Things were normal for a while. As normal as it got, that is.
News went around. Searches went on for Rolanda. It makes me twinge with regret.
I could say things were quite boring. Full of routine. I knew that events that broke that routine were usually not so good.
-------------------------------------------
It was night. A moonless, dark night.
The wood creaked outside.
Heat slipped into the room under the door. Smoke burned the back of my throat and I gasped for breath.
I crawled out of bed. The smoke cloud grew. My eyes, throat, and lungs burned intensely.
Tears streamed from my eyes as I coughed and spluttered. I made my way to my door.
Feeling it with the back of my hand, I panicked. The door was scalding at the touch, which caused me to whip my hand back.
My breath became shallower as the seconds ticked by. The already dark room became darker as I lost every bit of oxygen.
Soon the tears coming from my eyes weren't a reaction to the sooty air. I had no idea what was going on. All I knew was that I needed to think fast before I met my demise by suffocating.
I tried to wiggle the door handle, but the slight contact caused immediate burns.
I froze in fear and sobbed. I can't die now. I'm going to escape here. To Georgia. To home.
The thoughts of home created enough adrenaline for me to slam against the door. I slammed into the boiling door several times before the hinges started to crack.
All pain left me as I slammed into another time. The door broke free. But the wood was quickly enveloped in flames.
No light brightened the hall. Just flames.
Now I was on my last breaths. No oxygen in the hall whatsoever.
I try to run. Or die. But I can't die.
So with that thought, I leaped over the flames.
The heat covered me. Time ran in slow motion. It was now or never.
I felt like I was jumping for minutes. Days. Years.
But I landed. The ashes didn't soften my impact too much.
I didn't know how to feel. My mind had no thoughts. My eyes were free of tears.
Voices and the sound of a pounding on the front door. Someone grabbed me. Things were hazy as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
The next hour went by in a blur. I was numb.
I blacked out in exhaustion when I arrived at someplace.
When I woke up, I was somewhere unfamiliar. A hospital. My hands were bandaged. My shoulders and back ached.
He wasn't in view. Nobody familiar was here at all.
I simply sat back and waited for someone to come in. He came in after a long while.
"Oh. You're....alive.", he said with a hint of animosity.
He sat down in a plastic chair and looked around.
I continued to blur out my surroundings. Police came in. And doctors. He was taken out by the police. He came back later. The room went empty. I fell asleep.
The sun peeked out through a curtain. I squinted and tried to adjust to the sudden light.
Some doctors came in talking about something. Something that I wasn't paying attention to.
