Fire reveals all. (Part 2 of "The day the sun fell")

It’s always fire. Even when I was only six years old. Fire has taken everything from me.

I was being forced to go to school, again. I hated it there, and Theta knew that. No one there could ever understand what I have been through. After eight years of living by ourselves, someone finally found our message.

That was two years ago now and If I’m being honest, I would’ve been fine if they hadn’t. Saran and I well, we hung out a lot and a lot of people would consider us "best friends", but sometimes we didn't get along that great.

He was full of himself and apparently I was, “Stubborn and rude”. I mean not that I cared, I learned to not give two craps about people like that. Where was I? Right. So, after Saran and his mother Kayla found us, it wasn’t long before other survivors started to re-surface. Soon, there were hundreds of families flooding to the wetlands, or what used to be called, “Florida”.

We rebuilt our life, set up a school, built houses. There was an entire new town before we knew it. We named it “Forza”. It means strength, in Portuguese. Theta was basically my mom, my real one died ten years ago, along with the rest of my family. Though sometimes, I really hated the rules she set for me. Like having to go to the school with all of the rest of the kids. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just be homeschooled, that way I wouldn’t have to deal with Saran and his crew of, “Cool kids”.

But no, of course not. She said it was good for me to be around other kids who had gone through the same thing as me. The only problem with that is that none of those kids could ever possibly imagine what it’s like. For instance, their families were still alive.

Saran was a good person when he wasn’t around his goons, but he was completely different when he was. What made it harder was that I had liked him for years, even though we always bickered or teased each other. I just did, and I hated seeing him, because I didn’t hate him at all.

“Ivy, come on, you’re going to be late!”

I groaned and banged my head on the table, I was eating my cereal. Painfully slowly, any excuse to keep me home.

“Theta I don’t want to go to school.”

She rolled her eyes,

“We have this conversation every morning, skipping school is not an option. Now get in the car so we can leave.”

I huffed in frustration but stood up, going to my room to grab my backpack. Looking in the mirror one last time, if I had to go to school I might as well look decent. I had on what I usually wear, a dark green t-shirt, tied, ripped jeans, hair in a messy bun. I turned and left quickly before she bit my head off.

My black converse squeaking against the wooden floor. I could hear Theta honking the horn and I fought the urge to yell at her when I got in the car. I made sure I slammed the door when I got in, she ignored me and drove me to school. Forza Town High School, four hundred and five students. And out of all of them, Saran Kenneth was in all of my classes. The drive was short, she refused to let me walk, paranoia was huge in Theta.

She dropped me off and I walked into school, not bothering with a goodbye. Sometimes, I wished that she would’ve just let me die in that stupid house. Maybe it would’ve been easier to just burn like my family did.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and headed to my first class. I inwardly groaned, algebra, freaking, algebra. I walked in and felt everyone’s eyes on me, the teacher crossed her arms at me,

“Miss Mason, you’re late.”

I breezed past her, only giving an,

“Mhm.”

Plopping in my chair, I ignored the dirty look she was giving me and pulled out my math book. I basically fell asleep as she droned on and on about the pythagorean theory and what not. I had zero interest in school, it was: A, too easy and B, not something I needed for life. I was more worried about survival skills. Things that were actually important. I lugged myself through the day, dragging myself into class and forcing myself to get back up. The monotony of it all was brain-killing.

Finally, we had reached 7th period. Homeroom. You would think that homeroom would be first period, but no, last period. At least I could relax and not have to fight to stay conscious. While I was in the middle of slumping on my desk and drifting off to sleep, I felt a piece of paper hit the back of my head. I shot up and whipped around, everyone was looking at their desks. No smiles.

I picked the paper off the ground and un-crumpled it, it was a note. And I knew who it was from.

Maybe you would have friends if your parents had raised you right, oh wait that’s right. They couldn’t. So sorry about that, you should've gone with them.

My blood boiled with rage. Cade Pierson, the biggest jerk in the school. He was one of the pretentious kids that had lived their whole life in a bunker. I stood up, pushing the desk forward in my outburst. The teacher said something scolding to me but I couldn’t hear him. I saw Saran coming towards me, he must’ve seen Cade throw it. Blinded by fury, I marched to Cade’s desk, flipping it and pouncing on him.

“HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT MY PARENTS LIKE THAT YOU DISGUSTING MISTAKE OF A HUMAN BEING.”

I punched him, over and over, tears falling down my face. Saran ran over and pulled me off of him, trying to calm me down; I couldn’t hear him, my ears were ringing with the pounding of my heart. I struggled, trying to pull away. He would pay, I would destroy him. Teachers came and dragged me out of the room, kicking and screaming. When they attempted to let me go and calm me down, I just tried to run back in. It only got worse from there.

Saran kept talking, I hated his face, feigning a look of sympathy and worry. He put his hands on my shoulders, trying to comfort me.

I wanted to let him, I wanted it to be real. But there was no way that Saran Kenneth had feelings for me.

“Hey, it’s ok, you’re ok. Calm down Ivy, I know you’re upset but you need to just breathe and get your head clear.”

I ripped myself away from him, no longer needing to be restrained,

“Just go away Saran, I don’t need your help. Besides, you don’t want to deal with me anyways and why would I want help from someone who couldn’t care less.”

With that, I stormed off and locked myself in the bathroom. I crumpled to the floor and sobbed, filling the stall with the sound of my pain. I would probably be expelled for this, but I didn’t care. Theta would understand. I could hear the teachers knocking on the door, trying to get me to come out, but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.

