My skin hadn't faired much better than my clothes. What wasn't red and swollen, was blistered and what wasn't blistered, was blackened. The blackening my skin was caused by either soot or from the fire turning my skin extra crispy. The later being an idea I wasn't very much a fan of.

     Considering how bad my burns were, it was a miracle I was still alive, let a lone being still able to move. Everything hurt, except for my feet for some odd reason. I looked down and immediately regretted it. They both had become blackened, gory messes at the ends of my legs and I found myself thankful I could no longer feel them.

     Feeling tired and exhausted from my recent ordeal, I leaned against the mirror to take brief moment to rest and collect myself. The cool surface of the mirror felt good on my burns and I just stood there for a while to soak it in. While I was resting, I tried to remember how I had gotten here. 

     Before all of this, my life had been so normal and routine the days had sort of blurred together in my memories. I couldn't even remember what I had been doing before things got truly blurry. All I could remember was bits and pieces of the chaos leading up to me being surrounded by flames.

     Flashes came to me as I thought. In my mind's eye I saw scenes of people running and screaming, of children crying, adults praying, and of buildings burning. All of which was over shadowed by a feeling of absolute helplessness flowing through me. Something very bad had happened. Something so big and terrible those few fragments were all I could remember and I felt even those were only faint echoes of what had really happened.

     The feeling of helplessness returned to me as a thought occurred to me. Were those burning buildings my home? Were the people I saw my family, friends, and neighbors? If they were, could they be....?

     "No!" I said to the mirror, pushing the thought aside and pounding the side of my fist against it. "I refuse to believe it. I will protect them. I promise I would. I don't know if anyone can hear me but somebody -- anybody -- please HELP ME SAVE THEM!"  

     In that moment, time seemed to stop at the sound of my voice. Everything went silent and still too. I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against the mirror while I waited for and answer. I'm sure if what came next was the answer I was looking for but it was one none the less.

     A soft voice pierced the silence.

     "I will help you it said," it said. "But there is a price to be paid for it."

     I open my eyes and lifted my head off of the mirror to look for the source of the voice. When I did, something in the mirror caught my eye. It appeared to be the reflection of a smoky figure standing be hind me.

     I push myself back from the mirror and looked behind myself to where the figure should have been standing. All I saw was fire and burning debris. It was then I noticed the area where I was standing was an island of calm in the inferno raging around me.