Alexandra hated nights like this.The rain against the window was too loud, too familiar. It dragged memories from places she had buried deep inside herself memories she never allowed to surface, not even for Mira and Luna,She closed her eyes.And suddenly, she was small again.
Fire had been the first thing to take from her.
She was only two years old, and her only sister Alicia .The flames swallowed their home in a single night, fierce and unforgiving. Their father never made it out. Alexandra didn't remember his face clearly only the smell of smoke and the sound of screaming that followed them for years.
After that, everything became quieter, Heavier.
Their mother worked as a cleaner, leaving before sunrise and returning long after the sky had darkened. She was always tired, always apologizing. Still, she smiled for them. Still, she promised things would get better.Then came the night that promise died.Their mother slipped while cleaning a tall building in the company she worked. One moment she was working, the next gone. No goodbyes. No final words. Just another body the world moved on from.Alexandra was four years old when she became an orphan.Alicia was twelve.
Twelve years old suddenly turning into a mother.
Alicia stopped being a child overnight. She learned how to cook with trembling hands, how to braid hair she barely knew how to manage, how to stretch small money into meals that could last days. She worked whenever she could cleaning, carrying, serving anything that paid.And Alexandra watched wishing for a better life,She watched her sister grow thinner, quieter, older than she should have been.
She watched Alicia smile even when her eyes were hollow.Then one evening, Alicia kissed Alexandra's forehead before leaving for work as usual Alexa was already 15 then and Alicia was 23 then "I'll be back soon," Alicia said, forcing a smile which didn't stretch to her face. When it was time for Alicia to return and she didn't return Alexa's heart grew heavy,she felt suffocated at the moment as the memories of her mother came to her but she silently prayed hoping it wasn't true and thus she sat outside and wait.Alexandra waited.And waited.
The sky grew darker. The streetlights flickered on. The rain began to fall so heavily and thunder firing all through the clouds giving a chilly feeling but Alicia hasn't return home yetAlexandra sat by the door, hugging her knees as the rain blew heavy winds making her have goosebumps and she continued listening to footsteps that never stopped.That was the night everything changed.Alexandra's eyes snapped open.Her heart pounded as if she were still that child, waiting by the door.Outside, the rain continued to fall as heavily just like it had that night.And somewhere deep inside her, the memory she feared the most waited to be The memory that changed her entire life