Beta's Boy

Prologue

The smell of burning flesh woke Zach from his peaceful sleep. The smell was so horrendous that it made the poor boy gag, covering his mouth and nose with the top of his pyjama top. He quickly made his way out of his room to try and find his parents to ask them what the hell was going on. But as soon as he made his way on to the landing the heat of flames licked at his bare feet, causing him to jump back and stare at the inferno before him.

It looked like as if the gates of hell had opened right in front of him, he heard his mum scream from her bedroom. With his eyes stinging from the smoke and his lungs burning he ran through a tiny gap in the inferno and into his parents room, most of the room was on fire but through the smoke he could make out a small figure curled into a ball in the corner of the room. "Mum!" He thought, he dashed over to her immediately taking her into his arms, "Mum we need to go." He chocked out, the smoke suffocating him from the inside out.

His mother's tear stained face met his, "I can't leave your father." She all but whispered out a fresh coat of tears falling from her eyes. Zach quickly scanned the room for his father but the smoke was so thick, so consuming that he could barely see two inches in front of his face. The fire has spread to most of the bedroom and the beams above them started to break, they needed to get out now! Swallowing the bile that rose in his throat at the thought of his father being dead. Zach scooped up his mother despite her wails in protests and started making his way out of the fire incased room.

He got as far as the bedroom door before turning back around, the fire had only grown, devouring everything in its path like a hungry demon. Placing his mum down next to him, he looked around for another way out. Nothing came to mind and the suffocating smoke made it hard for him to the think, never mind see. The painc welling up in his throat was only making the situation worse as he spun around on the spot looking for a way out, tugging at his hair trying to think of something to do.

Something tapping on the window caught his attention, it was the old oak tree that was next to the house. The one that used to always scare the crap out of him when he was a young boy. Without thinking twice he picked his mum back up and headed towards the window. He knew that it wouldn't open enough to fit a body through so he placed his mum back on the ground before grabbing the lampshade that was on the bedside table, the fire had now taken the bed too, they were running out of time. Smashing it against the window a few times finally resulted in a small crack, it was working!! He started hitting it harder and quicker despite how difficult it was on his lungs with all the smoke. When he was about to deliver the final blow his mum grabbed his arm screaming for him to stop and asking where his father was, she was hysterical and clearly delusional from the lack of proper oxygen. He tried shrugging her off but it was no use, she accidentally made him drop the lamp but the fire was closer than before, engulfing the lamp almost immediately. Zach started punching the glass instead finally it smashed but the new gush of oxygen caused the fire to rage even more causing an already loose beam to fall down on top of them. Without thinking he covered his mum causing the flaming beam to land on his forearm and across the back of his shoulders immediately burning and blistering the skin.

Zach screamed out in pain before ordering his mum to claim out of the window and on to the tree, seeming to come back to her senses slightly from the agonizing cry of her child, she nodded her head and made her way in to the tree being careful not to slip. With all his might Zach managed to push the heavy beam off of him just enough for him to escape out of the window and follow his mum down the tree.

When finally on solid ground with no raging inferno trapping them in, they both stared at their once beautiful home turn to ash. They only had each other now.