What I said to Saran, was a lie. Of course I wanted him to help, we were closer than anyone else in this town. Yes, it wasn’t always great when we spoke to each other and yes it was ridiculously complicated, but I wanted him to care, I wanted him to want to help me. It hit at my lowest moment, when the flashbacks and the memories swallowed me. That was when the sirens went off.

I screamed, knowing what it meant. Fire.

I shot up and bolted out of the door, a wave of heat and smoke slamming into my face. I choked on the air and slid to the floor, crawling. How did a fire start in here? Everyone knew that fire was the most destructive and dangerous thing we had ever had to deal with. I heard kids yelling, the sound was coming from the opposite end of the school. They had all gotten out. I was still moving when I saw the flames in front of me.

I tried to turn and go the other way but the fire had spread. I was surrounded, engulfed in flames. The heat burning my skin, the smoke suffocating my lungs. My eyes stung, feeling light headed. I could feel my eyes getting heavy,

“IVY! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

I looked up and saw my mom, running to me in a white dress. I reached out and called to her, as my eyelids fluttered shut and my head fell to the floor.

Everything after that was hazy, I felt strong arms wrap around me. Lifting my body up, carrying me through the heat. I felt my soul start to drift away, then be anchored down by a voice, a sweet voice.

“Don’t let go, you can’t let go.”

The sound was muffled, but I kept hearing it, over and over again.

Until finally, it stopped, everything did.

I groaned and opened my eyes, it was bright, too bright. I squinted to give my eyes time to adjust. I was in a hospital bed. Everything hurt, my arms aching, my throat burning with the ever familiar scratchiness left from smoke. I tried to sit up and cried out, my arms were wrapped in bandages. They hurt like hell. A nurse ran over to me,

“Hey, lay back, don’t try to move. It will take a while for the burns to heal.”

Right, the fire.

I laid back down and closed my eyes, quickly falling back to sleep.

I spent the rest of two months in that bed, barely being conscious to eat and drink. Then falling back into the endless hours of sleep. Finally, I got stronger. I was able to stand up, eventually walk, and they decided to send me home. They hadn’t let Theta visit me because I was a “high risk patient” and they wouldn’t tell me who rescued me from my inevitable death.

She was a mess when I came home, crying and telling me that she loved me. I honestly just wanted to go to my room and cry. I was doing so when I heard someone knock on the door. The door creaked open and Theta called for me, when I came out, I saw Saran standing there.

“Hi, can we talk?”

I was confused, why was he here?

“If you want an apology for what I said, I’m sorry ok?”

He shook his head,

“Just, come with me, please.”

I sighed and followed him out the door. We walked to the edge of the town and into the forest, I looked at him questioningly but he just stayed silent and kept walking. He led me back to this old bridge that we used to sit on a couple years ago, when we first met. We were the only company that we had. He sat down, his legs dangling over the side. I joined him and for a moment we sat in silence.

The sound of the water flowing through the stream and the birds chirping in the trees filled our ears. Until finally, he spoke.

“How are you?”

I laughed a bit,

“Besides being almost scorched to death, I’m great.”

I went silent again and asked in a small voice,

“How did the fire start?”

He sighed,

“Cade lit a match and threw it in a cabinet full of papers. He said that we should all have burned out years ago so why not not just do it now.”

I shivered, he was actually insane. As Saran kept talking, I got this weird feeling inside. It felt familiar. I cut him off,

“Saran can you say my name?”

He stared into my eyes, sadness in them, like he knew what I was asking.

“Ivy.”

My heart stopped,

“It was you.”

He nodded and I could picture it now, I remembered the screams of my name. His screams. His arms wrapping around me as he ran to get out of the burning school. He risked his life for me. I blinked rapidly, trying to wrap my head around it. It was him running towards me. Him who had saved me.

“But, I thought-”

“That I didn’t have any feelings for you or something stupid like that? Ivy, even if I didn’t, I still would’ve ran back in to save you.”

Had I heard wrong or did he just say that he had feelings for me? He laughed, as if he could read my mind,

“Yes Ivy, I do. And I have a feeling that you do to.”

I nodded and looked at my feet,

“Of course I do, I only acted like I hated you because I thought you weren’t interested.”

He gently grabbed my hand, half of it scarred permanently pink. He rubbed my hand softly, and tears filled my eyes. I had wanted this for so long, and it was finally happening,

“Fire always takes everything from me.”

A tear fell down my face and he used his free hand to wipe it away, cupping my face,

“Nothing will take me from you, not even fire."

Sitting there with him, a thousand memories flooded my head. When I first met him and he told me that my hair looked like fire. Last year when he pushed me on a swing and we stayed up until four in the morning. Just talking. The first time that he hugged me. I was crying because Theta had gotten sick. He just held me in his arms.

I remember how amazing that feeling was, but this feeling, this

was something so much more than that.

I was afraid, afraid of what was to come. Afraid of things that could happen to him, to us, but it didn’t matter, because he was here. After everything that had happened in my life, after all of the things that fire had destroyed, he was here, with me. He leaned his forehead against mine and I closed my eyes. Whispering softly, he dropped his left hand, grabbing my other hand so he was holding both. Our hands connecting us. Our hearts, burning like the flames that had destroyed this earth and taken all of who I loved from me.

It hadn't taken him though.

“Fire won’t hurt you anymore. Not while I’m here.”

And for once, I believed it.