As she meandered up the path to their house, she felt
queasy, like she'd done this before. Nervously, she glanced
over her shoulder through her mass of wavy brown hair as
she kept moving toward the front door. Two people were
walking along the street. She stopped and wondered what
reason anyone would have to take a walk at this time of
night in such an early bird neighborhood.
It was then she heard the shrill of the smoke detectors.
Chest tightening, she bolted for the door.
"Mom! Dad!" she screamed and tumbled inside, spotting
them almost immediately as they ran down the long upstairs
hallway.
Not again. Please not again, she begged, as she fought
her frozen legs to make them move up the stairs. The smoke
detectors shrieked in her ears. Or was that the shrieking
coming from her lungs?
Her parents yelled her name as they reached for the
bedroom door. She couldn't stop gasping for air long enough
to tell them to stop. She wasn't in there. Didn't they
know? They needed to get out of the house. Couldn't they
smell the smoke?
Just like each time, her viewpoint from the middle of
the stairs showed her the yellowish air sucking under the
door to her bedroom. Although trying to use the railing to
give her momentum, every part of her felt like it was in
molasses. She cocked her head to the side, drawing her
eyebrows together. Her gaze locked on the eerie breeze.
Almost simultaneously, her mother rotated the knob as
her eyes turned and met hers. For that fraction of a
second, her mother understood the fear on Brie's face, but
it was too late. It was always too late. As she opened the
door, Brie had just enough time to witness her parents
engulfed in flames before the explosion blew her back and
everything went dark.
* * * *
"Brie, wake up. Wake up, Brie. You're dreaming."