I ran downstairs and towards the front door, in an attempt to catch the beast. But when I opened the door I wasn’t greeted by sandy world outside of the old house. Instead I was forcefully pulled out of the house and I fell on my hands and knees. When I looked up the only thing I saw was a single full length mirror, in a room full of darkness. My reflection seemed to mirror the same image I always saw when I looked into a mirror at home.

I stood up and spun, on my heels, around the room slowly. There was nothing around me except for the mirror. A voice inside of me told me to touch the mirror. So I slowly raised my hand and gently touched the mirror with the palm of my hand. Underneath my hand the mirror cracked little by little. I took my hand away, but the mirror kept cracking. Just then the mirror shattered sending pieces of glass towards me. I sharply turned my upper body away from the mirror and covered my face, with my bent arms, as a way to shield it from the glass shards.

Once I couldn’t hear the glass hitting the ground anymore I turned back around and uncovered my eyes. Where the glass should have been sat a blue spinning object, much like a black hole, only it didn’t pull objects into it. Not knowing what I would find on the other side, I decided to take a chance. I stepped through the mirror and hoped for the best.

For a moment everything went pitch black and then a bright white light surrounded me and blinded me.

When I was able to make out the scene in front of me it was horrific. It was worse than where I had come from. In the near distance I could see tall, thick, wall of dark rocks that just barely hiding the roaring fire behind them. The sky was covered with so much ash that it was no visible, and with the amount of ash and smoke blowing through the air it was hard to breathe. In front of the wall of rocks was what appeared to be pavement, or it could have even been hardened sand, but it was covered with so much ash that it was hard to make out which of it, it was. The orange flames lit the sky up just enough to allow me to see where I was going, and the crackling of the fire was the only sound in the air. I began to walk through this new environment interested in what the fire was burning.

The more I walked the blacker my bare feet became, from the amount of ash on the ground. I had my eyes locked on the fire in front of me. I was determined to find out what was on the other side of the wall of rocks. I held my hand over my mouth so that I would not ingest the ash blowing through the air. Coughing every so often allowed me to, get whatever ash that did make it into my lungs, out so that I would not die. After coughing more than I usually do my eyes began to water and my lungs hurt from forcing them to cough so much. With my other hand I held the bottom of my rib cage so try and help with the pain. But not soon after my lungs were so sore that I was not able to cough, so I had to cover my mouth as tight as I could, ensuring that very minimal ash got into my body.

Once I crossed the solid ground, my feet were covered in ash and I could no longer see any skin whatsoever on them. I placed my foot on an indent on a rock and hoisted myself upwards with my arms. I cautiously placed my foot, wherever possible, and I climbed to the top of the rock. Not wanting to make myself too obvious I only stuck my head high enough so that I could see over the top of the rock. There below me was a small village being consumed by devouring flames. Every building, no matter how big or small they were, were falling due to the power of the fire. Most of what appeared to be houses were flattened on the ground and in the middle of the village stood a wooden church. The fire within the church had just started to work its way through it. The fire burst through the stain glass windows, causing even more smoke to be exposed, and it slowly made its way up to where the bell was held. In what seemed like no time at all the church collapsed and the bell made a giant ringing sound as it slammed into the ground below it.

I took my eyes off of the buildings and noticed that there were people running from their homes. From where I was they just looked like ants scattering to any shelter they could find. When I listened more closely I could hear people crying and yelling for help as their homes came crashing down on top of them.

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Not knowing how much help I could be, I stood up and stepped over the top of the rock wall. Very carefully I made my way down and onto the other side. The ground on this side was much more soft, like sand, so my feet molded right into it. Pretty soon my feet were covered in a thick, heavy, black clay and it was difficult to make my way towards the middle of the village. Ducking under fallen objects and painfully pulling my feet out of the clay and over pieces of buildings that had fallen into the clay; I was finally able to get out of the clay and onto solid ground.

I took both of my hands and peeled the clay off of my feet so that it would be easier for me to move. Once my feet were free from most of the clay I covered my mouth with my hand and ran, as quickly as I could, to the nearest person screaming.

After running past four houses the screaming got louder and I could hear it coming from inside the house next to me. The door was completely damaged so I was quite easy to enter the house. The smoke became very thick the further into the house I went. Between coughs I yelled, “Hello, is anybody in here?” I waited for a reply but all I could hear was the cracking of the fire very close to me. I called out again, “Hello, is anybody in here?”

Just then I heard a tapping noise coming from the back of the house and a girl’s voice saying, “Back here.”

Avoiding holes in the floor and falling boards on top of me I was able to maneuver my way to the kitchen. The broken windows were able to let out some of the smoke, which made it a bit easier to see the girl, but I still wasn’t able to take my hand away from my mouth.

The girl was sitting on the ground, against the wall, rocking back and forth in terror.

I bent down in front of her and said, “Honey, we have to go. If we stay here, we’ll both die.”

However, the girl didn’t move she just kept rocking back and forth.

I stood up and placed an arm around the back of her neck and knees, in an attempt to carry her out but when I went to lift her she jumped out of my grasp and ran towards something. I turned around and noticed that she was hugging a body that was laying on the ground under a thick piece of wood, that must have fallen from the ceiling. I ran after the girl again, trying to get her out of the house but she wouldn’t leave the body. “Honey is this your mom?” I asked in a sweet voice.

The girl didn’t say anything she just looked up at me and started to cry.

I took that as a ‘yes.’ I looked at the body and then back at the girl. From the way the body was positioned and the amount of blood that was under the head I knew that her mom was dead. But not wanting to freak the girl out I asked, “Can you let go so that I can check to see if she is still alive?”

Again the girl didn’t say anything, she just nodded and took a step backwards.

I crouched next to the body and placed two fingers on the neck, but I couldn’t feel a pulse. She was dead. I stood up and slowly turned around. I guess I had remorse on my face because as soon as she could see my face the girl started crying uncontrollably. Knowing that this was my last opportunity to escape the house I tossed the girl over my shoulder and ran out of the house.

Once we were safely outside I placed the girl on the ground and I held her back as her house feel to the ground, crushing her already dead mother.

“MOTHER!!!!” The girl tried to break the force of my arms, as I held her tight to me, but no matter how hard she tried she wasn’t able to break my grasp on her.