What Was Once Me

I was awoken by what I thought was an imaginary explosion that had happened in my dream, I hugged my pillow tighter to continue by sleep until another one erupted. But this time I wasn’t sleeping, it was real. I got out of my bed and opened my bedroom door a little. “Mommy?”, I quietly asked into the darkness but was not answered by her or anyone. I opened my door and walked slowly down the hallway towards my parents room. I looked inside but my parents weren’t there, the room looked like a mess. The pillows were on the ground, artifacts were everywhere and it looked as if my parents had left in a hurry. As I started walking towards the staircase an explosion knocked me off my feet into the wall beside me. I stumbled back up and only to hear another and another followed by the screams of people. I quickly ran towards the staircase and stormed down the stairs, I kept yelling for my mom, but she was nowhere to be seen. I went to the window in my living room and peered outside. Everything was burning in flames, people were running out of their houses and into the streets looking for loved ones and shelter. I ran for the door only to see my mom run in, there was blood all over her and parts of her clothes were burnt black. My mom came up to me and commanded me to hide somewhere quickly. She grabbed me and took me towards the deepest part of the house, she hug me and I hugged her, each time harder as the explosions kept coming. We waited and waited hoping it would stop but it just kept getting louder and louder. Until the house came crashing down on us.

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I felt something heavy being lift off my body, I felt the hands of my mother still hugging me. “Mom?”, I croaked from my sore throat. She didn’t reply but I felt her hand hand a little on my body. The weight on me was getting lighter and lighter, and when the final piece was taken of me I was flashed with huge rays of dark clouds and little sunlight. It still stung my eyes as it adjusted itself to the dark gray sky. A man looked over me and it was my neighbor Axel, “how are you doing?”, he asked in a soft tone. His eyes were red and teary as my eyes started to focus on his face, he slowly pulled me up and started to feel me looking for any fractures or broken bones. “I’m fine”, I told him softly and start shaking my arms and legs to show him. He nodded and turned to look at my mom, I turned around and saw her body crushed under a giant part of the house. “We cannot take it off her, it’s the thing keeping her body from splitting apart”, one of the helpers told me and Axel. I ran towards my mom and kneeled under the block and looked at my mom, she was covered in blood and was gasping for air. She turned and looked at me for a long time as I looked back, the tears were coming down my face so fast I could hardly keep my eyes open. “Mom!”, I started sobbing as she smiled at me. She used the last of her energy and mouthed the words ‘I love you’. The block was coming down fast, there was so much I wanted to say to her, so much I wanted to do with her. I started holding the block from where I was, hoping to keep it from falling but it was still coming down fast. I turned back to look at my mom who had already closed her eyes, and I knew it was time. I looked turned away as the rubble crushed her, and I never looked back.