Spookychild’s writings

In her memory, she watched Calvin leave the house that night as she sat in her car, terrified of getting out and going into the house till he was gone. But he didn’t go right away. In fact he sat there a few minutes before driving away. She would never know what he had done.

But as he passed he grinned at her and waved. Then she had closed her eyes and begun to cry. She was ashamed of this moment in time. She could have gotten out of the car then, she could have saved her mother’s life. But she had chosen that moment to have a breakdown. She had cried for a long time. She didn’t know how long, but the sun had been setting when she had waited for Calvin to leave.

She had sat there for so long, her head resting against the steering wheel, her shoulders shaking with the tears. She had sobbed for her mother and herself. She was terrified of the man who said it was her turn next.

When she lifted her head it was almost dark. A few rays of twilight still shone in the sky. But that wasn’t what her eyes settled on. Instead, she could see a glow in the house, behind the curtains. It wasn’t a normal glow of her mother’s living room lights. No, this was an orange glow, filtering and dancing light.

She had stared, confused and petrified. It couldn’t be, she had to be seeing things. The stress and crying, it was confusing her. It was making her see things. Finally, she rubbed her eyes and looked again. It was brighter now. She caught a glimpse, so bright it hurt her eyes. The light was licking at the curtains.

But as she watched the curtain began to burn. First, one little corner near the bottom. But the flame spread quickly, eating away at the entire curtain in under a minute and she realized with a shock so hard it made her heart skip a beat and she stopped breathing. The house was on fire.

Zoe jumped out of the car then. She made her joints and muscles move. She made her hands find her phone; it was cheap and old, and the battery was almost dead, but she called 911 and got the address before it died. Then she ran as close to the house as she dared.

“mom?” She screamed. “Mom!” She couldn’t see again, her hands were outstretched. Her eyes were so full of tears.

Coming soon