She was a child again.
She ran with the consciousness of a scared child as the loose belt of her muslin gown flailed behind her.
In terror, Reyona held tightly to the belt for fear of falling over.
She just needed to get to where the light was.
Light means safety.
All she had to do was leave the crippling darkness behind.
Before it caught up to her.
When she mistakenly looked at the glass wall to her left, her terror doubled.
Her terrified hazel eyes seemed too big for her small pixie face.
Her hands and face were covered with soot.
Has it burned her already?
In terror, Reyona touched her hand to her face to see if she would feel the pain of burns.
She tightened her teeth against the sound that wanted to escape her mouth as she kept running.
It must not hear her.
She must keep going.
She just needed to find Grams!
Grams would help her!
Grams would be somewhere in that light she could see from afar.
Grams knew she hated the dark.
Grams would come for her and chase it away with her spatula.
She just needed to keep running.
As if summoned by her thoughts, what she had been running from gained up on her all of a sudden.
A short scream escaped her throat as the flaming dragon roared behind her, and its roar filled the hallway.
Reyona dared not look back for fear that it would snatch her before she got to that light.
If it took her, Grams would worry.
She just had to...
Reyona's feet caught against a solid substance in her path, and she fell.
She fell right on the mass and realised that it was flesh.
Not just any flesh; it was a human.
Grams? Her young heart thumped hard against her rib in the darkness.
Before she could crawl forward to trace the face of the person, the snapping, flaming dragon caught up with her.
The dragon fire illuminated the body on the floor, but Reyona was no longer looking.
Her eyes were on the sinister beast.
She forgot her vow of silence and screamed as it pounced!
Reyona's scream followed her into reality as she awoke in bed, drenched in sweat.
She looked around disorientedly at the sound of the TV.
She looked at her hand, and she could see that she was herself, and it had all been a nasty dream, as she did not even have any soot on her hand.
Yet, some of the things from the dream stayed with her.
Reyona could smell smoke in the air.
Though it was ridiculous, she looked around as if to be sure that there was no flaming dragon in the room.
Nothing.
But even as she was about to relax against the headboard to calm her pounding head, Reyona realised that the sound of a ringing telephone was going on somewhere in the house.
At first, she thought it was her ears that were ringing with the force with which she woke up.
She coughed as she stood up from the bed.
The dream was far too real; the smell of smoke was still very strong in her nostrils.
A step towards the TV had Reyona unconsciously backing away.
Not from the TV but from the door.
There was a brilliance in the hallway beyond the door that was greater than the regular lighting.
She could see it now.
The smoke had not followed her from the dream.
The smoke was right here.
Beyond that door.
Reyona walked briskly towards the door and jerked it open.
A cough wracked her body as oppressing heat and smoke blasted her.
Her house was on fire.
How?
The path that led to the main part and the front door of the house was blazing.
Reyona could hear a crash from somewhere in the house even as she stepped out.
She had no idea why the fire sprinklers had not worked.
The fire was still a bit far from where Reyona was, but it was fast approaching.
The smoke got to her first.
Reyon knew she could die in that fire if she did not act fast.
To get to the front door would mean going through the blaze she was seeing in that direction.
The incessant ringing has stopped now.
Reyona quickly ran to the laundry room close to the guest room and went straight to the washing machine section.
She pulled at the hose as another fit of cough racked her body.
The smoke was getting thicker now.
She momentarily calmed herself to unscrew the hose from the hose bib of the water supply.
Water from the hose drenched her as she finally pulled it out.
The momentary oxygen from the water helped to calm her burning throat a bit as she fully soaked her body.
Then she pulled up the curled-up pipe and placed it on the washing machine.
As she ran out of the room, the water from the hose was steadily soaking up the room.
Reyona ran to the bathroom; she quickly turned on all the faucets, shower, and all.
She looked around desperately for what to use to clog the drain so that the water wouldn't just uselessly go down the drain.
Her heart thumped madly as she heard the sound of something else crashing in the house.
Then she could hear other sounds outside the house.
She desperately pulled down all the towels around and pulled them over the drains in the tubs, sink, and shower, hoping it would make a difference.
When she ran back into the room, she could see that the fire was getting closer.
The air was getting thicker with smoke too, and the relief she got from the oxygen in the water was like it was never there.
Reyona could hear more urgent noise from outside just as she heard car doors open and close.
"The firemen must be here," she thought a bit groggily as she set out to do what she had not allowed herself to think much about.
Something told her they might not get to her fast enough.
Reyona had never been one to wait around for others to save her anyway, and she was not about to start now when it was a matter of life and death.
So, she didn't think much of what had come to her mind when she was opening the taps.
The guest room's window faced the back of the house.
Hoping that she was not about to make the worst mistake of her life, Reyona picked up the armchair close to the bed.
She bent her head towards her wet shirt to inhale any form of oxygen she could get.
Then, with all the energy she had left, Reyona smashed the armchair against the window.
She did not stop until all the splinters were all gone and the gaping hole brought with it some fresh air.
Reyona quickly pulled the sheets off the bed and wrapped them around her feet individually.
The sounds of roaring fire catching up with her in the corridor, just as the flaming dragon had, made her climb the ledge without hesitation.
The fact that it was two stories down didn't stop her determination.
With the thought that anything was better than being burned to death, she was willing to take the risk.
Tucking her body in, as she had once learned in a survival clip she had come across, Reyona launched herself into the unforgiving night!