The Moon Goddess's Blessing

The Sacred

        The fire burned in the distance as a baby girl was smuggled out a burning house. The blazes reflecting in her teary eyes as she stared at what used to be her home. Her hands reached out and grasped at the air in front of her, reaching for the last taste of home she would ever have. The hard shoulder of her rescuer uncomfortable and pointy, she turned her head away.

*18 Years Later*

"Ah, Ms. Joyner what makes you think you are qualified for this job?".

"I was born from ash. I watched my whole life and my parents burn in a fire when I was younger and I want to help prevent it from happening to others", she responds.

"That is all I needed to hear. Welcome to the job Ms. Joyner!".

*4 Years Later*

"This your first fire?", the man asked.

"No, I've been in countless," the woman responded.

        She finished suiting up and grabbed an oxygen mask.

"Dispatch to unit 565 be careful in there, the flames are blazing high and the building is unstable."

        The woman started to walk towards the house when someone caught her arm. She looked back with a fierce glare. The man stared for a moment. The fire in her eyes rivaled the one burning down the house. He pulled his oxygen mask to the side.

"Didn't you hear dispatch! The building is coming down. Don't be a fool and get yourself killed. Wait for backup," the man snarled.

She looked him in the eye with fierce determination and snatched her arm out his grasp.

"I know what I'm doing."

       She surveyed the area and carefully walked into the house. She jumped to the side narrowly avoiding a piece of the ceiling falling on her. The smoke made it hard to see, but she persevered. She saw the stairs and walked up.

        She walked down the hall. Everything was hazy. Her oxygen was getting low. She searched the rooms until suddenly she came to a nursery. She checked in the bassinet, but there was no baby. It had to be somewhere in the house. She let out a hazy cough and continued to search the upstairs. The smoke was starting to get to her throat.

        She finds a locked bedroom. Squaring her shoulders, she slams repeatedly into the door until it finally gives away. In the bedroom, a mother is curled up in the corner with her baby in her arms sobbing.

"Ma'am come on this place is falling apart!"

The woman looks startled by the firefighter, but quickly hands her baby over and sits back on the ground.

"I want to go down with my home. Take my baby and go."

"You don't want that."

"I do."

"And leave this baby to go to foster care and to know that her mother abandoned her to die in a moment of misery. You have a choice. My mother didn't."

        The woman stares in agony at her house. She starts to cry and only cries harder as she stands up and gives the firefighter her hand. The woman gives the mother her oxygen mask and her baby the spare one. Her limbs feel sluggish as she tried to lead them out the building.

        She thinks they will never escape when she sees the door. They were almost there. Until the house started falling apart. The woman started a round of coughing fits. They were so close.

"Dispatch we are blocked in, what do we do?"

Nothing but static came back. She looked at the mother and child in agony.

"Dispatch we are blocked in what do we do?"

        Still no answer. She desperately searched for a place to escape. She ended up a little bit away when something fell. She let out barely contained gasps as pain as something pierced her side. She was losing too much blood. It must have hit something vital. Squinting in pain she stood up and continued looking. There! She saw some moveable beams. She lifted them with all her might, but they barely budged. The woman and baby were quite small. She knew what she had to do and called them over.

"Okay you and the baby go on through," she said with a smile.

"What about you?", the mother asked.

"Oh, I'll be right after you ma'am it's just protocol for me to let you go first."

Seemingly satisfied the woman went through with her baby.

"Go on out the door I have to take off some of my equipment to fit!"

"Okay!" the mother shouted.

        The woman waited until she knew the mother was gone and then laid down. She stared up at the burning ceiling. She wasn't going to make it. She allowed one tear to escape her eye which turned into loud sobs. She had so much life left to live that she couldn't now, but at least the mother and her baby got out safe; unlike hers.

"Dispatch I'm not going to make it," a loud cough left her lips.

"I'm sorry," she stutters out as a round of coughs escape her.

She slowly felt more and more tired, but this time she didn't try to fight sleep. Little did she know the Moon Goddess watched this act with a small smile, she had chosen her next Sacred.