Isaac sat on his front porch, gazing at his phone. He had been chatting with his friend for the past ten minutes.
Isaac: I can't believe what happened.
Derek: Ikr. It's crazy to know that it was the same as your dream. R u OK?
Isaac: Yeah... I was crying my eyes out earlier though.
Derek: That's fine. I was, and still am sad.
That was all that they had typed. Isaac found it hard to comprehend that his dream had come true. Out of everything crazy that had happened in his life, this took the top spot. He decided to take a while to daydream, thinking of all the other things that had happened in his life that turned it upside down. His eighth birthday party was a good example.
On his eighth birthday, Isaac invited over all of the people in his school. He expected a large turnout, knowing that young children go crazy over birthday parties. He had cake, ice cream, and plenty of streamers around, and he knew that he was going to have the best party. He had planned pin the tail on the donkey, watching movies, playing sports, and other fun games, like tag. He was determined to make it the perfect birthday party, but he was to be rudely awakened.
The party was scheduled to begin at 2:00 in the afternoon. Isaac had wanted it to start sooner, but his parents thought otherwise. He could still remember his parents' voices, telling him all about how they would never do a party that early.
"It's a Sunday, and you're asking us to wake up by 11:00? No. Assuming we woke up at 10:00, we still NEED OUR COFFEE."
Isaac slightly smiled at this thought, although it seemed impossible. His best friend had just died, and he could muster a smile? He continued to recap the day in his head. On the day of the party, April 18, he woke up, a smile plastered on his face. It seemed that nothing would spoil his good mood. He sprang out of bed, slipped his clothes on and burst out the door to his room. He ran to the living room, and sighed in awe as he looked around. Right in front of him was the same old leather couch as always, but on the glass coffee table in front of it was a pile of presents, all of them wrapped in purple paper. On his left was the walkway to the kitchen, and even from his angle he could see more presents piled on the kitchen table. In the middle of it was a large cake, shining in all of its beauty. It was three layers tall, and he could tell that his parents didn't buy it. He had never knew that at least one of them could cook. On his right was the front door, but there was another glass end table beside it, with even more wrapped presents on it. He looked down on the hardwood floor, and he could see that there were thousands of tiny, colorful balloons, making the actual floor invisible. He craned his neck and looked at his roof, and could see green and yellow streamers hung around everywhere.
All of this contributed had massively to Isaac's good mood. There were at least fifteen presents laid out! He went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbing the milk. He went and picked a bowl out of the cabinet, his favorite one, and poured himself his usual bran flakes. He sat down on the couch, pushed some of the presents aside, placed his cereal bowl on the coffee table, and picked up the remote to watch some T.V.
Six hours later, time that Isaac spent watching T.V, playing video games, and playing catch with his parents, it was 2:00. It was time for the guests to arrive. He waited, situated on the couch, bouncing his legs with giddy. The door bell sounded. Someone had arrived! He sprinted up to the door and swung it open, excited.
It was the mail man.
Isaac was disappointed, but at least there was a bright side. The mail man had brought another wrapped package, and he guessed that his parents had the package wrapped online, just like all of the others. His parents signed the paper and hoisted the package in their arms, laying it down in an empty space on the coffee table.
Another thirty minuted passed by, and Isaac began to get a little concerned. People were supposed to show up a half an hour ago, and the only people with him were his parents. He looked around, and sat back down, bored and worried.
It was 3:30. Isaac was despondent. Nobody had come to his party, and he now knew that he didn't have any friends. Almost everyone that he had given an invitation to had said they would come, so he knew that he was being stood up. He began to bawl, and got up, pulling down his streamers. His parents tried to stop him, but he was at the point of no return, and the living room would soon be trashed. He let out a scream in anger, and began to tear down more streamers. Suddenly, the doorbell rang again! He wiped his tears and walked up to it, hoping that it was a friend.
Isaac pulled the door open, and standing outside was a girl in a small purple jacket. She had seemed nervous, and he didn't recognize her. She held out her hand, and said, "hi! I'm Lucy. Sorry I'm late, I had a soccer game to play." He replied back a lot more nervously than she had did. "Oh. H-hi there... you won't find much here, but, do you like video games?"
"Of course! I love video games." Isaac could tell right away that Lucy meant it, and shook her hand, inviting her inside. They did what was planned, but mainly played video games, since they both liked that the most.
Within three hours, Isaac had made his first friend. Even thinking of the story now, tears welled up in his eyes, and he couldn't continue. There wasn't much else to say, anyway. They had a good time, became friends, and, well, Lucy got ran over years later.
