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Gothic Short Stories

Decent Essays

One-thirty on a Thursday morning. I laid in bed worrying, after watching John rush to Main Street for a fire call. My head spun as the pager near my head continued to dispatch calls. “Be careful on the roof Watson, I can see light through,” Feltner’s voice echoed. Ambulance sirens boomed down a four-block stretch of Main Street. My body sprung from the bed and hurried out and down the block. My face began to fill with heat. Just then another page came through, “I know idiot, I put it there.” It was John’s voice. I felt relief and began to walk back down the sidewalk to our home. I heard a young girl screaming for her dog, hysterically. Finally, back in my house, I completely forgot that I had left the two girls upstairs. Thankfully, …show more content…

I explained to them all that I knew regarding the fire. Fear and confusion filled their tiny faces. My oldest, Taylor, had almost nothing to say. She let me know that kids were already talking about it at school. She wondered if she knew the kids; I reassured her, she did not. Tears filled Lexi’s bright hazel eyes. I could tell she was scared. She asked me why the teen did it. I couldn’t answer her question. The next few weeks would bring many more struggles. Lexi could not sleep through the night. She often slept on the couch or in John and I’s bed. She kept telling me how scared she was that our own house would burn down. I was required to sit in the bathroom and wait for her to finish her shower because she was too scared to be left in the bathroom alone. One night while I was cooking dinner, she came up to me with a question. “Mom will Taylor burn our house down when she turns 17?” My heart dropped. How could an eight-year-old come up with such a thing? I tried to answer quickly, but tears welled in my eyes. I used examples of neighbor kids and high school cheerleaders that were around seventeen. A brightness returned in my daughter’s eyes. I knew what I said had helped

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