Chapter 6 That Night

That night was something in a million years I would never see coming. It was scary, horrifying, and above all, it came all too fast.

Then, it was all over the news for a couple of days. I couldn't escape the media, the phone calls, and the people around me. As days passed, people had questions and the more I refused to tell them, the more curious they got. I would dodge their questions or avoid by saying something off topic or go back to a previous topic we were on. They didn't need to know. Every thing they needed to hear was already all over the media. Yet, they choose to bother me.

I only told a few people what had happened that night. There was only Uncle Jason, Ken, Jenny, and Ethan.

It was the summer of 2012 and my entire family went to Venice Beach to spend the summer down there. My dad always dreamt of going on a family vacation. Somewhere relaxing, peaceful, and beautiful. He wanted to choose Barcelona, Paris, or Rome, but Emily had summer school a week right after school led out.

Emily is my fifteen year old geeky yet cute litter sister. But for some reason she failed math and had to retake it over summer. She told me there was this really hot guy that sat next to her and thats why she failed. I laughed it off. She was a silly girl.

Since Emily had summer school, Dad settle with a week in Venice Beach. He rented a beach house right on the beach so we could relax and enjoy our stay.

Mom got to catch up on her novels and just simple relaxed. Since she's a working woman, she could never had time to read. She juggled of being a full time magazine editor and being a full time mom. She even worked at home when she had too. Her ideas for her magazine are mostly inspired by her daughters and their group of friends. Whenever Emily's and my friends come over for a visit, Mom would ask them several questions about their daily life for her magazine. She literally worked twenty four-seven.

As for Dad. He dragged Emily and I to go sailing. He tried teaching us sailing and what to do. But Emily and I were bored. Dad really wanted a boy. He even took us to go fishing but when he realized his daughters were bored out of his mind, he changed it up. He took us water skiing and rock climbing for the first time. It was actually really fun. The not so fun part for my dad was when Emily and I did not had any gears or the outfits for these extreme sports. So, we went shopping for two hours picking out what to wear. Dad was mad. No, he was pissed. He could no understand why must we care what we were going to wear when we were going to sweat it all off and get it dirty. Oh, dad.

Three days had gone by and by the fourth day we all spent the day inside the beach house in this giant jacuzzi. I was on my ipad catching up on Heroes through Netflix while Emily and Mom rest their head against the jacuzzi, their face covered in a green mask to help their pores shrink. Dad on the hand was playing Words with Friends on his ipad. It was like a day of relaxing with the family. It was nice and peaceful, that is, until my cell phone rang and everyone groaned.

"I'm sorry!" I quickly apologized as I left the jacuzzi to answer my phone. My friend, Kenneth Alleveto was on the other line. He told me he was close by and met up with our other friend Jenny Urassaya. He had told me to stop by a local coffee shop so we could meet up and hang out. Me being me, I was down. I told my parents and Emily I was going to be out in a bit to see my friends. I told them Ken and Jenny were nearby and I told them I would to say hello. However my family were in relaxation mode, they just groan.

I then made my way to the local coffee shop. It was a seven minute biking distance as I biked my rental beach bike down the sandy sidewalk. Kenneth Alleveto and Jenny have been my two best friends since I moved here. They remind me of Van and Julia but I knew Kenneth and Jenny could never replace my two best friends back home.

Kenneth Alleveto is my next door neighbor. When my family and I first moved in, his family were the first to introduced us into the neighborhood. When both our families found out Ken and I were going to same high school, his mom made him be friends with me. It was funny. But Ken didn't have a problem with it. He's nice and sweet. We got along ever since then. On the first day of freshman year, he introduced me to Jenny, a really good friend of his. At first Jenny did not like me. She thought I was another bimbo trying to get into Ken's pants because Ken is pretty hot. He's a football jock. That explains it all and Jenny is a cheerleader. Me, well I'm this dorky kid that moved from Alabama. How did I fit into their friendship? It took a while for Jenny to like me. I slowly eased up to her when she gave me a makeover. Ever since then, she tells everyone that she created the "Hot" me. She did a good job. I felt pretty. She told me by being pretty, I have more confidence. But we were kids and we say the most stupidest things. She tried to get me to join cheer but I refused. I didn't want to be another bimbo. No offense to Jenny though. Instead I join the tennis team and made varsity number one my sophomore year. Ken, Jenny, and I are pretty much the athletic triplets. Maybe that's why were are all such good friends. Either way, I'm glad I have these two because high school would not have been the same with out them.

