The Frozen Hell

 ***

It was a beautiful morning. Rosa woke up as usual and started her day with a cup of morning coffe while listening to her daily news channel. But today something was off, her usually playfull dog Bruno, had became lathargic and bit inactive. 

She thought "that's weird..."

But her thoughts were interrupted by her brother's morning loud heavy metal ritual. 

"I am tired of this boy ruining my morning" she shouted as she stormed to her brother's room only to find it empty. 

"I seriously need to rest, maybe" as she does her routine chores. Luke comes along with Zai and informs her about the movie they were going and asks if she would like to come along. Rosa refuses. Thus making a sullen face Luke and Zai leaves and before going Zai waves Rosa goodbye and tell her they'll be home before dinner. Rosa smiled warmly and told them both to have fun.

**

Rosa was now alone and she did what she best did, nothing. She spent whole day doing nothing. It was time of dawn when she finally gathered enough willpower to go and water the plants in her backyard. As Rosa was watering a rose, she zoned out and now was lost in her own thoughts. 

It was a memory of a past when she was 8 years old. The crampy and dark room in which she spent her childhood was now burning a colour of bright red as she stood in the middle of this heat wave, a sudden gust of cool wind envelopes her entire body and before she knew it, she was outside being carried by a stranger she never saw. As she recalls the word said by that stranger, Rosa felt an intense heat and just as she was about to turn around, her vision blurred, her senses grew numb and just before blacking out she saw a dark figure in the intense glow of fire behind and as she passed out she whispered..

***

"ROSA" Luke screamed as he searched for Rosa in this wide shelter. I asked townfolks and emergency servicemen about Rosa. Even though we were just a small community, nobody had seen Rosa, even before the wildfire. I thought it was suspicious. Rosa, who greets literally everyone in the whole town during her entire day was seen by no one, even before the wildfire. Suddenly, I hear loud blast sound at the northern side of the shelter. At first it was the sound of explosion followed by dead silence as if there was nobody present in the shelter. It was a blood curdling scream that suddenly awoke the panic and in an instant heads popped, people burst like bubbles and finally everyone scattered like insects. I try to find Luke in this chaos but I hear his scream from the epicenter of this chaos and shivers went down my spine as I see a figure, seemingly of Rosa holding Luka by his throat.