3:00 am

Diamond District
  Blinking my eyes open sluggishly, I push myself up to a sitting position, causing my head to throb with dizziness. I sweep my gaze around my surroundings. Flames eat at the houses and shops, blackening the walls, leaving them charred and gray. Roads signs collapse, bricks slid loose from rooftops, ashen, stilled bodies lay everywhere around me. Memories come rushing back, overwhelming me with sorrow, causing uncontrollable tears to slide down my cheeks. A cold fist of despair clutches my heart, sorrow and fear crashes down on me in large emotional waves. A sob escapes from my chest. I don’t remember much, but I'm hardly sure that all this destruction happened in one single night.

My family and I are asleep in the middle of the night as are the other hundreds of people in the district, it is the unmistakable smell of smoke and the sound of shouting and screaming that wakes me up from my dreams. Following the smoke, was the fire. I roll out of bed, coughing and fighting for fresh air, crouching low, I crawl as fast as I could to the window and lift it open. Quickly, I suck in much needed oxygen just in time. I glance down from the window, the ground is two-stories below. I can jump out of the window and land on the soft grass below, although I know it can cause a lot of pain. On the other hand, I will survive the fire. But there is one problem: Mum and Dad are still in the house. I damp a piece of cloth with water in the flower vase nearby and tie it around my mouth, I stay low and went back into the thickening smoke. My eyes water, but I didn’t care, vowing to myself that I'm not leaving without my parents. Flattening my body against the wall, I will myself to crawl to the master bedroom in total brightness and unbearable heat. I dodge greedy, spluttering flames that were claiming everything in its path. At last, I reach the bedroom. Inside, I see my mum coughing and screaming for me, but it ends up in a weak, dry croak.

  “Mum!” I shout, racing into her embrace. She wraps her arms around me tightly and murmurs comforts to sooth me. I bury my face into her clothing, drawing in the familiar scent. Unfortunately, we aren't in a situation that I would call "safe". She pulls away and holds me in front of her. She crouchs, leveling her height to mine, looking straight into my eyes with those blue, intense eyes of hers.
  “Sweetie, daddy’s still in the study, I have to get him. Be good and stay here. I love you.” She hugs me one last time before rushing into the fire. The ceiling came down right after she is out the room. I scream for her at the top of my lungs but it is impossible to hear me over the noise. The whole house tilts and starts to fall while I go down with it. I hit the floor, the impact squeezing the air out of my lungs. At first, all I feel is numbness, then after a while pain stabs at my shoulder. I grit my teeth from crying out, cringing. Then, for the first time since I noticed the fire, I smell something unusual, something other than smoke, something...out of place. I turn my head to where the scent is coming from. A masked figure a few miles away from me is lurking near another house and seem in a hurry. Something lits up in the figure’s hand and the thing is tossed towards the house. The light grows brighter and brighter until I realize that it isn’t any type of light…it is fire. The last thing I see before blacking out is the fire swallowing the house hungrily, bit by bit...

Now, I am here, in the middle of the ruins, helpless and grieving, grieving for the loss of my home and…my family. My home, my district as well as my house has been destroyed, nothing is left but ashes and ruins. The sound of deep humming coming from my right breaks through my thoughts. I turn and see a helicopter positioning to land. I try to stand, but find myself too weak to rise to my feet. What is a helicopter doing here? I stay where I am and observe. The whirling blades of the helicopter finally come to a stop, a man, a boy, and a woman climb out of the chopper and begin walking around the remains of my home. The boy turns his eyes my way and our eyes meet. He shouted for his colleages and races towards me. He crouches in front of me when he reaches my spot.
“You okay?” he asks, not knowing how to respond, I nod weakly, even though I am feeling anything but fine. The kind young boy with sandy-colored hair and deep greenish eyes who I estimate is no older than thirteen places my arms around his shoulders and hauls me off the ground with surprising strength, heading back towards the helicopter. He puts me in the backseat and wraps a blanket around me, giving me a reassuring smile. “You’re safe now, you’re in good hands, trust me.” All I can do is nod again and glance out the window, looking at the debris that was once my home, the only place where I belonged. A hand touches my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I know what it’s like to lose everything at a young age.” It’s the boy, but I hardly hear him. The emptiness and numbness that was inside me is quickly replaced by cold anger and bitterness as I continue stare outside the window. One day, I’ll get my revenge. I’ll take down the man who destroyed my home and everything I had.