Fire is humanity's best and worst friend.
I stood momentarily lost as giant flames engulfed and burned my house that I worked years to buy. Slowly pieces were crumbling and the wood seemed to scream as the fire raged. Internally, I raged too. My mind was stuck, frozen in time but my body was moving, running as fast as possible to get inside. The faint screaming I heard was not the wood but my daughter, begging for help.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
I was not supposed to be home for another four hours, but I wanted to surprise my family with some good news and take them to dinner. What a particular joke the world is playing, turning a perfect evening into a living hell.
Nearing my house I could see the heat bending the world under its power. Waves of warmth hit me as I ran through the radiating fire, dashing past the opened front door I halted to a stop. Looking around I could see drones shooting a specialized foam liquid to calm the raging fire. My breath was short as I felt my lungs burning from the heat. However, because of the drones, I noticed that the inside wasn't nearly as hot as it should have been.
"Daddy! Help! Daddy! Please Help!"
My daughter's voice never paused and hearing the desperation, made my focus stay sharp and clear. Searching for her I heard her up stairs in a room and my mind instantly thought of the fastest way to reach her. Looking around I saw the staircase half burnt and only the right side of it seemed sturdy enough to walk on. The left side had evaporated into deep, dark ash. Slightly to the left of the steps, I noticed the chandelier destroyed and swinging from a fallen portion of the ceiling. Each of its elaborate crystal bulbs was now broken or cracked. How could this be my home? My heart was wrenched and then I thought about my son and wife.
All this this time, I could not hear my son or wife and the thought of their absence instilled dread in me.
Are they dead or did they make it out safely? If so, then where are they? I did not wish for them to scream, but the sound of only my daughter's screams terrified me. Why would they leave her behind to die in this fire? I wondered, my mind reeling.
When my daughter was not screaming, she was crying and making torturous noises that began grinding me the wrong way. The rage I felt was palpable as I felt my skin go cold in the presence of the heat.
Then came the voice: a British woman whose voice was spoken directly into my ears, the ever so helpful house spy I called her. The rest of my family calls her Alice. She is a house AI designed to help manage a household by ordering food, providing surveillance, and providing basic protection from thieves.
"Welcome home Marcel, the kids and your wife just finished dinner and are playing a game in the closet of the main bedroom. I have also taken the liberty of ordering dinner as requested! With your wife and daughter's favorite cake! "Unbelievable", I muttered. The AI is so dense and opaque to reality. She is always stating the obvious. Honestly it is tortuous and at this moment her information is invaluable to me. It's a shame that our society can conjure up all this incredible technology yet I'm racing on a disintegrating floor to save my family as a human. Human. That's all I was at this moment, human.
The unbearable heat clung to every inch of our family home, practically cooking me alive and making me sweat pelts. A blaring crash boomed behind me and I saw in the middle of the floor, the chandelier had fallen, and pieces of the ceiling were tumbled after it, making each second and moment inside dangerous. Looking ahead, I noticed the steps were mostly fine thanks to the drone firefighters so I headed up the first stair rushing towards my daughter's voice. Making my way to the main bedroom, Alice informed me where she was at. I rushed upstairs using the railing to distribute my weight and lighten my steps. The temperature increased and my skin was starting to bubble and boil, each fiber of my being fighting to move forward despite such torturous heat. I ignored it with a single goal in mind, stealing my resolve. I put my family first since it was the last thing on this treacherous planet that mattered to me.
Pov Samual Aelric (Son)
I was scared, the fire was unnatural, and my annoying, older sister's screams didn't help the situation. I knew, despite being only fourteen that the fire was not naturally created, it wouldn't make sense otherwise. Someone was after us. The only reason I could think of was because of my father's work. I have seen what he can do and it was amazing. Watching him work gave me such an adrenaline rush, igniting a desire inside me, to wish I could help him. In the past, he would always invite me into his lab down inside the basement. He always reminded me how much he loved me and never to forget it. That's why I aspired to be a chemical engineer to help him. He never injected himself; he just loved his work. I wanted to tell him that face-to-face again, but the tears streaming down my cheeks gave me the understanding that it would probably never happen.
My skin began to tingle from the heat and the anger I felt. I'm only fourteen, barely even started living. I'm supposed to be out there, doing normal stuff: getting into trouble, messing up, learning how to be me. I'm not supposed to be thinking about dying. It doesn't make sense. There's so much I haven't done, so much I'll never get the chance to do. How is it fair that I don't get to grow up, that I won't get to see what's out there, what could have been? I was full of potential, How unfair was the world to take this from me, my family was amazing and I knew how much my dad would miss me when I was gone. So I fought not just for me but for him and his sanity. It felt suffocating in the closet with my mom and sister, but I trusted in my mom's judgment. "Daddy! Daddy!" my sister continued to yell and as I listened to her desperation and despair, I could feel it in the air, the ever-present looming death. It was getting harder to breathe. I could see my mother's panicked face as her skin started turning black. She and my sister were now screaming in terror, giving up yelling my dad's name. It was now just the horrifying high-pitched screams. Hearing it, my body unknowingly joined in, unable to tolerate the pain that was just excruciating; it wasn't meant to be endured, only meant to prolong the suffering.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
We all screamed out for what felt like forever.
Until our voices gave out one by one, then slowly my sister laid down becoming silent, it was hard to see but I held out knowing my dad may be around the corner. Then my mom laid down as well and despair couldn't help but consume me so I did the same just hoping the pain would be over soon.
Pov Marcel Aelric
Blistered and burning alive I walked into the main bedroom, my eyelids were barely open but I saw where the closet door was. It was still closed but I held onto hope, as much hope as I could muster.
Walking towards the door, I could smell something pungent, like burning meat on a grill, it sent chills down my spine. Opening the door, a rush of steam hit me causing me to flinch back. The quick action made my already weak legs give up. I fell on the ground but quickly looked back trying to search for my loved ones. Only to see unrecognizable corpses. They looked melted and their molten flesh was popping and boiling. I couldn't even see blood, just 3 bodies lying on the ground. This was my family, the last thing pinning my sanity and morals to an acceptable societal place. So I screamed, and a primal roar echoed among the crackling fire before darkness took over my mind.