Accidentally Kidnapped

Chapter 6

"Mom!"  I pounded the glass window, trying to find something to break it. "Dad!" They were choking on the smoke. The lock was still jammed, preventing them from escaping. The fire was creeping towards the front seat now. I could feel the heat on my face, nearly scorching but I kept pounding despite how close the flames were. They had to get out.

They had to.

 Mom and Dad were coughing too hard to concentrate on opening the door. The smoke inside the car was so thick that I could barely see them. Tears streamed down my face as I sobbed, desperate for anything to happen.

The thought of losing my parents, the two most important people in my life, wasn't an option for my seven year old self.

Fern was sitting on the ground, staring at the grass. Her back was turned to the burning car where our parents were slowly dying. She wasn't crying. She just sat there, shaking like a leaf. I screamed her name, I screamed and screamed and screamed, and yet no one came to help.

The flames burned my hand. My little fists pounded on the glass one last time, one last moment of desperation, before it became too hot. The smoke took over on the inside. Over the roar of the flames, I could hear weak sounds of choking and then...silence.

"Mom." I sobbed uselessly, running back to Fern. The fire was everywhere now. There was no way anyone could survive that. "Dad...Fern! Fern! Please help me. Please, what's happening? Fern." I pulled her hand. 

She snapped back to reality. Standing up, Fern stared at the car. The burning car with our parents inside. The fire was slowly making its way to the front, towards the gasoline. It was going to explode. Fern realized this when I was too young to understand.

"November, come on!" She screamed, pulling us towards the treeline. We barely made it when the explosion happened. A thunderous boom that shook the sky. I was too numb to turn around. Fern's arms clutched my shaking shoulders as I cried into her neck. Her tears dripped onto the top of my head.

 It could have been seconds, it could have been years. The last thing I heard before I let go of consciousness was the sounds of sirens floating through the night. They came too late. They didn't come sooner. I couldn't help them. Fern didn't even try to help. No one would help us. I only had Fern left in this world. Just Fern...

 I woke up with a start, shivering, but not from the cold.

 It took me a second to crash back to reality. What happened ten years ago still played over and over in my mind like a song. I could remember every horrible moment from that night. Every second of horror, how numb my legs were, how much sadness I saw when I looked at Fern. We lost more than our parents that night. We lost our innocence.

Raising my head, I found Micheal's soft brown eyes watching me. Light broke through the helicopter windows. We were still flying. Nick and Heath were sleeping in the back. Cage was beside me, his fingers still around my wrist. He was slumped against the window, fast asleep as well. I stared at my hand through the gaps of his fingers.

I still had that scar. The nasty burn from pounding on the glass even when the fire came too close. It had faded to a pastel pink ten years later, just an inch long near the bottom of my palm. Cage's fingers were wrapped around my wrist. I pried them off and pushed his hand back into his lap.

Trees flew below. I didn't know how long we had been flying, but we were certainly far away from Ivey. The helicopter was headed towards a city in the distance, full of big buildings and skyscrapers. It was either New York or Chicago, and based off of the Crow's past, I was guessing it was Chicago.