In the Midst of the Smoke

Part 2

Hearing a cry, she looked for the source, and found who she was looking for, Henry. A small weighted was lifted when she saw that the cry had not come from him. He was lifting a burning tree that had fallen on a couple of villagers as the fire raged around them. A resounding crack cut through the chaos as a tree fell in front of Airiania cutting off her path to Henry and she cried out. Henry, hearing her cry, turned around and shouted at her to go. Stubborn as a mule, she was determined to find another way around the firey tree that blocked her path in a last desperate attempt to not leave her brother behind. Alas, it was not to be. The fire raged around Airiania as she frantically ran back and forth like a trapped animal. Henry kept telling her to leave him, that he would be right behind her, and she was forced to agree as the flames grew ever closer. Airiania ran to the docks with a strange feeling of numbness growing in her. Pushing it down, and not glancing behind her because of the fear that her brother would not be there. When she reached the docks she kept seeing her brother in everyone that passed by. The people that her brother stayed to help showed up, but not her brother. She asked them where her brother was but they just shook their heads and said he didn't make it. She told them that they were wrong, that her brother would never leave her, that he said he would be right behind her. More and more people started to arrive until it looked like the entire village was by the docks. Families and friends hugged each other relieved to be safe and together. Happiness seemed to pour out of them. Another villager comes with her brother's diamond clam necklace that was a gift that he would never willingly take off. The man said that he recognized the necklace on a charred body when he was headed towards the docks. Airiania refused to believe this and tells the man that he is wrong, that was not her brother. The men of the village started to ready the plain brown boats that stood out against the red flames and dark murky water. The villagers let out a happy cry as they saw that the boats that would provide salvation from the ever burning fire were ready to go. When the villagers were leaving on the boats because the fire had come to close, they asked her to come with them, but she refused believing that her brother would come to her. As she looked at the village, the fire glowed, angry and bright, and it would only be content if it devoured the entire world. The fire did not seem to care that the village and the memories and people it contained, were everything to all who lived there. After the villagers were long gone, as the fire engulfed her, she finally saw her brother. She felt the sting of tears as they left her eyes and made their way down her cheeks.
"You came." she whispered, then was no more.