Serenity Falls
Authors: Tiffany Aleman,Ashley Poch
A Novel
by Tiffany Aleman and Ashley Poch
Serenity Falls
Copyright © 2013 Tiffany Aleman & Ashley Poch
ISBN:
(eBook)
All rights
reserved. This book is not to be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any manner
without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and for review purposes.
This e-book is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away
to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,
please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.
The characters
and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any resemblances to actual
events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, are entirely
coincidental.
Edited by Katie
Mac (Katie Mac Editing)
Cover design by
Sarah Hansen (Okay Creations)
Formatted by
Tami Norman (Integrity Formatting)
“Kenleigh,
wake up, Honey.” The desperation in my father’s voice next to my ear startles
me awake. My eyes snap open. Black marks cover his handsome face, and his chest
heaves up and down as if he’s just run a marathon. To see the normally strong
man that I know completely paralyzed by fear is such an odd sight. Grasping my
hand, he pulls me out of the bed, saying, “Stay low to the ground.”
On
my hands and knees, I can see the flicker of an orange glow from the crack
beneath my bedroom door. “Daddy, what’s going on?” Panic begins to take over. I
know I need to move, but fear has me frozen in place. Tears well up in my eyes
as my room fills with a thick, black cloud of smoke.
Our house is on fire.
As
he slithers across the floor in a low, army crawl, my father looks back over
his shoulder, coughs from the smoke, and yells above the blaring fire alarm.
“Kenleigh! You need to hurry up! Follow me.”
“Daddy,
I can’t. I’m scared.” My voice cracks from the horror that is now my reality.
Tears glide down my face. I know we can’t make it down the stairs because of
the flames outside my door, but I can’t stop wondering what will happen if we
can’t get out the window.
“I
know you’re scared, but I promise I’m going to get you out of here.” My father
tries to keep his voice calm so that I won’t panic any more than I already
have. Jumping to his feet, he yanks me off the floor by my arm, throws me over
his shoulder, and runs toward the bay window in my room. “Lift up the back of
my shirt and put it over your face, Honey. Try not to breathe in the smoke,” he
says through a heavy cough. I watch through the small gap between his arm and
his body as his shaky hands unlock the window in my room. When he pushes it
open, thick plumes of smoke travel in the direction of the outside, seeking its
escape.
After
dropping me to my feet, he grabs onto my shoulders and between deep coughs
says, “We’re going to have to climb down.” Shoving the windows open wider, he
looks out, craning his neck in different directions. I know he’s trying to
gauge the best way to get down. He grabs my hand and pulls me toward the
window. Because heights terrify me, I dig my heels into the carpet to keep him
from pulling me to my death. “Damn it, Kenleigh! We don’t have time for this.
We have to get out now!” He shouts over the ear-piercing screech of the smoke
detectors.
As
he snatches me and places me in front of him, he looks me in the eyes. “You’re
going to have to climb down the gutter, okay?”
“I
can’t… I can’t do it. What if I fall? Where’s Mom? I need Mom!” I scream,
shaking my head adamantly.
“She’s
already down there waiting for us. Now, please, Kenleigh, we have to go. I’ll
be right behind you.” I watch as my father’s tears leave trails through the
black marks on his face as he begs me to do what he told me.
“Okay,”
I whisper. Edging my way closer to the windowsill, my dad holds me around the
waist. I lean out the window, grabbing onto the rain gutter that trails down
the side of our summer lake house.
“Put
your feet right there on the brackets. Good, just like that, Kenleigh.” He
reassures me as he lets me go. “Now go ahead and start climbing down. I have to
wait until you’re at least halfway down before I can climb out.”
I
take a deep breath. I can do this. I
have
to do this. Slowly, I start
sliding down the gutter when a loud pop startles me. Looking up, I see my dad making
his way down, too. The gutter loosens beneath my grip as the brackets jerk, one
by one, from the siding, and another loud pop sounds out in the night.
Quickening my pace, I jump the last couple of feet down, land with a thud, and
fall back on my behind.
Before
I have time to move, I’m lifted off the ground, only to find myself slung over
my dad’s shoulder again. The movement of my father sprinting across our front
yard bounces my head against his back, and a sigh of relief escapes when I
realize that we are all okay. As he places me on my feet, I hear the loud
sirens of the fire trucks and ambulances just as my father screams, “FUCK!”
“What
is it, Dad?” I look around to see what has made him react this way.
