Ophari's secrets

Fire climbed the walls like a living thing.
A girl stumbled through the thick, choking smoke. Her eyes burned, and her lungs clawed for a single breath of clean air.

"Ma! Pa! Brother! Anyone! Can someone hear me!?"
The ceiling groaned above her. A blackened beam snapped, crashing into the floor just inches away. She flinched, shielding her face from the spray of sparks, then looked up.

There, clinging to the rotting edge of the upper floor, was a boy. Below him, the wood groaned as the fire licked at his feet.

"Get down here!" she screamed over the roar of the collapse.

The boy coughed violently, waving her off with a trembling hand. "What!? You think I'm jumping from here!? No way, I'm not-"

A sharp crack split the air.
The floorboards disintegrated.
He dropped.

The sound of his impact was swallowed by a mountain of debris as wood and hot ash buried him.
"NO!" she shrieked, rushing toward the pile. "[REDACTED]!!"

She clawed at the burning rubble. Her palms blistered instantly, and she coughed hard enough to choke on her own blood. The fire roared louder, breathing a suffocating heat down the back of her neck, sealing them in.
"Please, please..."

With a final, desperate heave, she wrenched away a heavy plank.

The boy lay still beneath the soot.
"Hey... hey, wake up... come on..."

No response.

The fire had surrounded them completely. Every exit was gone. Every path back to the world was sealed in orange and black.

Her tears fell fast, hissing into steam the moment they hit her scorched skin.

"No, no, no... please wake up, brother... please..." she whispered, her voice cracking into a sob. "Mama's coming back for us... she said she would... please... wake up..."

She pulled his limp body close, holding him tight as the ceiling began to rain down in embers.

And swallowed them whole.

Silence.

tw: this might contain vulgar words because of the MC'S erm personality, and maybe some sensitive topic🥰

the cover isn't mine, just too lazy to make one.