The House Fire

It was my 10th birthday. I knew that there was a huge party planned for me. All day I was excited for the party. But at 4:00 PM, 1 hour before the party was supposed to start, my mother came up to me and said, "I have some bad news: we are not having this party." Disappointed, I asked, "WHY?" My mother then replied, "Your best friends’ mother, who was going to host it, called and said she has a major problem. We're going to go and see what's wrong." Me and my mom then went to my best friend's house, and I was still crying. I was also extremely shocked when I looked at my best friend's house and saw that..

The house was engulfed in hellfire. My friends’ mother was pacing frantically on the boarder of what was once her front garden. My stomach turned and I quickly stopped crying. A wave of panic spread from my head to my toes. Where was my friend? When his mother spotted us, she stopped her pacing, her eyes widened, and she hurried toward us.

“what are you doing here?” she asked flustered, she rang her slender hands, her wedding band catching the light. She looked on the verge of crying herself.

“Well you sounded very upset on the phone, so I thought me, and Sam would pop over to help you…” My mother trailed off, she had realised that this was not a matter her and a small child could assist in any way with.

“Keep that demon boy away from me.” She had only just noticed me clinging to my mothers’ trouser leg, wide eyed and innocent. “he’s the reason all this happened! He’s the reason my poor Jamie is gone!” Jamie’s mother shakily pointed an accusing slender finger at me. It seemed to have the power of God and she was smiting me. I hid behind my mothers’ legs and clung tighter to the fabric of her trousers.

“How on Earth could this be my Sam’s fault? You need to control yourself!” My mother stood her ground. Chest puffing up and proud. Although Jamie’s mother was a dear friend, natures maternal instinct gave my mother a terrifying protective stance. Jamie’s mother was not phased, her own panic was all she paid attention to, and she believed the source of all this was me. Like a caged tiger facing its captor, she attempted to advance but the steely bars of my mother kept her at bay. “Don’t you dare come near my son.” My mother boomed. They were like two mighty beasts and I wanted to run away. Where was Jamie? What did she mean gone?

His mother had had enough of her friend’s hysteria and led Sam away by his hand. They had cut contact after this incident. Sam never heard about any of it again. But sometimes, when he wakes up in the middle of night, when he walks downstairs. He always stops in front of his mother’s door, he swears he can see a faint glowing red mist. It lazily crawls across the floor towards him. He runs back to his bed. Dives under the covers, and wonders about Jamie.