Isaac was surrounded by fire. He wanted to run outside the building, but the front was blocked by even more burning wood. The alarms were beeping furiously, their deafening blasts almost distracted him, forcing him to occasionally cover his ears. He scanned his surroundings, searching for a way to evade the fire, and finally found an open corridor to his left. He turned in that direction and headed forward, along with screaming students and their teachers, trying to get them all in order. He went past them, taking a right in another hallway. He headed towards an exit door, but some debris fell from the second floor and blocked it. He began to panic now, searching for another way to go. There was nothing.
He headed for the janitor's closet. Maybe there was an air vent hidden in there. His feet rushed towards it as the fire raged on either side, and he knew that this was his last chance. The children were now all disseminated around, not listening to their teachers, so he had to push them aside as he got closer. He didn't feel very good about it, but it was either him or them, and he chose himself.
Isaac eventually made it, and he opened the door without thinking. Luckily for him, there was no fire on the other side, so he slammed it shut, locking it to keep other kids from entering. He looked up, and directly above him was an air vent, so he grabbed a stool, climbing onto it and prying the cover off.
He couldn't pry the cover off. It had four screws, so he frantically searched around looking for a screwdriver. As he searched near the door for one, he could feel the heat was stronger than whenever he entered, and he knew that the fire was drawing nearer. He had little time left, and the harrowing screams of innocent children being burned to death didn't help. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally found the screwdriver, and climbed back onto the stool, unscrewing the four screws.
One.
Two.
Three.
Fo-
The door swung open violently, and a mob of teachers and children entered. Isaac unscrewed the fourth screw and climbed into the vent, and he crawled through as fast as he could, coming upon another cover. He unscrewed it, and before he could think the hoard of children and teachers shoved him through the hole, and he fell down into grass. He sprinted forward into the street, whatever he could do to get away from the building. He turned his head to look back, and saw that virtually none of the children had gotten out of the air vent. The fire seemed to spread from child to child as all of them burned to death. Isaac could smell burning flesh, and he pulled out his phone, dialing 911. He knew that it was too late; almost all of the children had died or were going to die, and the building was totaled, but he called anyway. The fire could spread.
Isaac sat up, inhaling frigid air and immediately laying back down. It was extremely cold, and he had chills from last night's dream as well. It was 7:00 in the morning. He wrapped a blanket around himself and did his best to get dressed, wearing a jacket that he only wore two to three times a year. It wasn't often cold in the heart of Arizona. He headed downstairs, doing his usual routine; eating bran flakes, hanging out, then leaving to catch the school bus. He took the same turns as he always did, going to the bus stop as he did every school day. There was only one difference.
Lucy.
Isaac tried his best not to think about her as he walked inside the building, where he guessed all of his other friends were. It had a heater, but never air conditioning. It was something he resented about the it.
The day went along normally. No one seemed directly affected by the the death of Lucy, although school seemed a bit less fun than before. People seemed to be just a subtle bit more solemn to Isaac. Maybe it was just his brain playing tricks on him.
English was once again interesting. The teacher assigned the same assignments, but it was Andre that Isaac was interested in. He decided to see what would happen. As he predicted, during vocabulary work, Andre tapped his soldier, and he seemed a lot more nervous and sweaty than last time. His hands shook as he spoke.
"Lucy's death wasn't a coincidence to me. My calculations were correct. I can't say much, but I do know that you need to go inside the school tomorrow."
Isaac decided to listen to Andre this time. The next day he went inside the school, and it made sense. It was freezing again. He was sitting by himself, (his three other friends all got e-coli from a small dinner), so he had little to do but tittle his thumbs, think, do homework, and play on his phone. It was actually quite enjoyable to him.
Just as he opened a game on his phone, a buzzer sounded overhead. It was the fire alarm. Isaac was about to go through the front door, but just as he approached it a pile of debris fell from overhead. He went around for the back door, but the same thing happened. He knew exactly what this was.
Isaac ran into the janitors closet, and immediately searched around for a screwdriver. He couldn't remember where it had been in his nightmare. The fire raged ever closer as he grabbed it, immediately placing it on the screws, unscrewing the threads. The door opened again, and teachers and students burst through. He still pressed on, and the same thing happened as earlier. He unscrewed the second cover, and was forced through it. He smelled the aroma of burning flesh again, the shrieks and screams from dying children haunting him. He dialed 911 again, and he took one last look at the burning building. Suddenly, he realized something very important.
Andre had told him to go into the building.