I like how this turned out tbh,, but just a *warning* that this is kind of intense and involves a burning building and someone being saved from it by the dude who set the building on fire so,, if you don't like kind of intense scenes like that then don't read,,, otherwise it's not awful,, only like a minor injury n stuff but no one died/was severely injured Sitting on a small chair in the dimly lit living room, Liam stared tiredly down at the book in his hands. Reading wasn’t terribly interesting for him, but it definitely kept him occupied whenever he couldn’t do anything else...especially late at night after Skilar was asleep. That night, though, Skilar woke up and went into the living room to see Liam calmly reading. Walking over to his older brother, he spoke in a shaky, frightened voice: “Liam?” Looking up, Liam forced himself to smile, even though he felt almost ready to faint. “Sky, what’re you doing up so late?” “I had a nightmare…” Skilar mumbled, his voice hardly audible as he clambered into Liam’s lap and leaned against him. “You...did?” Liam whispered back, gently hugging Skilar. “There were monsters-” Skilar hid himself in Liam’s arms, “and they chased me-” “They did?” He pulled Skilar closer, trying to find the right thing to say before finally speaking again: “Well...the nightmare’s over now, and it’s safe to go back to bed-” “But I’m not tired-” Liam couldn’t help but sigh at this. “Well, you will be tomorrow-” “Can’t I just stay up a few more minutes?” Skilar whined, looking up at Liam before glancing around. “I...guess that you could-” Liam nodded slightly, “But not for too long, okay?” “...okay…” Skilar stopped looking around as he noticed a large scar on Liam’s arm-one that’d been there for years but Skilar just hadn’t noticed. “What’s this from?” He pointed to the scar. Liam glanced down, immediately knowing exactly what it was from...but did he want to tell Skilar? What if he scared him? . Liam ran into the yard, away from the burning house just in time to see a young woman standing just outside, looking terribly panicked. That fire had blocked someone inside, someone who wasn’t the hunter. I warned them! I told them to stay away! They knew better than to stay in the house...who’s stranded? And then it hit him. There’s a child in there. A kid trapped in a fire that I started, and it’s my fault...that woman didn’t know that I’d be the one to start the fire, right? I made it seem like the hunter… But I have to fix this. Running towards the house once again, he soon found that...nothing could be opened. No door, no window… Taking a hammer from his bag, he ran up to the nearest window and began to break it open. As it shattered, he clambered into the house and began to sprint through the flames, smoke burning his eyes as he did. “KID?!” He shouted, his voice cracking some as a shiver went down his spine. He got a terrified scream in response, and immediately ran towards it-into a small bedroom, where a little girl was backed into a corner, a few stuffed animals in her arms. Without hesitation, he ran over to her. “I’m gonna get you out of here, ok?” He whispered desperately. She only nodded in response, but before he could do anything she handed him the stuffed animals. “Can you keep them safe?” (cont)
Caught off guard for a moment, he finally forced himself to nod and put them into his bag before picking her up and running for the window. As he ran, smoldering flakes of paint and drywall fell...and then a huge chunk of the ceiling fell, hitting his arm and causing him to cry out in pain...but he kept running until he finally reached the window and could escape. Finally he was outside, and could set the child down. She’s safe...I just need to get out of here before her dad comes back- The child’s mother walked over, looking surprised, scared, and relieved at the same time. Picking up her daughter, she shivered. “Thank...thank you-” She breathed, “I...it wasn’t a good idea for us to come back and we knew it...but we came to collect some extra things and-” “At least you’re okay…” he mumbled, “But do you two have anywhere to live?” “Yes-we’ve moved in to a new apartment and we just came back for some other things-and then the house caught fire-” Nodding, Liam sighed. “I...need to go. And you two should too, because if your husband comes back and sees either of us I think he’ll realize just how this fire was set and who knew about it-and I’m sure violence would be his first option.” She nodded back as Liam gave the child her stuffed animals back. Hugging him, the little girl thanked him before she and her mother walked off. Almost immediately Liam was running back towards his house. . Liam knew that the memory behind the scar would hit him, and he knew that Skilar would eventually ask about it. He just didn’t know how to answer-it was several minutes before he finally mumbled a response: “I...saved someone from a fire.” Skilar’s eyes widened in excitement as Liam told him the story. I want to make this into a short comic but idk if motivation will allow that