My
father doesn’t swear much, but when he does, you know that something is
seriously wrong. When he cups my cheeks in his hands, I see the fear etched all
over his face. “Stay right here, Kenleigh. I have to go back in and get your
mom.” He looks back over his shoulder toward our smoldering home. “I guess she
ran in when she realized it was taking us too long,” he coughs out as he turns
back to me.
My
eyes widen in shock. “Daddy? No, you can’t be serious. You can’t go back in
there.” My voice shakes as my body trembles. I see our house. Flames shoot out
in all directions. The siding is melting. Parts of the rough have begun to cave
in.
“I
have to. I have to go get your mother.” He leans down to kiss my forehead. “I
love you, Kenleigh. Never forget that.” With that last word, he turns away from
me and races back toward our house.
I
don’t want to believe what I’m thinking, but I could hear it in his voice when
he said he loved me. It’s as if he knew it would be the last time he ever said
it. Frozen in shock, I watch as his white T-shirt billows around his body from
the speed he’s running. The collar of his shirt now covers his nose and his
hands wave back and forth in an attempt to clear the smoke from in front of his
face. After one last, loving glance at me, he turns and enters a house I’m sure
he will never walk out of.
Finally
snapping out of my haze, I lurch forward to follow him, but strong arms capture
me around my waist to hold me back. “NO, DADDY! DON’T GO! PLEASE! DADDY, PLEASE!
COME BACK! LET GO OF ME! LET ME GO!” I scream at the top of my lungs as my body
shakes violently from gut-wrenching sobs. My fingers try to pry away the hands
from around my waist. Fighting a fight I won’t win, my body goes limp. I stand
there, helpless, as seconds turn into minutes, waiting for my parents to emerge
from the inferno that is consuming the lake house we vacation at every summer.
The
one thing that no one ever thinks will happen is happening to me. Plumes of
smoke billow out of the shattered windows as the flames dance across what is
left of the roof. Firefighters exhaust all efforts to put out the blaze, but it
is no use—I am twelve years old and just watched my parents die.
My
aunt finds me on my bed, a picture of my parents clutched tightly to my chest. It’s
been five days and the emptiness of my parents loss continues to grow. Stabbing
pain shoots through my heart every time I look at the happy family I no longer
have. I voice the one question that I don’t want to ask.
“Am
I going to have to move?” I ask around the lump that seems to stay in my throat
these days. Tears fall like raindrops onto my knees as I wait for my aunt to
answer me.
I
don’t want to leave my home in Conroe, Texas. It’s the last thing I have left
of my parents. So many happy memories live here for me. Thankfully, my Aunt
Brenda, my mom’s younger sister by two years, has been staying with me the past
few days. Kneeling in front of me, she envelops me in a hug. In a pained
whisper, she says, “No, Honey, you’re not going to have to move. We’re going to
live right here in your house, and you’ll still get to go to your school. I’m
going to be the one taking care of you now, but nothing else will have to
change for you.”
As
I hug her back, I cry just as hard as I did the night that I watched my parents
die.
“I
miss them so much.” I’m broken by the pain as loss spears straight through to
my heart.
“I
know, Baby Girl. I do, too, but we’re going to get through this,” she whispers,
wiping back my bangs that seem glued to my tear stained face. I stare back into
her sorrow-filled eyes. “We need to go now, though, okay?”
I
can’t speak, so I nod instead. I don’t want to go to the funeral home. I don’t
want any of this. I want everything to go back to normal. I want my parents
back.
My
movements are emotionless. I’m numb to the core as tears of sorrow, loss, and
longing stream down my face. My lower lip trembles as I stand here and look at
the two closed caskets that sit side-by-side. I know they’re never coming back,
but I can’t accept it—not yet, anyway.
As
I rest a hand on each of their caskets, gruesome images of everything that
happened the night of the fire flash before me. If we hadn’t been so far out in
the country, maybe the fire trucks could have gotten there sooner. Maybe if
more neighbors had been paying attention, there would’ve been more people to
keep my mom and dad from going back in that house. Maybe if I had done what
Daddy told me, they would still be here—alive.
A
soft touch pulls my wandering mind back, and I look up to my grief-stricken
aunt who’s gently rubbing my shoulder. I know she’s saying something. I can see
her lips moving, but I can’t hear her words. I shake my head, trying not to
think of the what-ifs, and catch the tail end of what she’s trying to say.
“Kenleigh. Kenleigh, Honey, we have to go now. We have to go to the cemetery.”
Unable
to speak, I nod, and as I look back at the caskets, I realize that this will be
the last time I will ever see my parents. Slowly, I lean over, place a kiss on
each casket, and brokenly whisper, “I’m going to miss you so much. I love you.”