When I entered the local coffee shop, I saw Ken and Jenny casually talking and sipping their coffees. We talked for about two hours because Jenny kept going on and on about her recent break up with a boy. Then Ken talked about how he was going to New York in a couple of weeks to visit his grandfather then I talked about what I did recently on my family's trip. Right before I knew it, time had passed by and it was late and the sky was dark now. Ken and Jenny offered me to walk me back and by the time we got back, my parents told them to spend the night.

Ken, Jenny, and I spend the night upstairs while my mom, dad, and Emily spent the night downstairs watching How to Train Your Dragon.

That night was then the night something I would never saw coming in a million years. I began to woke up in the middle of the night. My eyes weren't open yet, but I could hear coughing and then I could smell smoke. My mind hasn't registered what was going on yet because I was trying to figure out if it was real of if it was a dream. I thought it was dream until I felt a sudden shake all over my head.

"Erica get up, there's a fire!" Jenny called as my I open my eyes. I got up as fast as I could and looked all around me. I panicked. My heart raced and then I started coughing. The smoke was too thick and too much. I saw Ken trying to open the window as Jenny kept coughing. A fire I thought, but how? But then I realized. Mom, Dad, Emily. I quickly made my way to the closed door to open it.

I heard Ken and Jenny calling out my name, stopping me but it was already late as I placed my hand on the burning hot door knob to turn it and open it. I quickly let go because it burned me and at the same time a gush of flames came into the room. Ken pulled me back as far away as he could from the fire as my eyes starred into the flames.

Mom, Dad, Emily I thought. What had happened to them. They were downstairs.

"Mom. Dad. Emily!" I said as Ken held onto me.

"It's too dangerous!" he yelled. "We have to get out before we're dead!"

"But my Mom! Dad! and Emily!" I shouted in tears as the flames grew stronger. I could feel how hot it was getting.

"We need to jump!" Jenny called out, coughing as she looked outside the window. We were two stories high. The room we were in, the window faced the beach. It was dark outside but we could hear people chattering out there, looking at us.

"There's someone up there!" we heard a guy shout as Ken waved his hand up signaling help. There were no fire fighters yet, no one to save us. We either jump and break a bone or two or be cooked alive by the engulfing flames. We chose to jump. By the time Jenny was about to jump out of the window, we heard fire trucks and fire rescuers coming towards our way. Jenny was the first to jump down when the fire fighters lay out tarpaulin like sheet so we could jump. As I looked down and almost jumped. I told myself no. The next thing I knew was that I walked towards the engulfing flames. Ken tried to stop me, but I didn't let him and found my way out of his grasp. It was hot, it was burning. I made my way downstairs and I could see see nothing but flames and smoke. I looked over towards the bed and noticed the flames had engulf the entire bed where my parents and Emily stayed.

Tears came falling down as I tried to get myself over there, but the next thing I knew was that the flames stopped me. It was getting intense and the flames almost devoured me until Ken grabbed me and covered us in a bed sheet to protect ourselves from getting burn by the flames. He led me back upstairs, but it was blocked when the part of the ceiling came caving in, blocking our path. We quickly scan the area to find an escape. Nothing. I saw nothing.

Just when I was about to loose hope, Ken opened the closet door and pushed me in along with and quickly shit the door. He then grabbed the bed sheet and covered the bottom of the door so that flames would not entire.

We sat in there, breathing and panicking. My actions is going to get us both killed I thought and I got Ken involved.

"We're gonna die." I said coughing.

"Save your breathe." he told me but I couldn't. The smoke was too much and we were losing air. I began to loose my concuss. My eyelids were getting heavy as I felt Ken's arms wrapped around me. I gave into darkness and I knew it was over for me.

Many things flashed before my eyes before I lost my concuss. I saw Mom, Dad, Emily, and I enjoying a family picnic. I saw how we spent the holidays together, Thanksgiving, and I saw endless fights between Emily and I. We were one happy loving family I thought.

I'm dead. I kept saying.

