Ashes fell from the sky like the rain that fell just yesterday, only not as pretty, not as sweet. It told tales of fire, fire too far away for me to see. In spite of that, I knew it was destroying everything I loved. And I could only sit there, wait for it to be over.

I was alone, too. No one had made it out but me. My eyes would have filled with tears if I wasn’t so dehydrated from the smoke that still filled my lungs. My parents. My best friend. My little brother. They were all being burned alive, fire eating my brother’s soft pink skin, turning my mother’s hair black, charring my father’s leather jacket, melting the threads of my friend’s pretty dress.

I collapsed. I sobbed. But there were no tears.