Dire Fire

"What movie do you want to watch?" my friend, Melisa, asked. "What about 'My Favourite Martian?'" I suggested. "Ok," Melisa replied agreeably. We bought the tickets and went into the movie theatre.

The first part of the show went smoothly. "Don't you think that was funny?" Melisa laughed. "Ye....What the...,"I spluttered. The movie screen was blank - the power had   gone out.

"HELP! Fire!" we heard a solitary scream. I looked around in confusion. In the corner of my eye, I caught sight of something orange. "Fire!" I shrieked. The word pounded in my mind as the truth dawned upon me. "Come on, let's go!" I tugged at Melisa's arm. "Wait! Angelica, we've got to save that little girl over there, she trapped in the flames! No help would mean certain death!" she stopped me. "Somebody else will rescue her, let's go! NOW!" I nearly shouted in fear for my friend. I pulled at her arm again, harder this time. "You're not that heartless, are you, Angelica? Look at her, one human life will be wasted, ONE HUMAN LIFE!" she screamed back.

"Let's go! Let's go! LET'S GO!" I pulled at her arm again. "Let go! You leave first! I'm going to save the poor girl!" she shouted.

After that, I barely had time to think about Melisa. Things were happening so fast. Fire alarms chimed loudly. Orange flames engulfed the entire theatre. People were screaming, babies were wailing, chaos reigned. I ran for all I was worth. However, there was a dead end and flames were on all four sides of me. Fortunately for me, there was a fire extinguisher nearby. I pushed down its lever with all my might. A rush of foam escaped from the extinguisher and put out enough of the flames for me to escape.

I ran towards the emergency exit. There, i gratefully sank at the feet of a yellow-booted fireman. "Melisa, where are you?" I uttered hoarsely. After that, everything went black.

When I awoke, I was in a room with whitewashed wals and a nurse with a starched collar at my bedside. I was in a hospital. "Angelica, are you alright?" cried a familiar voice. My mother. Her eyes were red from crying. "Melisa! Where's Melisa?" I asked the nurse. "Is she a fire victim too?" the nurse returned. "Yes, her name is Melisa See," I replied hopefully. "See.....aha! Here she is! You may go and see her but you can't go inside. She's in the ICU for coma,"the nurse said matter of factly.

"COMA? SHE'S IN A COMA!" I cried and burst into tears, "When is she going to wake up?" "Depends, it could take a day, a month, a year.... She may never wake up. Pity. So young and so pretty, too. She brought a five year old girl to safety and blacked out because of lack of air," the nurse shook her head sadly.

Melisa was a heroine. So what? She was in the ICU, in a coma, not knowing when she would wake up.....

Copyright Angela Ang