** Hi, so I'm pretty new to this so I hope you like :) **
The Night I Died
Chapter 1
The heat pulsing from the flames swallowed me. I felt myself slipping deeper and deeper into the clasp of the flames. The edges of the room became blurred; the walls, ceiling and floor merged into one. I knew that I had to get out of there, but I also knew that I couldn't leave Daniel. He was only thirteen; he had a whole life ahead of him. I tried to stand but my knees wouldn't hold me up. The thick smoke ripped its way through me, causing me to cough convulsively. I hauled myself across the floor and stuffed the spare blankets from the bed against the gap at the bottom of the door. I knew that it probably wouldn't do any good but I knew that I had to try. Slithering back to Daniel, I shook him, making sure that he was still awake.
"Daniel, listen to me. I need you to keep breathing. Look at me; please just try to hang on Daniel. Someone will come for us I promise." His answering cough and the gentle flutter of his eyes let me know that he was, at least for now, still alive.
I heard my mother's distant cry of desperation seep in through the window and felt a spark of relief that she had been rescued from the malevolence of the blaze. I dragged myself to the window and flung it open with whatever strength I had left. I knew that Daniel's life was important to my parents and I didn't think that I would have the strength to be able to leave him. Calling upon inner reserves of strength, I picked him up and dragged him helplessly over to the window and screamed with all my might. Several fire men ran around to the back of the house to get to my bedroom window. A ladder clanked against the side of the house and a man started to climb. I tried to keep Daniel awake, but I knew that as his breathing slowed, along with his coughing, it might be too late for him. I heaved him up, taking all of his weight on my shoulder, as a man in yellow stuck his helmeted head through the window.
"Are you ok? Take my hand and I will make sure you are safe. You can trust me."
"Just take my brother, he is worse than me. Make sure he is ok, please you have to help him." I knew that I was being hysterical but I didn't care. My body shook with another wave of convulsing coughs.
"Ok. Stay here I will be right back." He took the limp body of my brother and carried him down towards the waiting ambulance. He was on his way back up the ladder when there was an explosion from behind me that blew the door open, letting the flames lick the inside of my room, ripping the skin off my back. An agonizing shriek leaked through my lips as the pain consumed me. Like acid shredding my back, the flamed whips slashed through my skin. Flames crawled up the curtains; panicking, I stepped onto the ledge of my window. The window seat had been the favourite part of my bedroom. It was here that I used to sit and read for hours, having the panes open in the heat of the summer and closed when lined with frost. The immense throbbing from my back made my head light, mixing with the drowsiness from the smoke. I felt myself start to sway. I knew, as I stood on the frame of the window, that I had no choice. The air was still outside, there was a single breeze that brought a gasp of air; it cleared my head long enough for me to realise that this was not a good idea. I looked down to see that the ladder had plummeted to the ground below me. I struggled to contort my body back through the window. I felt a strange sensation of fingers digging into the right side of my collar bone. The strange touch moved up to grab my neck, before I could scream, I was dragged down and I fell. It felt as though I was floating through the crisp night air, I wondered if this was what it felt like to be hoisted up to heaven. Then I hit the floor. My head landed heavily on the grass below with a sickening crunch. I woke up, an angel hovering above my head.
Turns out it wasn't an angel as such, it was Samuel.
