Ardent

1

My whole world collapsed, like the beams on my childhood home. the only thing left was the rubble. dark, ashy, traumatizing remains. 

I'm convinced the only thing more painful then imagining their charred corpses, would be to actually witness it. 

They will be burnt, like how uncle harry cooked his steak, i'm sure of it.

I'm so sure, that the thought  made my fling myself on the cold, wet grass. 

sirens

No, their too late. you can't unburn a body.

It is still lit. 

the heat makes me sweat, but I don't feel it, I don't feel anything. I didn't even feel it when I was lifted off the grass and brought to the ambulance.

"Can you tell me your name?"

...

"Miss?"

...

 I look at the man speaking.

I could see the reflection of the fire in his dull eyes. 

"They are burning"

He looked shocked. 

"Um, t-the fire fighters are trying their hardest to help them."

He sounded confident at the end, but I knew better. Nobody can save them now.

~~~

I don't know how long i've been in this hospital. everything has been a blur. I remember fire, the  flashing lights, and I remember the pain, but everything after that is like a dream fading from my memory.

knock knock

"Excuse me, i'm sorry to bother you but I would like to talk to you about the incident, and what is going to happen now."

I look up to the see the new voice that has entered the room. 

she looked around forty years old and was wearing a navy blazer and a matching knee length skirt. overall this woman looked very white-collar.  

She waited for me to respond, but after seeing that I would not answer, she carried on. 

"well, since you are seventeen, you are too old to be placed in a foster home. you will probably be placed in the group home down on weston street. We looked at your files to search for remaining family but it looks like the only person who was not present in your home at the time was your uncle samuel, but we have no information on him. Do you know how to get ahold of your uncle?"

I could barely keep up with her. I searched her face for any sympathy, but I found nothing but a lifeless stare. 

"I don't know anything about an uncle samuel."

this was true, I knew there was an estranged relative floating around somewhere, but I was always left in the dark when it came to family secrets.

"Ok well, i'll see where I can place you and I will be back within the next couple of days to bring you to where you will be staying"

...

"right, I will leave now, sorry for your loss, have a nice night."

She didn't sound convincing. i've heard 'i'm sorry for your loss' quite a bit these last couple days, but at least when other people say it, they have a look of genuine sadness in their eyes. this woman looked as though she couldn't get out of there fast enough. 

a couple hours later three girls walked in, I recognized them from my school. 

The tallest one spoke first.

"hi, so we heard about what happened to your house, and your family, and we just want to say we are really sorry that happened to you."

She twisted her long red hair around her finger, she is nervous. 

the one with the floral overalls, Marie, held up a bag.

"And since you lost all your stuff, we brought over some of our clothes we thought might fit you."

The tall redhead whose name I can't remember grabbed the bag and brought it over to the chair next to me.

"Thank you"

As insincere as that sounded, I honestly meant it, I was thankful, I was wearing a hospital gown, that I found uncomfortable, and my clothes smell like smoke. I didn't want to wear those clothes, it would remind me of the night all over again. 

I could sense that they were uneasy. The room was tense. 

Marie was the one to break the silence. 

"well, we'll see you at school octavia." 

She gave a polite half smile and walked out with the redhead in tow. 

The third girl however, did not budge. 

she stared curiously and tilted her head slightly, as if she was studying me. Her long curly hair followed the motion of her head. She stood completely still, not moving a muscle. It didn't disturb me or freak me out, she peaked my interest. 

The other two girls stopped at the doorway.

"Echo, are you coming?"

The girl looked over to her friends, then back at me, she then walked away without a word.

The room became silent again.

~~~

Two days later

"Listen, this place is going to be real different then what your use to. Normally this is where the girls with behavioral issues go, the ones who get kicked out of foster homes. However,  none of the foster homes around here wants to take a teenager, whose parents just died."

harsh

"You don't talk much."

I just don't want to talk to her.

she let out an exhausted sigh.

"You can't be doing that there, if you don't listen to the faculty, you will be punished. got it?"

I stared out the window. pretending this was all just a dream. I'm going to wake up and see my mom cooking breakfast, while my father reads a book. My uncle harry will come up from the basement, and piss off my dad by drinking from his coffee cup. and I will be happy.

But this wasn't a dream.

This isn't even a nightmare.

This was my life.

Just as i feel tears start to burn my eyes I felt the car jerk to a harsh stop.

I thought we had arrived, but when I looked up we were stopped in the middle of a dirt road. I waited for some kind of explanation but something in the road caught my attention.

A body