FIGHTING FIRE
Maryah
I was dreaming about Mikey in a Technicolor forest. He was happy and laughing and waving me over to him, but then my mind yelled at itself to wake up.
I felt torn: the warmth, the colors, the peace of watching Mikey exist in such a beautiful world. I wanted to stay there forever, but then a deep voice screamed my name.
Everything happened so fast.
I opened my eyes, and for a split second I saw my angel of death standing beside my bed. In the instant he vanished, my waking mind processed what was happening.
Fire.
Next to me, above me, crawling all around me. Hissing, whooshing, feeding on the canopy, the bedspread, and soon, me—if I didn’t react. A loud pop exploded above me. I scrambled to the foot of the bed.
I couldn’t get out. The flames surrounded me.
I tried to yell for help but choked on the smoke. Sweat dripped down my face and arms. I grabbed the blanket I was kneeling on and tossed it over the bonfire that used to be my pillows, but the flames kept crawling closer and growing hotter.
Every panicked breath I took singed my nose and throat. My eyes stung, but through the wall of fire I saw my bedroom door was open. A guy rushed in with a fire extinguisher, spraying a burst of snow at the bed. I leapt through the clearing in the flames and fell onto the floor. At the same time, Anthony and Krista appeared in the doorway.
I tried blinking away the stinging in my eyes. In that single blink, the guy with the extinguisher moved across the room, Krista was kneeling by my side, and Anthony blasted water from a garden hose.
When I blinked again, the heat and flames had diminished. I couldn’t see through the thick smoke, but someone lifted me off the floor.
Through my coughing fit, I glanced up to see Anthony looking much too calm. He carried me down the hallway, out the front door, and set me down. “Easy. You’re all right.”
My whole body trembled. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Louise rubbed my back. “Take deep breaths, sweetheart. You need fresh air.”
I collapsed onto the front step, hiding my face in my shaking hands. “I’m so sorry. What did I do? I could’ve—oh God, I’m so sorry.”
Krista squatted in front of me. “Shh, it’s okay. Accidents happen.”
I almost killed another family. Was I cursed? “I almost burned down the house. I could’ve killed someone!”
Louise sat beside me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “But you didn’t. No one got hurt.”
“Actually,” Krista examined my elbow and the back of my arm. “You did get burned, but that will heal.”
I was borderline hyperventilating, whether from shock or guilt I wasn’t sure. “I lit candles then fell asleep and…it…. I’m so stupid. I don’t blame you if—”
“Maryah, breathe.” Louise whispered. “You didn’t do it intentionally.”
“Wait,” Krista half-laughed. “Please tell me it wasn’t one of my candles.”
I nodded.
“Oh, how perfect! So we almost burned down the house together!”
Most times I could predict Krista’s reactions, but her laughing caught me off guard. “Kris, this is serious.” My heart hadn’t stopped pounding since I woke up. The sun had begun to set, but I couldn’t look at it. The blending shades of yellow and orange looked like flames erupting in the sky. “I’ll pay for the damage. I’ll get a job and—”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Anthony said. “Money’s no concern. Your wellbeing is what matters.”
A dull buzzing rang through my ears. Something didn’t feel right.
Time felt off, like pieces were missing. It all happened too fast. How did Anthony get a hose in the house that quickly?
I stuck my hands between my knees, trying to stop them from shaking. “How did you put out the fire so fast?”
Just then, the guy with the fire extinguisher stepped onto the porch. He tucked his dark hair behind his ears then folded his arms across his chest. “No need to send up smoke signals. I knew you arrived.”
“Carson, put the jokes on hold,” Louise said.
Of course. Louise’s son. He looked calm too. Why wasn’t anyone but me rattled by this? I set a bed on fire while I slept in it and people were cracking jokes? “Thanks for rushing in and putting out the fire. You probably saved my life.”
“I was saving our house. Plus, it was a team effort.” He raked his hands through his wet hair. “You sure do know how to spark up drama. Pun intended.”
“Carson,” Anthony grunted.
“I’ll go clean up Maryah’s mess.” Carson glared at me before he went inside. “Talk about a housewarming.” Mikey was probably watching from heaven, laughing, and saying, way to make a first impression, Ry .
“I should help.” I tried to stand, but Louise kept her arm around me.
“No. You relax while Carson and Anthony take care of it.”
“But I—”
“No buts.”
Anthony went inside while Louise, Krista, and I sat in silence, staring out at the garden.
A million questions gushed through my mind as I replayed the details. How could so many flames be put out in what felt like two seconds? How did Carson move across the room in an actual blink of an eye? Where did Anthony get the hose from so fast?
“Something is wrong with me.”
Krista placed two fingers on my neck, checking my pulse, and surveyed me for visual damage. Always playing nurse. “Are you feeling light-headed? Nauseated? Having trouble breathing?”
“I don’t mean because of the fire. I think my brain is messed up.”
Louise took off her glasses and looked at me with a strangled smile. “Why do you think that?”
I paused, trying to think of how to explain it without sounding crazy. “Maybe from when I got hit in the head, or my surgery, but my brain short-circuited during the fire. Like it stopped working for a few minutes.”
Louise’s expression softened. “Fight-or-flight syndrome causes the mind to react strangely in dangerous situations.”
