My breathing hitched. My lips parted apart as I continued staring dumbly at the rising smoke spreading widely and tinting the surroundings in ash.

What the hell is going on out there?

If a normal brain could deduce what I was currently looking at, then the answer one would expect was that this was a terrorist attack.

Yet-Yet---

Wh- Why did the radio station make it sound like an apocalypse was taking place?

What the hell is going on?

The fire and the ashy sky were getting closer. In no less than 30 minutes or less, I could already estimate that this building would also be caught among the flames and would be burned to the ground along with anything in it.

Suddenly, I could feel my body snapping out of the trance, and at that moment, the one thing that came to my head... Was the need to get out of here!

And so I ran, faster than my mind could process my next thought, I ran towards the door with uneasiness in my eyes.

Still, my steps halted as soon as I passed the ticking clock and reached the wide closed door. I remembered, that my Father and Mother hasn't yet come back home. Was this the reason why?

My thoughts instantly came to a complete halt. Although I was still getting used to calling them my parents, the sentiments I shared with both of them were within the bonds of familial love.

Damn it!!

There was no time to think about all these things now. The more I stand here the lesser time I could carry this little still-growing flesh and bone to safety.

In a hurry, I grabbed the stool, and skidded it over my rug carpets until I was close to the door as I have done so countless times when trying to climb the books shelves, instantly, I arranged the stool in front of the door, I climbed it, and just when I was about to reach the locks - - - -

"BAMM!!"

They swung open, knocking me off the stool, as I flew back and somersaulted like a child who didn't know left from right. The force which slapped my body was one which I did not expect, and the injury that would give me swollen and arching body pains was one which I was not pleased with.

What kind of fucker door slaps a child across the room?

Huh…. Who was it?

I regained my balance and stood like a beaten boxer who didn't know the word... giving up!!

And just when my eyes were stable enough to gaze upon the figure that had just rushed into my house "Mother".

My lips parted as I stared at the woman dressed in a tattered maid uniform, her hair was untied and flung over her back for the breeze to carry while her face looked as though it had been beaten and battered, horribly.

In short, she looked like a far cry from her former elegant self.

"SIMEON!!" Her warm embrace filled me with comfort. The fact that the world around me was being overturned on its head and there was nothing left to do but to run and hide, the fact that I had someone to ease the feeling of the distress in my heart was, at least comforting.

"Simeon! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Come on! Open your mouth and tell your mother if you are feeling pains anywhere" She spoke with a weeping voice.

Her eyes flickered around my body, searching and trying their best to unearth any kind of harm that I might have been unlucky enough to accumulate.

Thankfully, unlike hers, there were none.

"I'm okay" I responded.

"Okay!! Okay!! Yes. Yes, you look fine" She replied.

Her lungs gasped for breath and her strained voice sounded like that of a traveller looking for an oasis in a desert. She needed water. She needed water quickly or she risked losing her voice for a particular set of time.

"We have to go now! Follow mommy okay!! Mommy will take us to safety"

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to do that because we currently had to run for our lives and hope;e that time was lenient upon our escape.

My body was lifted from the ground, and soon, before I knew what was happening I found myself in her arms. She cradled me like the very first day I escaped her womb, and so, with my body and its safety under new delegation, we ran through the door and for the first time in my new life, I stepped outside my house.

Needless to say, how I expected my first tour outside the comfort of my house wasn't the way I had imagined it.

The fact that I was stepping out of my house for the first under such a circumstance, made me unhinged and made me several times more aware of my surroundings.

I can not die in a horrible way only to die in an equally horrible way! Death was not, will never and shall never be my portion until I have enjoyed everything this new world has to offer!!

"Left!!" I declared, directing my mother as we passed through several garden fields, only to quickly leap to the left and run along our course when we came across a stampede on the other side.

"HAAA..." I breathed out dramatically in relief.

That could have been dangerous. An injured woman with a 3-year-old child in her arms, fighting her way in the midst of a human stampede was a recipe for death....  And that was coming to from someone who died under such a circumstance.

Not good. I opened m...

"BANG!!"

However, it was too late.

Before I could warn my mother about the unsuspecting person in front of her, her body had already clashed with the figure, sending the three of us to fall down consequentially with me flying out of her arms like a volleyball.

Ouch!!

A thick boulder was all it took to stop me from somersaulting any further, however, I couldn't help but grit my teeth and wince in pain as the force was enough to feel as though my arms trying to tear through my gut.

"SIMEON!!" Nonetheless, I could still hear my mother's scream from some meters away.

I heard her footsteps scurrying towards my position, and in a few minutes, I could see her towering figure looking down over me with wet watering eyes.

She picked me up, cradling me back into her arms "Are you, okay baby boy?" She muttered softly against my ears.

Needless, to say that I wasn't. The only reason I wasn't also yet screaming in pain was that I had some unnatural level of tolerance towards pain after being stomped to death, dying, and then reincarnating. 

The only thing I needed now was medical attention, or else, I might risk losing my arms forever. A situation that I wasn't in favour of.

However, we were still in a race for our lives. So without trying to look suspiciously in pain, I answered "Yes, I just got a little scratch".

Translation -I think some part of my flesh was scratched off during my fall.

"Are you sure?" She asked with a somewhat relieved expression on her face and an unreadable stare.

"Yes" I nodded. "But mother will take care of it later".

Translation -No. I think that I am beginning to lose control of my other arm. Let's get out of here and save our lives first and then we can begin to look for medical help.

Her expression regained its ferocity, and I could feel it. The strength in her arms, her legs, and her body as she burst forward after an unknown boon of power corrupted her.

"MARCELINE!!!"

Who the fuck - -  - - What the hell?

'Let's get out of here first mother, please don't look back and keep on running' I screamed in my mind.

However, all my pleas were for nought as my mother instantly halted her steps and looked around for the person who had just called her name.

"Marceline!!"

I could feel every fibre in my eyes twitching. She really stopped to look around... To look around while we ran away for our lives... To look around when your 3-year-old child is still in a very critical condition.

If you want to take a look around, why not set up a fucking tea table and dine in the ensuing chaos and madness!! Surely the bread won't taste like whiskey under the scorching sun or ashy smoke!!!

"Gilda! Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me!!" The woman with short black silky hair, still gasping from the collision, as she tried to regain her bearing replied "I made it out of the kitchen fast enough, before everyone started to run helter-skelter. I also avoided the crowd while running to safety. Luckily enough, I found you here also, running for safety".

Yeah!! Enough with the reunion, can we get going?

My mother sighed in relief and responded" Thank god you are safe. I went home to quickly pick up Simeon first before we made our way to safety".

Please!!!