"Both of our lives we're upside down; up in flames. Crossing paths made everything even more complicated and life went up in flames once again.
It just was in a positive kind of way."
[9-1-1 season 1 -?]
eddie diazxoc
a ❝chasing happiness❞ book
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Sweat trickled down her forehead as she looked for a way out. Her throat was sore from all the screaming she's been doing, but she refused to stop. She needed to get out and she needed to find her family.
The flames licked against her skin as they grew bigger and hotter by each passing minute, and she was running out of time the longer she stayed hidden in that spot beside her bed. She was scared, hell she terrified, and her short life was flashing in front of her. She coughed once again as the tears ran down her face. She heard commotion outside her bedroom door and with the small ounce of strength she had left, the young girl crawl over to the door and started pounding on it to attract attention.
From outside, a young boy fought his way through the fire to get to his little sister, knowing she was scared and alone amidst of the accident. He's been burned when the fire started in his room, but the adrenaline kept him from feeling anything; the only thought on his mind was saving his sister.
The boy coughed more frequently as the seconds passed, the oxygen struggling to enter his lungs. He was so close to get to her door when he collapsed, passing out. From behind him, three firefighters appeared after getting the mother out and following her screaming instructions that her kids were inside.
"Robbins! Take the boy while me and Henderson search for the girl. Go!"
The firefighter, Robbins, did as he was told by his captain and picked the kid up in a hurry, exiting the apartment. Henderson and Captain Lennon saw two doors at the end of the hallway, one opened that directed to a bathroom while the other was closed.
"Henderson, check the bathroom, I got the other one."
Captain Lennon kicked the door down, almost hitting the girl if she didn't get out of the way some minutes before. "Come on, kid. Let's get you out of here," he said, holding a hand to the little girl, who hesitantly took it. She followed the firefighter through the halls and out of her apartment and to a fire filled building hallway.
Her coughs resonated through the firefighter's ears and he looked down at the little, scared girl. He was getting worried about her, not knowing how long has she been inside that fire nor the amount of smoke she's inhaled.
They broke through the smoke outside the building and her eyes searched for her family, worried sick about them. The firefighter looked at her and noticed her face fall when she didn't see her mother or brother. "Hey, who you looking for?"
His voice broke her out of her trance, and she turned her head to look at him. "My mother and my brother," she answered in a small voice. The man nodded and he remembered the boy they found blacked out in the hallway.
"We'll find them."
Suddenly, the girl sprinted away in the direction to the ambulance where she saw her mother being held back by some firefighters. "Mom!" Her mother's teary eyes found her running figure and she crouched down with her arms opened. The girl landed on her arms, crying in fear and relief.
"My baby!"
The girl held onto her mother tightly, afraid that if she let go she would be back in the ire and fearing for her life. "Where's Diego?" Her mother didn't respond, she just looked behind her to the paramedics working on her older son.
"Okay, sweetie, let me check on you," a woman, a paramedic, approached them and guided the little girl to a gurney where they started taking her vitals, listening to her heart and lungs but she was not paying attention to any of that, her whole focus was on her big brother.
"We gotta roll!" The man working on Diego shouted and they started loading him into the ambulance. The girl jumped as soon as she got a chance and ran to her mother's side, both of them climbing into the ambulance after the boy.
The girl looked at her brother's face, holding his hand and mentally begging that her older brother was going to be okay.
———
The cemetery was quiet, the only sound was their feet crunching the fallen leaves and the sobs and sniffs coming from a young girl and her mother. The two women guided the group of people following a casket to the place of the burial.
The ceremony went by fast and before she knew it they were lowering the casket to the ground before slowly covering it with the dirt. Realization kicked in as the hole on the ground was completely covered and the little girl dropped to her knees as a loud sob was emitted from her body. Her mother crouched down beside her and rocked her body back and fort in a attempt to console her crying daughter, even when nothing could make her feel better.
The girl cried into her mother's chest, her eyes darting to the tombstone reading her brother's name over and over again and the close proximity between the beginning and ending of his life. And it was all because he wanted to save her.
The family helped the mother up, keeping her crying daughter close to her side as they walked back to the car and to the house they were staying at in the meanwhile. All the ride there, the girl couldn't help but think all of that was her fault, but the thoughts went away as quickly as they appeared, knowing Diego would hate for her for feeling guilty about it.
Everything changed after that horrid night. That night were she felt the flames licking her skin and the lack of oxygen in her lungs. The night that a fire meant to kill the people inside the apartment next door claimed her brother's life.
That night was what made Laura Santos realize that life is too short, and it can be taken away in the blink of an eye. And with the heartbreak she felt all those years back when she was twelve and her brother was almost fourteen, allowed her to decide what was the path she wanted for herself. To help people and to prevent for any other family to feel what she felt after that night.
Because losing a son was not something any mother should feel. Losing a brother was not something any sibling should feel. Because the hole they leave when they take their last breath is not something you recover from. It's something you learn to live with. Even when it conitnues breaking you.