“Yeah, but…” It didn’t feel anything like that. My mind shut off. But, then again, I’d never been near a raging fire before so maybe she was right. “Maybe I’m just paranoid about doctors fiddling with my brain.”
She patted my hand. “Understandably so, but let’s assume they did their job correctly.”
Krista flashed me a hesitant look, but I agreed with Louise. “Okay.”
“Let’s go inside so you can calm down and eat something.” Louise stood and offered to help me up. When I reached up, her wooden necklace brushed against my fingers.
“I meant to ask, what’s the symbol on your necklace mean?”
Looking down, she rubbed her thumb over the carving. “It’s an ancient symbol from Antiquity. The modern interpretation means ‘lunar halo’ but interestingly enough its original meaning is,” she paused then smiled, “fire.”
∞
My angel of death came for me twice. Maybe the third time would be a charm.
Why did I fight so hard to get out of the fire? I should’ve inhaled every last bit of smoke. I should’ve grabbed onto my angel of death and demanded he take me to my family.
Louise set a steaming cup of tea on the kitchen counter in front of me. “It’s called Calming Wind. It will help with the shock.”
“Thank you.”
I swiveled back and forth in my stool, watching Louise flit around and make dinner as if nothing had happened.
Carson came in, scooped some pasta into a bowl and sat beside Krista. He was cleaner—and drier—and his hooded sweatshirt looked blaringly white against his tan skin. “So, Maryah, you hated your room so much you had to burn it down?”
“Carson, enough,” Louise warned.
Krista tried making light of my humiliation. “She wanted a flaming hot debut.”
No, I wanted to run away and hide. “I feel awful for ruining your brother’s decorating job. Should I email him and apologize or something?”
“Email him?” Carson stopped chewing his food. “Nathan isn’t a fan of email, and don’t even think about texting him.”
“Ohh-kay.” Why wouldn’t someone be a fan of text and e-mail? “Should I call him? I’d feel rude not thanking him and explaining what happened.”
Louise and Carson looked at each other. Krista shrugged.
“You should apologize in person,” Carson said curtly.
“He’ll stop by one of these days,” Louise said. “Everyone returns home at some point.”
My clothes and hair still smelled like smoke, and every swallow of tea hurt my irritated throat. Plus, being around Carson wasn’t exactly comfortable. “I’d like to shower and go to bed early if that’s okay.”
Carson’s fork bounced across the countertop. “You’re going to trust her with another bed?”
Krista swatted the back of his head. His chin-length hair fell over his eyes as he swiveled out of his stool and left the room. I couldn’t tell if he meant to be rude, or if he just had an obnoxious sense of humor, but I loved Krista for smacking him, and I loved Louise for saying nothing about it.
“Come on, Maryah,” Louise urged. “Anthony moved your bags to the guest room.”
“I’ll be in later,” Krista said.
I followed Louise to a bedroom I hadn’t seen during our tour.
“You should be comfortable in here.” Louise reached into her pocket. “And I want you to have this.” She examined my fingers then slid a silver ring onto my thumb. The round face had shimmering shades of blue, green, and amber. It was the eye of a peacock feather.
I almost burned down her house and she was giving me a gift? “It’s beautiful, but I can’t accept it.”
She squeezed my hand shut and pressed it against my chest. “It’s been passed down in your family for generations. It belongs to you.”
“Was it my mother’s?”
“Not exactly. It’s a long story—a very long story. But trust me, it’s a cherished possession, and it looks perfect on you.”
She fluffed pillows as I held up my hand, admiring how the colors sparkled in the light. Then I did a double take. I could’ve sworn something squirmed under the curved glass, just behind the feather. Squinting, I turned the ring from side to side and opened my mouth to ask Louise to look at it, but she silenced me by saying, “Don’t light any candles.”
My eyes were still playing tricks on me because of the shock and adrenaline rush from the fire. “No candles. I promise.”
Louise left and I grabbed my pajamas then headed down the hallway to shower. I paused at Carson’s room when I heard him shouting.
“Her first day here and she torched the place! How much more is everyone going to tolerate? It’s like you said, her being here is—”
The sudden silence should have been my warning. Three long strides and I could’ve made it to the bathroom. Carson wouldn’t have known I’d been listening. But I was too stupefied to react. He cracked his door open and stuck his head out.
So busted. “I was, um, on my way to…to the bathroom.”
“Need a map? Or should I install a peephole in my door so you can watch while you listen?”
I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. Carson hated me. Not only that, he was talking to someone else who didn’t like me. Was Anthony in his room? Was he on the phone? To top it off, he caught me eavesdropping on him. I was used to people ignoring me, but this was way worse. This made me want to cry, or puke, or run away, or all three. “I wasn’t listening. I didn’t hear anything. I—”
“Go away, Sparky.”
I pried my feet off the ground, forcing one to step in front of the other, until I was inside the bathroom with the door shut. I climbed in the shower and turned it as hot as it would go. My skin squeaked against the porcelain as I sat down and let the water beat down on me. The burn on my arm stung, but the emotional sting of humiliation was way worse. I hugged my knees to my chest and let the pain wash over me.
No way could I ever move here. I wanted to go home.
Except I didn’t know where home was anymore.