The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital and I saw Uncle Jason for the first time in five years. I then remembered that night. It hit me quick as I remember the vivid images of that night. I could still see the flames growing bigger and bigger before my eyes. I could still smell the smoke and I could still feel the burns it left me.

I cried. I cried a lot. I was scared. I realized I was scared because I thought why was Uncle Jason would be here. Where's Mom, Dad, and Emily? I then realized the horrible image of the spot they slept that night by the fireplace. It was covered in flames. I saw no bed, no furniture. The flames engulfed it all. I kept crying and the tears would not stop. I then told myself to breathe. They weren't there I thought. They probably got out before the flames engulfed them right...but it doesn't explain why Uncle Jason is here!

"M-Mom. Dad...E-Emily." I said weakly as Uncle Jason saw my in tears which brought upon his own tears. I felt him tremble as he placed his hands over mines.

I was out for two nights and one day. I had severed burns and blisters all over my body. I made it out alive along with Kenneth. We both made it.

Mom, Dad, and Emily on the other hand did not.

The fire was started by an explosion. The policed found one of the windows broken downstairs and someone had tied a lit up firework to a rock and threw into the beach house as a prank but what they didn't know was that when they threw it into the fireplace, their prank was no longer silly. It didn't took seconds until it explode dangerously causing the fire.

The police found two burned bodies. One was missing. Emily's was missing. The police also found blood which belonged to Emily's and it left a trail. The police thought Emily probably heard the glass break and saw the firework landed into the fireplace. With hesitation, they thought Emily tried to get far away as she could possible before it could explode. When the explosion occurred, it must had pushed her towards the walls were a pool of blood was found. They figured she must had hit something hard and laid there for a while until she made her way towards the front door where the trail of blood lead towards the porch, then towards the sands of the beach where they lost the trail of blood. The policed then named her Missing.

The story exhausted me. I was still weak. I couldn't hear anymore. I was going through a series of emotions in which I could not comprehend on my own. I lost my entire family. My world was shattered because my family is my world. I couldn't live, I couldn't think. My mind was blank. The doctors claimed I was physically and emotionally scared. It would talk more than a year to recover.

My summer had just started and only begun but in that moment, it had ended. The rest of the summer had gone by quickly.

I spend most nights crying. I spend my days in silence. I barely ate and I barely moved. I just sat there, motionless like a zombie.

"She's gone through a lot." I heard my Uncle Jason said to his wife over the phone. He had to planned three funerals while I just sat there.

"Amanda." he called her. "He left her to me under his will. I'm her guardian now." I heard him say.

Daddy left me to Uncle Jason. I wondered, out of everyone in the family, why Uncle Jason? Why not Uncle Will, mom's older brother? Or why not Aunt Lizzy? Either way, my mind did not focus on it too much.

Whatever happened, I let it happened. Dad's will was opened the day before. His will stated half his shares goes to Emily and I. He left the company he built to Emily and I. But without Emily, everything goes to me. I looked outside the window and saw Ken. I saw him made his way through the porch and rang the doorbell. Uncle Jason went to open it and let him in. I saw from the corner of my eyes he came into the living room. I didn't acknowledge him but he knew that I knew he was there. He then came and sat next to me.

He and I were both in our bandages still. He and I almost died i recalled. It's been a whole week after the accident. Ken was the first person whom I opened up since the fire. I didn't feel alive, I didn't want to wake up every time I slept. I didn't want to move an inch nor move a million miles. I didn't want to think of things that would make me upset. My world as I know it was cold and dark. I didn't know how to move on.

Ken pulled me towards him. My head rest against his chest.

"Sometimes, we don't want to wake up, but in times like this. You have to wake up and not give up." he told me. "You need to wake up, keep your head up, and realize you can make it through this because you lived." He talked for hours as I listened to his soothing words and encouraging heart warming conversation until a fell asleep. Ken was right. I have to keep my head up but I couldn't spark a smile. I lived, but my heart was not beating. I took small steps.

When the funeral approached. That was the last time I cried. I looked at all the people around me. They looked at me differently now. Their eyes pity me. It's dark in my world but there's still light outside, somewhere. I kept my head up. I didn't want people to look at me with those eyes. Never. So, I had to act strong, to be strong. It was the only way.

It's dark in my world...and I'm all on my own. There's nothing anyone can do. Nothing at all.