The flames painted the night sky with shades of hell. Smoke curled like black ribbons into the air, and the scent of burning memories chocked the life out of everything she had once loved. Elena stood barefoot on the wet pavement, eyes fixed on the inferno consuming her home, the cold rain doing little to douse the inferno consuming and devouring the only home she had ever built, and everything she had ever known.
Screams echoed in the distance not hers. She was silent. Numb. Somewhere inside the blaze were the remnants of her life: a silver framed photo, her husbands favorite watch, a baby blanket with the name Luca stitched in the blue thread.
Memories flashed before her eyes: laughter, tears, whispers in the dead of the night. Her husbands smile, her child's giggles, the warmth of their touch. All gone consumed by the flames that now ravaged her world.
Gone.
Her knuckles were white, clenched around her son's small toy car the only thing she grabbed before the explosion shattered the windows and her world. The sound of shattering glass pierced the air, followed by the creacking of burning wood. She felt a scream building in her throat, but it was trapped, suffocated by the weight of her grief.
Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder with each passing moment. Elena didn't move. She was rotted to the spot, her eyes glued to the burning house Firefighters yelled others. Neighbors cried but it was too late. Her family was gone, her life was ashes.
The fire crackled, spewing sparks into the night air. Elena's vision blurred, and for a moment, she was back in the house, surrounded by the people she loved. But when her eyes focused again, reality slammed into her like a sledgehammer. The house was burning, her family was gone. And she was left with nothing but ashes.
One officer approached her gently, voice soft. Ma'am... We're doing everything we can"
But she didn't hear him. Her mind was already rewriting itself.
That night Elena died.
And something colder took her place.
She walked away, soaked shoeless silent not because she had nowhere to go...
Just because she had nowhere left to return to.
They thought the fire destroyed her.
But it only forged her.