Heartbeats

Chapter 14: Fiery Hearts

The fire burned, it touched Sasha's face with its gentle heat, like a caress of a feverish hand. The brightness of the flames reflected in her eyes as she looked at the scene in front of her. She knew this scene. She had seen it happen before. It was a crystal clear memory from a long long time ago.

"Protect your brother, Sasha." Her father's words etched in her heart.

Sasha found herself once more in front of the bed where her parents laid. She drenched them in gasoline as she swallowed her sorrows. Her father had given her such an important task that even if she wanted to break down and cry, she did not. Such things were not needed at that time; it was not the time to mourn.

She clicked the lighter and let it lick a wet part of the bed. The fire instantly ran across the bed and grew larger than she had expected. Sasha was startled, but more than that, she was scared. The fire was hungry and it ate everything on its path. Wood, cloth, flesh.

"Sasha." Daniel's voice sounded far away, "how did father die?"

Because that was the most important question Sasha never had an answer to. They both knew how their mother died. She had seen her mother die and had seen her mother dead.

"How did father die?"

Sasha looked back at the blazing fire. The large crackling sound asked for her attention as her eyes shifted to where she thought it came from.

And then from the bright red flames she could discern it, a hand. The large strong hand that belonged to her father. She looked at it through the fire and her eyes widened in terror. The hand held on to the edge of the bed, it gripped tightly as it trembled. The hand then let go and reached out with its fingers curling in agony.

"How did father die?"

Sasha sat up from bed, wet with cold sweat. She instantly jumped out of bed and straight to the bathroom. She opened the faucet and let the water run. She was still half-asleep, but her heart raced with that nightmare fresh inside her mind. She gathered the water on her hands and splashed it on her face. She rubbed her eyes and focused on her reflection on the mirror.

The cold water on her face, the sound of the water from the faucet, and her face in the mirror, eyes wide with shock and lips shaking, told her that she was already out of the nightmare.

"Father died because of the disease." Sasha told the reflection in front of her.

Sasha breathed. She was awake now. Time to sort out real life from her vivid dreams. Her mind started to remember what really happened that night. She burned their parents with Daniel beside her. She did not see anything else aside from the bright flames and the black ruins of what they burned.

"Father died because of the disease." She said to herself again, her voice in a raspy whisper.

She then placed her finger on the mirror. Translucent numbers then appeared on the mirror's surface where Sasha put her finger on: 4:30 AM

Sasha the picked up her toothbrush and started to brush her teeth. She was calm now and ready to start the day with a jog, just as she planned.

***

Sasha's mother had died first. The parasite that inhabited her body made her skin dry, dark and flaky. She cried every night as his father cooed her and told her continuously that she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

But no amount of loving words, or warm embraces would save her when her body had given up on her. Her lungs stopped breathing and her heart stopped beating. She died in her sleep with their father beside her.