Haven Hills

Prologue

My body twitched for the third time, bringing  me into awareness that I had been in  a deep sleep for what seems like over 6 hours. I unwillingly opened my eyes to an unusual and heavy blur causing me to rub my eyes while glancing over to the clock. Still blurry, my heart rate quickens and I  begin to panic. Is this a nightmare?  Looking around I couldn't seem to make sense of my surroundings. This is it, my 9 year old mind thought, this is how I will lose my vision all while still dreaming. In mid thought  I begin to move my hands around realizing I was still in bed. The atmosphere that surrounded my space was now  making it hard to breathe, my vision slowly being further interrupted with an even darker blur, violent spurs of clouds. Am I still dreaming? My subconsciousness wonders but I already knew the answer.

My home is slowly melting away from vicious flames. This was no dream. Mom? Dad?

A sudden shiver followed by a panic consumes me. I jump out of my bed suddenly trying to practically swim my way out of the waves of smoke seeping through the open entries all around and into my room. As I manage to slip on a pair of slippers another thought emerges in my mind. No one has come to look for you? Do they know what's going on? My tiny right hand reaches for the handle of my door not caring for the stinging sensation, a red flag warning me of what awaits on the other side of my room. I couldn't bring my young self to care though. Nothing compared to the pain of possibly being left behind by my parents. Not even the new noticeably red circle of blisters that I held in the palm of my hand now.

I cautiously step out, welcomed by throat cutting fumes of angry, electric yellow light. My face coming into close interaction with the excruciating heat, igniting my fragile eyes. I turn looking down the hallway ignoring the fire taking over what was once a family room and locking my eyes with an open door leading to my parents room. BOOM! I jump. Something devoured by the fire. "Mom!" I yell. BANG! Another one. I scream once again crawling away as fast as I can. I have to find my parents, they didn't leave me, I thought. They must still be sleeping.

I appear into my parents room, empty. Bed sheets carelessly undone, a bedroom now with a  glowing hew from the fire soon to capture me too. A heaviness crawls into my chest the kind of heaviness I would experience before my asthma attack. I cough. No, this wasn't my asthma, this was worse. My eyes begin to water mimicking the ashes falling around me, ashes creeping and expanding into a darkness.

Their room was left abandoned. I was left abandoned. My thoughts were pushed to the side once I suddenly hear voices coming from a distance through my parents opened balcony doors. My need for survival kicks in allowing me to push through and limp towards my parents balcony. Looking down at my legs I noticed minor burns now covering my legs, how did this happen? I hear yelling coming from outside. What was happening to me was not important, I had to get out. Time stops as soon as I burst through the door expecting a breath of fresh, unburnt air, instead I was surprised with an almost deserted town. It seemed as if all the houses throughout the town was experiencing the same thing. Multiple houses down, a town quickly being melted away. I look around towards families, neighbors, school mates leaving behind their memories. The sight before my eyes has left me speechless, I go to yell but nothing came out except for more tears. The blisters in the palm on my hand begins to twitch, my legs slowly giving away. "August!" I hear a faint noise of what sounds like  my name  coming from a familiar voice. "Dad?" I manage to scramble out.

Blurry visions of my father pointing towards my direction with firefighters fill my eyes. "You came back for-" My sad excuse for a voice interrupted by another voice. This time coming from inside the house. "August, help" I turn around, "mom?" I go to run back inside but fall to my feet and captured by a man with a yellow suit. "NO!" I try to resist as I get dragged away.

"Mom mom mom! Shes inside! Mom she's in there! You have to get her- you have to-." Everything goes black.

...

I'm rushed out of bed from the sharp sound bursting  through my alarm clock. I immediately place my hand on my heart feeling as if it would jump out of my chest at any minute.

"August!" I flinch feeling rather anxious than usual. It was my dad yelling from downstairs.

A sudden thought to check my legs popped into my head. No burns. Absolutely nothing. It was just a dream but, why did  it feel so real?

"August you're late!" A sigh of relief escapes my lips before I respond. "I'll be down in a minute." I rush to the bathroom ignoring a burning itch from my right palm.