Chapter 6 HAUNTING MEMORIES

A wild range of fire spread across the large building which was once a shopping mall, burning down everything it touched. The thick formation of smoke filled the atmosphere, cutting off the air supply to the three remaining occupants in the burning building.

One unconscious and barely breathing, the other losing consciousness and the last panicking in the most unrecognizable way.

"Mr. Handsome, are you alright? Try to keep your eyes open, okay? You are going to be just fine," a little girl of about 10 years old assured a teenage Shawn Harrington who was slowly losing consciousness due to the lack of oxygen.

"M–My sister ..." Shawn 's voice faded as he grew weaker with each passing minute.

Aside from his lack of oxygen, his bleeding leg, stabbed by a piece of broken glass while he tried to save his younger sister, Calantha Harrington added to his pain.

"Your sister, she's fine. She's asleep. See, we all sleep like this, don't we?" The little girl, whose face was blurry in Shawn 's vision, giggled and coughed immediately.

"Are you alright?" Shawn asked, expressing his concern.

"I am fine. Something got stuck in my throat. What about you? Are you okay?" She asked, caressing Shawn 's hair in a bid to assure him that everything would be alright.

"Yes, I am fine but my sister, she's dying. Please help me get her out of here. I will be just fine. You both need to leave," Shawn said, but the little girl shook her head.

"No, I can't leave you here. What if something bad happens? My big Father won't be happy with me. I mean Father Jesus. Don't worry, my small father will be here soon. He will save us all," the little girl said and gave Shawn a reassuring hug.

He kept wondering why she was trying to encourage him and not crawl into a corner and cry. It's what children her age do. Why was she so different?

"Please, I am begging you. Try to leave already. If you stay here, we will all die," Shawn tried to talk some sense into her but she blatantly refused.

"Don't ..." she paused and coughed, choking on whatever she wanted to tell him.

The painful truth was, just like him and his sister, she was slowly dying too and if she didn't leave that moment, she would die as well.

"Listen to me. Forget about me and my sister. Save yourself. Leave already," Shawn said, almost in a pleading tone, but the little girl refused.

She had done enough already. First, she saved them from a burning shelf, hurting her hand in the process. She then took them to the storeroom where the fire hadn't spread yet. She thought they would be safe there but as time passed, the smoke from the burning building invaded the room and began suffocating them. Shawn was badly injured and couldn't walk on his own, Calantha was unconscious due to the fear the burning shelf ignited in her and the little girl was the only one fit to move around.

The door had heated up due to the fire and the handle got melted. They were all stuck in the room with no escape route except the window. Thankfully, it had no bars, just a safety net, which the little girl had torn down aggressively with her tooth.

"Mr. Handsome, we can't stay here any further. We have to go now but Miss Beauty has to wake up," the little girl said and thought for a while. She got up from where she sat, covering up her nose and straining her eyes. She went in search of something.

She returned with an old-looking bottle that contained a little amount of water.

"What are you going to do with that?" Shawn asked, straining his eyes to see what she was holding. His vision was blurry and he couldn't make out much.

"It's a bottle. It still has a small quantity of water. I will use this water to wake your sister up. My mom does it all the time when I don't want to get up for school," the little girl explained cheerfully, not minding the possibility that she might never get the chance to relive such moments again.

"Thank you!" Shawn said with utmost gratitude. He felt like doing more than just that but they had to get out first.

"Don't thank me, Mr. Handsome. I just have one request," she said, kneeling before Shawn .

"What is that?" Shawn asked curiously. He was more than ready to do anything for this girl.

"I want you to promise me one thing. After today, we might not meet again until after a very long time. But when we do meet, make me your wife, Mr. Handsome. Would you do that for me?" the little girl asked eagerly, waiting for his reply.

Shawn was amused by her request, childish yet he felt goosebumps. What she wanted was quite crazy and when they finally leave this place, he will compensate her for her act of kindness. But for now, he could not break her heart by saying no.

"I promise to make you my wife when we meet again," Shawn replied and forced a small smile despite his pain.

"Pinky promise?" The little girl asked, not satisfied with just his words.

"I promise," Shawn said and took her tiny pinky in his.

The little girl giggled happily and picked up the bottle she had gone in search of. She opened it up and splashed it on Calantha's face. Calantha woke up immediately and began coughing due to the intensified smoke that invaded the room.

"Shawn , what's going on?" Calantha cried out, scared to the bones. She wasn't happy to realize they were still stuck in the burning building.

"Shhh, don't cry, Canlan. We are going to leave soon. See that window over there? It's our only way out, okay? Trust me, nothing bad will happen to you," Shawn assured his sister, who nodded in return.

"Miss Beauty, listen to me. We need to help Mr. Handsome get to the window. Then we can all leave this place. That window will lead us out of here, okay," the little girl said and a sobbing Calantha nodded with a little bit of hope and relief slowly finding their way into her heart.

Just as planned, Calantha and the little girl helped Shawn with their little strength to get to the window, which Shawn crawled onto and successfully dropped to the other side.

Fortunately, there were ornamental plants aligned by the side of the building and the window was just above it.

Shawn crawled away from the plant and got seen by one of the firefighters who came immediately to get him.

"Sir, my sister and a girl are still stuck in there. Please, you have to save them," Shawn said desperately, waiting for Calantha and the girl to jump out.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his sister climbing out the window. The firefighter rushed to help Calantha out of the window and brought her to Shawn . He hugged her immediately, shedding tears of joy but his joy was cut short when he didn't find a trace of the little girl.

"Calantha, where's that girl? I thought you both were together," Shawn asked, searching around to see if she was out already.

"She was behind me. She told me to go, that she had something to pick up," Calantha replied, staring at the vacant window.

"Sir, there's a girl left in there. Please, you have to save her," Shawn called out to the firefighter, who nodded and took out his flashlight.

Walking towards the window, a sudden blast swept the firefighter off the ground. The storeroom, which was the only place that had not been burnt by the fire, was now in flames and sadly, the little girl was still in there. This left both siblings in shock.

"No!!! Sir, please, she's still in there. You have to save her. She can't die," Shawn pleaded with the firefighter, tears streaming down his face. That was the first time he cried for someone else, someone he knew absolutely nothing about.

"I am sorry, kid but it's impossible to survive such a blast," the firefighter said and called for help.

A few other members of the team arrived and took Shawn and Calantha away. No one said a word about the little girl who died in the blast. The firefighters did nothing in return.

"It's all my fault," Shawn muttered sadly, not being able to take his eyes off the flaming building. This planted a seed of guilt in his heart, which grew into a tree of fear and repulsion.

*Knock*

The loud bang of the large door jolted Shawn out of his thoughts.

He mentally cursed himself for daydreaming again. It's been 15 years already; why it felt like yesterday always left him puzzled.

He was having alone time, but hearing this knock on his door, he went to know who it was and surprisingly saw Tilden, whom he just left in the studio.

"Whoa," Tilden said.

"You were coming behind me?" Shawn asked.

"No. Sorry, yes. I was heading here but I got robbed," Tilden spilled.

"Yoo, so sorry. That's not a problem. First thing tomorrow, I will get you your exact phone," Shawn promised.

"Thanks, man," Tilden said.

They chatted for a while before Tilden left.