I stood in the middle of my mothers family room. Standing all alone, with no one around. Sweat started to fill the pours of my palm, so I had to act fast. The match in one hand with the matchbox in the other. All the oil I saw on the carpeted floor started to look like pools of tears, but I ignored it and focused. I struck the match, and hesitated to release it. The flame started to reseed to my finger tips so I dropped it and within an instant, flames roared all around me as I stood in wonder.

First, I see my 3 brothers run in from the other room. They yell at me, they scream, and cry. My littlest brother gets attacked by the flames behind him, and follows through to my other two brothers, eating them with the reddish orange teeth of the fire. I don’t seem to flinch, though, something somewhere in my mind was telling me to run out of all of this, douse the fire, and tell them everything was going to be okay. But I didn’t.

Second, my parents, dad and mom stumble in, and look at me as if I’m crazy. My mom soon freaks out and faints on the hard, tile floor of the kitchen. My dad was running through the fire to try and get to me, but a blast from the flames blew him across the kitchen and into the other room. There it goes again, that thought in my mind, except this time its saying something different. It’s telling me to run to my mom and move her out as I assist my dad in putting out the flames that were growing stronger and bigger as so little time past.

Third, and most sorrowful, my grandma. I watched her slowly walk through the hallway, holding the wall with one hand to keep her balance. She is crying the most, she can’t yell though her voice is too weak. I see her crumble to the floor with tears rolling down her cheek. I know that if the fire wouldn’t kill her, a broken heart would. But no, that’s not what I wanted, or so I keep thinking. In this monstrous mind of mine, I can see myself going to her, getting her out and comforting her in my arms to keep her mind at ease. But no. I raised my hand and waved her a goodbye.

Forth, Kim, my best friend, runs in dodging all the falling pieces of the ceiling as the fire grew larger and more violent. She’s crying too, and yelling at me to start moving to get out. I shake my head; as I do so she pauses and looks scared of what I mite do. After that split second part of the ceiling had fallen on her, crushing her on the kitchen floor. My best friend died. I could of ran out and pushed her aside like in the movies, just so she wouldn’t have died that way. But instead I just stood and watched.

Lastly, Che, my love, my everything, my heart and soul, storms in yelling my name over and over again, stepping over Kim and the ceiling pieces. He tries to get to me by jumping over the fire that blocked him from me. He succeeds and grabs a hold of me tightly. I smile warmly, but I push him away. He grabs me back, and attempts to pull me out, but the sweat on my arms makes his grip on me slide off. He looks back at me confused and worried, tears started to overcome his eyes as they filled up. He then tries to grab me again, but I stand back and won’t let him. My self-conscious mind was yearning to embrace him and have him lead me out to safety, but my body wouldn’t move. I probably should of yelled and told him to watch out for the falling ceiling fan… I guess I was too late though. It had knocked him out in front of me.

My smiling face soon faded. I was waking up to the disaster in front of me. I realized everything. The whole point of me burning to death, was just for me. Though, in that attempt, everyone that means the most to me sacrificed their lives to save me, and all had failed. It wasn’t because they deserved it, or that they didn’t try hard enough. They tried plenty, all to save me from perishing. In that process they all were the ones who would perish.

I’m still standing here, waiting with the flames that are devouring everything and everyone around me, except for me. Why? Why would they scream and cry, much less run through the devil’s flames just to save me?

The firefighters came and put everyone in separate body bags, except for me.
They were the five to die for. So why didn’t I die?