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while the
flames are racing me, but I’m losing.
Glowing vermillion takes over each room. Pulling the rim of my
shirt over my mouth and nose, I cough through the walls of smoke.
The heat swells up around me and the fingertips of smoke wrap
around my lungs. I have to get out of here and find my father. As I
call out, my breath shrinks. His car sits parked in the driveway, so I
know he has to be here, somewhere. A gray haze fills my room.
    “
Dad!” I scream out again and again. I’m not going to get out
of my bedroom the way I came in. The house is falling in around
me. I want to find Dad and get out of here alive. How can this be
happening? Who would do such a thing? Is this how I’m going to
die? In this brief moment, I give up. I know this is the end.
    I can
’t get my lungs to work anymore as I grow weaker with
each step. My legs fail me as I hit the floor. My body is numb so I
don’t feel much when I meet the hardwood, slowly turning ash
around me.
    CRASH! My bedroom window burst open, glass peppering the
floor. Standing on the other side is Rowen. The sight of him is
blurry. I must be losing my mind while I lay dying. Why am I
imagining him at a time like this? Crazy, the things you think about
when you’re about to take your last breath. He crawls through the
broken pane and picks me up. Impending death can produce some
vivid hallucinations. I feel his arms lifting me up off the floor. I’m
not dead. Rowen is saving me.
“I can’t leave without my father,” I mumble.
    His deep voice is reassuring.
“Your father is safe, Ashe. I’ve
got to get you out of here.” With blazes overcoming us, he carries
me through the broken window into fresh air.
    As I catch my breath, we watch the blazing blue heat turn
everything it touches deep red and orange. The aromas of soot,
smoke and destruction pierce my nostrils with the memories of
what used to be. We watch as the burning beams plunge to their
deaths. With each charred ember, my home falls to the ground. I
bury my face into Rowen’s chest sobbing out of control.
“Where’s my father? Where is he?”
    His gentle touch of open palms cup my face as he lifts my gaze
with soothing
words. “Your
father
is
safe
with Marvin and
Lucinda.”
    “
Who would do this?” I ask falling to my knees stunned and
utterly overwhelmed. Everything I’ve ever known is dust.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he says.
I’m taken aback by his urgency to leave.“We’ve got to call
911,” I insist.
“That won’t do us any good now.”
“What do you mean? What are you doing here?”
He doesn’t answer and takes my arm pulling me toward an
older model Camaro that looks new. Then it hits me like a ton of
Dirt
     
bricks. I jerk my arm from his grip. “It was you! Who the hell are
you?”
    “
There’s no time to explain. Not now. We’ve got to go.” The
sounds of sirens howl in the distance. He takes hold of my arm
again and forces me near his car.
    “
Let me go!” I try to pull away, but I’m no match for him.
“What do you want with me?”
“Get in,” he says with insistence forcing me into the passenger
seat as lights flash in the distance.
“Take me to Marvin and Lucinda’s. I need to see my father.”
“We can’t go back.”
“We have to go back. I have to see my father!”
“We can’t, Ashe.” He looks at me sternly and his voice is loud,
almost yelling.
“Stop the car!” He keeps driving, his speed accelerating. “Stop!
I mean it! What’s going on?”
“You are about to find out who you really are and where you
come from.”
“I know who I am. I’m Ashe Fair. Are you freakin’ crazy?”
The car’s speed increases, while the engine roars over our voices.
The speedometer reaches 110 mph.
I hold on to my door and look over my right shoulder. No seat
belt. His speed is now 125 mph. Okay, I didn’t die in the fire. I’m
going to die in this car with this crazy person. I close my eyes tight
to keep from throwing up.
With my eyes