“Ma’am!!” Liam called.
Sia still jostled with the door, crying out.
“Liam!” she yelled as the fire rose more. Engulfing their car. All they could see on the windshield is fire.
Fire is almost everywhere.
It’s almost about to eat them up.
Liam’s scared.
Sia’s scared.
They are anxious.
They are scared.
Liam feels a sense of déjà vu which heightened his anxiety.
Sia could only hear her mothers shrieks of pain.
Her mothers breathless yelps as the fire ate her alive.
Sia was losing it. Her lungs is now a jumble of smoke and air.
Her eyes are bleared by her blood which gushes out from her wounded forehead.
She heard someone hitting on a glass.
She heard grunts and howls.
Grunts of agony as that person hit his fist on the glass.
She cracked her right eye open and she saw Liam smashing his fists on his window.
Slamming is fist with rage on the glass.
Banging on the glass with anxiety ridden face.
Hitting, yelping, groans, grunts, fist slamming glass and glass falling and shattering into pieces on the gravel is all she could hear.
“Liam!” She cried out.
Blood, tears and sweat cloaked her body, blinded her sight.
The mixtures seeped into her parted lips as she wailed seeing the fire coming close.
Crawling in its glory to tear her into shreds like it did to her mother. Like it did to their house.
Events of six years ago.
That night that changed her history from bad to worse, that night is repeating itself.
That night is about to consume her. That night has sprawled its arms to welcome her in its embrace of agony.
Embrace of endless misery.
Embrace of hoarse cries.
Embrace of screams for a painful end.
She can feel it, it’s just one breath way.
Sia crawled closer to that night. She relented, opened her weakened arms to cuddle that night full of misery until she heard someone banging on her glass.
She heard someone slamming his feet on the glass.
The shards of glass gashed her face. The glass fly’s past her face as the person smashes their feet and fist on it.
“Ma’am!!” She heard that person scream, scream, scream.
She tried to crack her eyes open, she tried to steady her breath but all she could see is fire.
Fire.
Fire.
It’s coming so close.
It’s just about to consume her.
Sia withered.
Her hope for salvation crushed into thousand pieces.
She relented the struggles not to let night take her.
She slammed her eyes shut, fluttered her arms open for the night to take over.
Liam crushed and pieced the glass and began squeezing Sia out.
He’s gripped by fear too. His anxiety claws his chest.
His anxiety rips the shreds of strength brewing inside him.
If he knew this would happen, he would have pocket his anti-anxiety pills.
He would have but you can’t predict what will happen in your life.
Liam pulled Sia out, grunting.
People gathered around, calling on the fire service, taking pictures.
No one wants to draw close to the consuming fire.
The reporters clustered around.
Broadcasting news about the recent happening.
“Ahh!!’ Liam puffed out a long breath of relief when he pulled Sia away from the burning car.
“Ma’am…” He called her, patting his fingers on her bruised cheeks.
“Wake up…” He called out, his tears dropping on her blood painted face.
“Please help me. Find a taxi…” He called out as people clustered around.
People tried to see Sia’s face when they noticed the burning car belonged to the widow but Sia’s face was curtained with blood and gashes.
No one could see her.
Someone called a taxi and helped Liam shove Sia into the car and they rushed her to the hospital.
However, while on their way to the hospital Sia coughed, hard. She cracked her eyes open, taking in her environment .
Liam’s thigh pillowed her head and he looked down on her when he heard her cough.
“Are you okay, ma’am? Don’t worry, we’re heading to the hospital now.” He announced, breathlessly.
Sia shook her head.
“No…villa. Villa.” She mouthed, breath stuttering.
Hearing that, Liam ordered the driver to take them to the villa.
The news about the accident circulated the internet and the whole news channel in the state.
Headline: The widow got in an accident and chances are that she might not survive.
Like a conflagration the news spread with the headline.
It became the trending topic for the night. The reporters raised a false alarm about the widow’s death.
At the Monson villa, Michelle was seated on the kitchen island, nipping on her cookies when she heard some servants hooting.
She rolled her eyes in annoyance as the shrieks of screams streamed into her ears.
“These ladies would never change. I’m beginning to grow tired of them.” She hummed, grinding the pieces of cookies stuffed in her mouth.
But then, one of the servants dashed in the kitchen in a haste, startling Michelle.
She held her breath, eyes bashed on the servant that almost scared breath out of her.
“What’s wrong with you? You just scared. life out of me. Don’t do that next time.” She hollered but the panting servant didn’t hear all Michelle said.
She hunkered her head between her shoulders, sucking in air as she has none left in her lungs.
“Michelle…Mrs. Monson. Mrs. Monson.” The servant crooned, breathlessly.
Hearing Mrs. Monson slipping from the servants lips, Michelle paused shoving the cookies she wanted to stuff into her mouth.
“What’s wrong. Is she back?” Michelle questioned but the servant shook her head ‘no’.
She muttered, “the TV…the news… fire…death…”
“You ain’t making any sense.” Confused, Michelle said, peering at the servant.
Wordlessly, the servant scooted closer, gripped Michelle’s wrist and shooed her to the living room.
When they drew closer to the living room, Michelle was surprised by the grim look on all the servants faces as they bashed their eyes on the TV.
Then she saw fire decorating the TV screen and the Bentley.
Michelle pointed at the TV and asked in sheer horror, “that’s Mrs. Monson’s car. That’s her Bentley.”
She traveled her eyes around until it rested on the servant that pulled her into the living room.
“Yes…Michelle. Mrs. Monson…fire…” the servant muttered, incoherently.
Before Michelle knew what was happening, her knees already matted on the floor and her eyes blurred by tears, threatening to drizzle down her cheeks.
“What did they do to her? What did they do to her?” She asked no one in particular.
“Michelle what do we do? What do we do?” The servants asked, worried.
“Maybe we should go there and find her…” another servant chimed in.
Confusion brewed in Michelle’s mind. She rose on her feet and wiped her watery eyes and cheeks.
“Yes, we should go…find her there…” Michelle said.
As she hastened to the door, she saw what her eyes couldn’t believed.
Liam’s face colored with blood and palms dripping with blood, clothes torn and he cradled the unconscious Sia in a bridal style as he crept into the house.
His eyes dark, his breath unsteady and hair tattered.
Michelle and the servants rushed to them and helped Liam to carry Sia to the living room.
“We should carry the family doctor!” Michelle yelped as she rushed to the landline and bleeped the doctor in a call.
When the doctor responded, Michelle informed him of the emergency.
When she dropped the call, Michelle traipsed back to where Sia lay.
However, the servants immediately brought first aid to help Liam but he rejected it saying.
“I need a doctor…there…are some…pieces of glass buried into my palms…it’s painful.”
“Oh, the doctor will be here soon. I’m sorry Liam. What happened?” Michelle asked when she scooted closer.
“Accident. Accident happened…” He murmured.
Moments later, the doctor arrived with his colleague and raced toward Sia who was writhing, tossing and screaming.
“Mother!! No please, don’t give up. Help will come.”
“Mother!”
“Fire!”
Liam stiffened on his stead when he heard that.
‘Did her…mother got burnt by fire?’ He asked himself.
Liam was pulled out of his reverie when Sia let out an agonizing scream before waking with fear tremoring her body.
“Fire!”