Burning

The storm of fire pelts the roof of our house, searing holes in the thatching and making the wooden floor collapse under my feet. Smoke rises all around the house and I grip my little sister, Robin, in my free arm, the other occupied with a water-filled bucket, dodging the small fires that have ignited. Her soft and small whimpers mingle with the crackling of the fire and falling boards, almost drowned out by the howling wind driving the fiery rain through the broken windows. But the sounds that rings through my ears are my father's, his breaths gasping and his lungs reaching for air, his agonizing cries when the drops of fiery rain splatter on him, burning his skin.

I run towards him and collapse by his side, pushing Robin under a thick rafter fallen from the attic. I stare at the beam he's trapped under, willing it to be lifted, but it's too heavy for me to lift and I can only kneel beside him helplessly. I ask him what I can do, anything to save him. I can't protect my little sister, Robin, by myself. I already failed my mother. There must be something I can do, something. Anything. But he just lifts his head, and stares at me with those misty grey eyes, no emotion left in them except agonizing pain. The spark I used to see in them has faded and I can see he's given up.

I shake my head, but he just lies back down, staring up into the night sky, sheltered by the bit of roof we have left. Robin inches closer and I wrap my arms around her, hesitating on what I should do. The rain keeps burning everything it touches, slowly disintegrating the beam trapping my father.

Suddenly, one of his arms whips up and he grips the top of my head, forcing me to look straight into his empty eyes.

"Survive, son. There'll be more to come." Another drop of fire falls on his fingers, releasing his grip on my head. He stifles a shout. "Don't let her die." He groans as his hand turns red and throbs.

I nod and look back towards my sister. She's hugging her small frame, her sooty arms making smudges on her once clean, pink summer dress. The heavy, burning smoke is making her body shake with coughs.

I tear my eyes away from her and reach my own trembling hands out to my father's hand, trying to pull him out from under the fallen beam. But my attempt fails and my father is stuck as ever, doomed for death.

The fiery rain and red lightning continue pour their wrath onto us. I whisper reassuring words to Robin, not believing my own words I speak. Her tearstained eyes look up at me, fear lighting them up. If only this was a bad dream, and I could shake her from this nightmare. But I'm helpless against this fiery apocalypse. Helpless. Weak.

He gains his breath back again, finding only three words. "I love you..."

For a split second, a flash of red lightning lights the dark, forbidding skies, sent from the devil himself. And it strikes...my father.

His cry of pain and agony rips through my soul, seared into my mind like the hole seared through his stomach. Robin screams in terror and my hope fades with every shout of my father. His muscles strain against the fallen board, but to no avail. His screams ring in my ears, echoing through my mind. With one final heart-wrenching scream, he falls back onto the floor, shuddering.

"Dad?"

He doesn't move, yet his eyes still stare into the sky. I shake him and his shirt crumbles off into my hands, meager ashes on the floor. Drops of the fire rain keep spilling down onto his stomach, but his screams of pain don't come. His arms begins to burn, the flesh shriveling up.

Robin hugs the rafter, huddled into a ball, trying to shield her eyes from the horrifying sight lying before her. My father's eyes are wide open and his mouth is frozen in agony. His hands are formed into claws and holes burn through him with ease, the rain still unrelenting, as if death hadn't been enough for it. His arm is almost ashes and his right leg is following in its path.

I kneel by his side until almost all of him is disintegrated, cremated by unnatural nature...

Hot tears spill down my cheeks, dropping into the fires and sizzling. My mother gone, now my father. I'd failed them both.

Robin whimpers. "Nick, what's going to hap-"

Crimson lightning strikes again and the house bursts into flames. My world is soon thrown into confusion and fire, flames biting at my ankles and smoke choking me. Fire engulfs the rafter under which Robin was sheltered, blinding me.

"Robin!!!! Robin!!!!!!" I scream. "Robin!!!" I yell for her till my voice becomes hoarse, almost unrecognizable. "Rob..." my voice falters as I run into the flames toward the board that once sheltered us.

"Nick! Where are you?! Nick, help me!" Robin's tiny voice rings out through the crackling of the fire, sweet to my ears.

"I'm here!!!" I rasp, the smoke curling into my lungs, suffocating my soul. I reach blindly through a opening in the flames and grasp Robin's arm, pulling her through to me.

But it's only another fallen board, crumbling in the heat. I choke down a sob.

I'm all alone. Everyone's gone. I'm all alone now.
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I kept reading this over and over again and I was really afraid to post this. So if you could, could you give me CONSTRUCTIVE criticism? Thanks :)

I'm all alone. Everything's gone. I'm all alone.