I Wasn't There, It Didn't Happen, Not Like That

• Emily Orchard, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2009

The fire crept towards me, it didn't feel like it looked in the movies, in slow motion, this was fast but it felt like it would never end.
I felt the heat press against me on all sides, felt the smoke press against my lungs.
I backed away from the fire but I knew I wouldn't get far, though I couldn't see I knew exactly where I was.
I was in my room in my parents house, the doos was on the opposite wall along with the only window.
I found the wall and I knew instantly that I was trapped.
I was surounded on three sides by solid flaming walls of fire, towering hugely above me. On the fourth side I was pressed against the wall.
I knew it wouldn't be long before the window exploded, I sank to my knees and put my arms over my head, and just in time too. A few seconds past before I heard the most bone shattering boom. It was too terifying to describe, like a cannon be being fired right beside your ear.

It took a while for me to realise that my ears had stopped ringing and that the high pitched screech I was hearing now was people screaming. Screaming in pain or in fear I couldn't tell. But did it really matter, this was the end, the end of my family. None of us; me, my brother, my sister, my mother, my father had any other living relatives. We were the last ones and we were about to die, too.

The fire crept closer and I felt sweat trickle down my kneck. I wished the fire or the smoke would hurry up and get it over with. The waiting, waiting for death to come, that was the worst.

I sat up gasping for air. I was safe, in my bed. It was just a dream, a horrible dream.
There really had been a fire but in truth I hadn't been there, unlike all my family.
They were all gone now, I was the only one left.
Parts of the dream were true, I remembered.
I really had heard them screaming.
I had arrived home from with my friend, but the fire was already way out of control. We'd called the fire brigade, but even if they had arrived at the same time as us, it would already have been too late to save them.