Fire! Fire!

"Just leave me be, you're better off without me anyway,"

"What?! That is not true! And I am not leaving you here! I love you too much to let you die. Come quick. Now!" He holds his hand towards you. You look at it and then at him. Did he really love you? You begrudgingly get up. He grips you tight and holds you close to his chest. You can feel his heart pounding and him panting. It was getting really smokey. The exit is only a few metres ahead. But from where you are it could be a kilometre away. You run toward it gripping onto each other for dear life. The roof collapses and caves in. You are trapped. Inside a burning house. With no way out. You can hear the fireman outside and police officers too. Will anyone save you? Tears well in your eyes not only frpm the smoke. You could die. And it would be all your fault. Both of you would die here just because you wouldn’t believe the man you love. All he wanted to do was show you a video but you said no. But he’s stubborn he came after you and when you said no he backed away and knocked over the candelabra. The mansion caught fire immediately trapping your whole family inside. They all escaped. But you blame yourself for what happened and knew that everyone would be better off without you, and now the person you trust the least at the moment is the one who is saving you. You hug him tight not wanting to let go of him. You know what you have to do. The entrance is sealed by burning wood. You surge forward and break through the barrier. The fire burns your skin and you collapse from the pain and heat. You feel arms grip you tight and carry you out. Out of the burning house, and away from your nightmare. You reach outside and he puts you down gently but he makes sure that you keep breathing. 

“Help! Paramedic! Please quickly! It’s Luna!  She’s seriously hurt. She needs help now,” 

You feel yourself being carried and put down onto a bed. A stretcher. You are wheeled into an ambulance and driven away. Antonio holds your hand and strokes it. Telling you that everything will be ok. A couple of times you squint at him, but otherwise, you don’t have the strength to do anything. You let your emotions cave in and you relax your features. You fall into a coma. You aren’t aware of anything going on. Time passes. Days, hours, minutes, years. You aren’t sure. You can’t tell, or you don’t care. You drift through slumber. Breaking in and breaking out. Dreams flow and come to you. Other times your mind is black and nothing comes to mind. At one point you hear a distant voice. 

“I need you Luna, please, please wake up. You are my world,” Then it disappears and everything goes black. You try to get out, but nothing works. You are trapped inside your mind. Nothing works and nothing makes you any less scared. Of yourself. Your own worst enemy. As time goes on, you become more and more self conscious. Of your ever present doubt. Doubt that you will never get out again. Never see your family. Never see Antonio. His face appears like a big cinema screen. The curves, the smile, everything. Even the dishevelled hair is in place for once. You find yourself crying. You want to escape. To run away. But you can’t run away from your own thoughts. You continue this cycle of constantly doubting yourself and being afraid of your own shadow. Nothing made sense anymore. Everything was either blurred or too long ago to remember. A face occasionally appears in your head but you have no idea who it is. Slowly you start to think yourself insane. You go mad. With boredness. Nothing runs through your ludicrous mind at all. It drives you crazy you no longer have control over what you feel. Your emotions cascading over you like a waterfall drowning your hope in water. You fade and eventually you don’t even care about anything anymore. You just want to get out of your head. A bright light casts the shadow away. You open your eyes. A face is looking down at you. Antonio. You are in the real world again! You feel Antonio hug you and you hug him back with all your might. He pulls himself away and looks at you.   He takes you all in and then hugs you again. You hear the sound of footsteps. Three doctors come rushing in, and upon seeing that you are awake they start cheering. They saved you. You look to Antonio and try to find your words. 

“What day is it?” You manage to say to him

“It’s the 5th of June 2017.” He finishes looking down

“How long have I been asleep for?” 

The doctor answers you, “102 days Miss,”

You stare at him in bewilderment. 102 days! How is that even possible?! You sit up straight and rub your eyes. You look around the room. Everyone is staring at you. You feel like a zombie. Like you’ve just come back from the dead. Your parents walk into the room. They rush to you and hug you really tightly. Like they would never let you go. You hug them back tight. You feel them release you and you see all the faces look at you. You shut your eyes and imagine a perfect world. Where none of this ever happened. Where you lived happily ever after with Antonio and your parents and all your friends. Where the sun always shines and nothing ever goes wrong. An ideal world, just for you and your loved ones. Where you can get back the time you lost. Tears stream down your closed eyelids and you feel Antonio’s hands on your shoulders. You squeeze your eyes shut and welcome the darkness as the monitor holds one note. A long beep.