Up in flames

The tragedy

Fear. That's what I feel every breath I take feels heavy and coarse. My whole life is crashing down. Death is thick in the air mixed with smoke. They just told me my parents died in the fire. The wreckage of our once perfect house is sprawled out in front of me. What do I do now? Where do I go now? How do I live without them? There it is again, fear, griping my heart. I suddenly become aware of the tears streaming down my face. I feel to limb to stand but don't have the power to sit. Hands embrace me just as I'm about to fall, big, strong hands. I try to see who it is through my blurred vision. His face displays the agonising pain I feel inside, he has huge teddy bear brown eyes with a mess of curly brown hair on his head and sharp striking features with a matching wide jaw line. That's the last thing I remember, his face, as the world started to fade away.

"Morning.", he says it so dully like he's lost or hurt, who says? Who is he?

"What's this, where am I, who are you?" it comes back to me, all of it and I get slightly hysterical, "WHERE ARE THEY" I scream in desperate need to see my parent, alive.

He calmly holds my hands that I tried to wildly swat him with "Avery, I know this is hard but there was a fire...."

"NOOOOO!" I had to stop him, I had to stop him from saying those words. He just holds me while I weep. As I calm down I yearn for answers, "What now? What's going to happen to me and who are you?

"Let me start with the last question first my name is Donavan (29) and I'm your adopted brother and named as your guardian on our parents' will.", his voice did the strangest thing, it calmed me down , my mind just drifted on his spicy voice.

"Why have I never heard about you? I mean we're family."

"When I was 16 I was sent away to reformatory school by the court, they were disappointment and I couldn't bear to face them so when I got out I never went back."

"Oh.", I suddenly feel too tired and drained to continue my inquiry.

"You should eat, I made breakfast.", he says as he leaves the room. I start noticing the books everywhere piled in high stacks, this must be why the air smells like papers. I slowly get out of bed my body stiff and sore I have a big blue shirt on that flows till my knees, when did I put this on? I take a look in the mirror to see if I changed like everything around me suddenly has but I look the same. I have curly almost messy white-blond hair that flows beyond the halfway mark of my back it's complimented by my pale white skin. I have dainty facial feature with pale blue eyes. I'm still the same. I walk into the kitchen, more books. The smell of food overwhelms me as I suddenly realise the growling emptiness of my stomach.

"Here, eat." He says sliding a plate to me. The plate has a singular toast topped with melted butter, pepper and salt, there's a side of scrambled eggs covered in condensed milk. Just like my dad used to make me.

"Whoa, I guess you really are family, no one else would eat this."I say chuckling, is that okay, to laugh, after all that has happened. My smile fades away.

"It's okay to be happy without them." Damn he noticed, I suddenly become self aware I don't know this person and I can't let him know me either.

"I know." I say softly, I'm usually so good at hiding my emotions from people but for some reason with him I can't. I feel like I'm going to fall apart again because every five minutes I get reminded that their gone forever, that my life's changed forever. He notices and walk towards me and put those big warm hands on my face

"It will feel better soon, all you need is time", his face is so close to mine I can smell his strong coffee scent, I don't know why but all I want to do now is kiss him. I pull away.

"Yeah, but the problem is right now time seems to be really slow. It's like the world is standing still." A tear escapes and rolls down my cheek, that's all he needed to see to know it's time to embrace me. It's wrong what I'm feeling, I'm feeling happy and warm, how dare I feel these things.

"Don't let go." Why'd I say that I know that's what I want but now he knows too.

"I won't" He replies while kissing the crown of my head the way a brother would.