Miracle Within the Flames
A tale of heroics and enduring love
Good day, my friends. I was challenged to write this story for the fiery picture below. It’s an image of flames surrounding a pair of rings.
Grab some ice, it’s about to get a lot hotter!
Miracle Within the Flames
“Help! Please somebody, help me!”
Even though hot from jogging, that mortal, pleading scream chilled my bones. I clocked the desperate young lady in a fenced garden across the street. Pyres of black smoke pouring from the red-brick detached house beyond her, answered my questions.
“Have you phoned the fire brigade?” I yelled.
“No, my phone’s in the lounge. My boyfriend Billy was behind me in the bedroom — he told me to run and — never came out!” her tears created tracks through the soot and smoke that clung to her. “Oh, please don’t let him die!”
“Here,” I tossed her my phone. “Call help. Tell them to hurry!”
“Thanks, I -”
Her words were lost to the detonation of a UPVC window on the ground floor. A pyre of flames and glass roared into the garden and faded in a cloud of smoke.
“Bloody hell!” I exclaimed.
I dashed into the garden and cursed the flickering orange light beyond the front door. There was no passage that way. I glanced off the Citroen C4 on the drive and ran along the passage between the house and garage. The rear garden was nice with lawns, shrubs and a pond.
“Sorry, fish,” I muttered.
I jumped between lily pads, tore off my hoodie and shirt and plunged them into the water. Frogs leapt away as I put the hoodie on and tied the shirt around my head and mouth. Soaked through, I dashed to the kitchen door and entered.
Smoke rolled across the ceiling and poured into the darkening sky. A smoke alarm alerting me to the obvious, fell silent. The pulsing red glow of hell in the hall, told of the furious blaze engulfing the house.
“Billy! Where are you?” There were tea towels beside the sink. I soaked two and folded them about my hands.
There had been no response, I doubt he heard me over the roar of the fire. A dining table occupied the centre of the kitchen. Its four chairs were tucked neatly to the sides.
The heat struck like a boiling wall as I passed the table and entered the hallway. Everything from the credenza and coat rack to the ceiling sconce was ablaze by the front door beyond the staircase. The air was thick with smoke and ash. It was already hard to see anything.
“Billy!” I shouted over the din.
I stayed low, avoiding the worst of the fumes as I hurried past a flaming picture and glanced into the lounge. Everything was ablaze including the ceiling. My skin pored with sweat as demonic fingers of fire seemed to claw at me. This was what a hamburger on a chargrill felt like.
The TV screen shattered as it toppled onto the blazing rug. A red sofa sizzled like a steak, its upholstery fizzing and popping as liquid fire poured over and melted it to a fiery skeleton. A solid crack shook the building. The lounge ceiling split, allowing a bed to crash through and smash the coffee table like a burning meteor. Debris shattered the window and —
“Oh shit!” I yelled as I jumped backwards.
A rolling wall of flames caught the fresh air from the broken glass. It flashed across the room and blasted the remains of the window into the garden. My body convulsed as I slammed into the staircase balusters. Pain flared across my ribs, driving the smoky air from my lungs.
“Argh! So, that’s a bloody flash-over,” I groaned as I hauled myself upright.
My clothes were steaming, the dampness was all that saved me from death by barbecue. As it was my face stung from the searing.
“Billy!” I called as I dashed upstairs.
“In — here … trapped!” His voice was choked but he was alive — for now.
Four rooms greeted me from the landing. The front bedroom was an inferno which had spread to the landing. Its bed was the one that plunged into the living room. The fire was devouring the landing curtains, carpet and doors of the rear two rooms.
Smoke wafted from the opposite bedroom, I watched a burning suitcase drop from a growing, smoldering hole in the ceiling. The case ignited the bed covers with a whoomph — I was out of time!
“Where are you?” I lowered my head and shoulder and charged the first flaming door.
It burst inward launching me through a cloud of cinders and smoke. My knees crashed into the bathtub, and I grabbed the sink to steady myself.
“In … here!”
“Wrong door!” I choked some black mucus onto the floor.
The smoke was getting to me, and now my knees hurt. There was no time for self-pity. I dumped towels into the bath and sink and turned on the water. With one soaked, I entered the hallway and used it to extinguish the other door.
A heavy kick, sent it banging against the wall inside.
“Help me!” Billy pleaded, wearing only shorts and scrabbling around on the floor.
I reached for his shoulders intent on helping him stand.
He shrugged me away, “No, I have to find them…”
“There’s no time, the whole house is ablaze.” I hooked my fingers in his belt and hauled at him, “Come on!”
“Let me go. I have to find — ”
Something detonated downstairs. Glass shattered, and someone screamed outside. The roar of fire intensified with the hammering of my heart.
“Find what?”
“The rings, they — ”
“For goodness sake buy more. Rings won’t help if you get cremated in here!” I yelled while rubbing at the sweat and smoke burning my eyes.
