Vengeful Desires

1-

Amirah shifted restlessly beneath the sweat-dampened sheets, her brow furrowed as if in the throes of some unresolved struggle. A soft whimper escaped her parted lips, quickly giving way to an anguished murmur as her head tossed fitfully against the pillows.

"Dami...Dami-ya..."

His name - that cherished collection of syllables embodying her entire universe of love and hope - tumbled from Amirah in a breathless dance.

Her fingers twitched spasmodically against the rumpled duvet, grasping at the ephemeral threads of a reality fast slipping through her tenuous grip on consciousness like fistfuls of air.

"Eomma! Eomma!"

She twitched once more, shaking from sweat,
Amirah startled awake, her eyes flying open in the darkness. Her heart was pounding wildly in her chest. That small, frightened voice calling out - it sounded just like...

"Dami?" She sat upright, straining her eyes to see through the shadows engulfing her bedroom. An acrid smell swung thick in the air, making her nostrils flare as she tried to breathe. Smoke?

Then she saw him - a tiny figure lying disturbingly still on the floor just a few feet away.

"Dami!" She frantically threw off the covers, practically tumbling out of bed as she scrambled towards her son's motionless body. Dropping to her knees beside him, she gathered Dami into her shaking arms, hot tears already spilling down her cheeks.

"Baby, talk to me! Eomma's here, I'm here..." Her trembling fingers stroked his soot-smeared face as she pulled him close, feeling his limp form against her pounding chest.

Dami didn't respond or open his eyes, his jaw slackened and head lolling back unnaturally. Panic gripped Amirah's windpipe as she clutched him tighter, feeling the faint warmth still radiating from his skin. What happened? How could this be real?

Just then, a deafening explosion ripped through the house, shattering glass and raining plaster down upon them. Amirah instinctively shielded Dami's body with her own, crying out at the top of her lungs.

"Somebody help us! Please! My son needs help!" She rose on wobbling legs, cradling Dami firmly as she rushed towards the hallway and choking smoke billowing from the kitchen.

Amirah's bare feet pounded down the stairs, each step a prayer that her little boy would wake up from this nightmare. As any mother would she was overwhelmed, rather suffocated by the reality fanning around her. Too lost to see the bleeding along her feet and cuts along her thighs.

Reaching the front door, she flung it open and escaped outside, her lungs greedily gasping the fresh night air.

"Help! I need an ambulance immediately!" She shrieked into the darkness, her hoarse voice echoing across the silent neighborhood.

She paced the driveway in a frenzy, panic and adrenaline coursing through her veins as she watched Dami's chest uncertainly rising and falling.

Within minutes, the ambulance's wailing sirens pierced the night. Perhaps that was the perk of residing in a neighborhood of elites; the fear of danger received a swift response without a soul needing to venture out and check on what had taken place.

Paramedics swarmed toward them, one crouching down to inspect Dami while another gently but firmly tried to pry him from Amirah's vice-like grip.

"Miss, we need to check on your son's condition right away. Please let us take him."

The medic's voice remained calm but insistent as she reached out again, her latex-gloved hands gently but firmly trying to pry Dami's unconscious form from Amirah's blood-knuckled grasp.