatpants and called 911.