“But, I … have to … find them …” he descended into a coughing fit.
There was no time to plead with him, “Sorry!” I grabbed his arm and tore him from the room.
In the bathroom, I grabbed the soaked towels from the bath, “Get these around you, mate.”
“Thanks,” he glanced into the firestorm consuming his hallway, “I have to go back!”
“Not a chance! We’re getting out, right now!” The last wet towel felt great as it soaked me through again. “Come on!”
Billy’s shoulders sagged as defeat entrenched him. I pushed him ahead of me and hit the stairs at the run. The visibility was zero at the bottom. Worse, the wall of heat from the red-hot inferno was impassable.
“Over the railing!” I yelled.
“Okay.”
I heard him climb and fall to the floor. By feeling alone, I clambered onto the railing. Something exploded with a loud fizz above. Debris rained down the stairs. The railing cracked, and I fell.
I screamed as I tumbled through a cloud of flames. Searing pain greeted me as I hit the smoldering carpet. My left leg was on fire!
“You okay?” Billy asked as he extinguished me with one of his towels.
“I will be!” I regained my feet and shoved him along the hallway into the kitchen. “Run!”
The visibility was better here and yet the cabinets and table were ablaze thanks to the inferno boiling through the wooden partition wall.
“Oh, no the whole house is gone!” Billy cried.
“I’m sorry, just get out. ” I urged.
My foot hooked against the leg of a displaced dining chair. I yelped and fell between the seat and the table.
A tiny tinkling sound echoed in my right ear. A glow of white gold through a sea of flames drew my attention to the tiles. I felt an aura of serenity soothe me. I grinned, grabbed the two entwined objects and ran from the burning house.
With Billy ahead, we returned to the front garden. Every window of the house had shattered allowing black smoke, cinders and flames to escape the building’s funeral pyre. I was relieved to hear sirens drawing ever closer.
“Billy! Oh. Billy, are you okay?”
“Sarah! My lungs hurt and I have a few burns but I’m fine, are you okay?” he replied in a hoarse voice.
I dumped my scorched towels on the lawn and smiled as he reached and hugged her for all he was worth.
“I got out before everything ignited, why didn’t you follow me?” she asked.
“I had to find — ” he coughed himself to silence.
“You idiot, the insurance will cover everything in there. You nearly died!”
You don’t understand, I…”
“Billy,” I reached for his hand and curled his fingers around the items he desired for Sarah.
He knew at once by the smile that creased his blackened face. “Sarah, the things I wanted were these,” He revealed the two wedding rings in his hand. “I was going to ask you to marry me at dinner tonight.”
She looked incredulous at the burning house. “I can’t believe you nearly died for wedding rings!”
“They were my great grandparents’ rings, bequeathed to me for when my true love arrived. That’s you, Sarah.”
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him with a river of emotion streaming from her eyes.
Fire engines burst onto the scene. In seconds a dozen brave firefighters were uncoiling hoses and pumping water through the windows. That was my cue to slip away and tend my burns. It would take weeks, but I’d fully recover from my ordeal.
Every day I passed the eerie, charred house. Its roof was reduced to a skeleton, the inside a blackened shell. I watched investigators go to work. Then a demolition crew bulldozed the walls, allowing a new home to rise like a phoenix.
Four months later, a newspaper headline caught my eye:
‘LOVE BLOSSOMS ETERNAL FROM THE FIRES OF HELL WHICH CLAIMED A COUPLE’S LOVE NEST!’
I bought the paper knowing who the couple were. The article made good reading over my cup of tea.
‘On the 6th of June, a detached house on Keys Drive burst into flames. Investigators later proved a faulty smartphone charger had ignited the couch, leading to the complete devastation of the property. On that dark day, Billy Welsh had been planning a special proposal to his special girlfriend Sarah. The fire caused him to lose the rings and almost his life. As he searched for the heirlooms that would cement his love, the blaze trapped him in his bedroom.
Sarah recalls a mystery jogger answering her calls for help. He entered the burning home without a second thought for his safety and rescued Billy. Miraculously, he also recovered the rings as they escaped the blaze. He vanished before Billy and Sarah could thank him.
On this, the four-month anniversary of the fire, Sarah and Billy united in marriage. They had a request as they cut the cake for the cameras. They wished for the mystery hero to come forward, so he may receive their gratitude for Billy’s life and those special rings…’
The paper went on to say it wanted to thank me too, and gave contact numbers I would never call. I smiled at a photo of the happy couple and closed the paper.
I didn’t find those rings. I was given them. The chair had been tucked under the table when I entered the kitchen, yet it tripped me as I fled the fire. I’d never forget seeing the rings glowing as they stood proud in the grout between those tiles.
In a moment of happiness and serenity, I knew an angel or spirit had ensured he and the rings survived that day.
The End
Thanks for reading my friends.
Originally published at http://masonsmenagerie.wordpress.com on June 28, 2024.
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