Chapter 5: Bitter Losses

Jake laid upon his neatly made bed, his eyes staring at the dull, white ceiling. Whilst Nick sat on a chair beside Jake.

Several moments of silence passed between them. The silence was then broken by Jake.

"So, what exactly happened?"

Jake asked his tone one of concern and confusion.

"Well, errm, Basically…."

Nick hesitantly tried to formulate a sentence but appeared not able to do so. The effort could be seen of the twitching of his thumbs.

"Did you get into another fight?"

Jake asked his tone calm like that of his facial expression.

"Yea, but you know, it was Tho-"

'Bang!'

Just as Nick was about to the say a name, he was interrupted by a loud sound that had come from one of the neighbouring houses. Jake jumped out of his bed and dashed down the stairs skipping a few stairs, his knees absorbing the impact of the fall. Although slightly unbalanced he continued to run towards the front door. However, his mother had already beat him to it, she flung the door open and stepped outside only to be met with a mouthful of soot and smoke. Jake also observed this scene, violently squinting his eyes in a desperate attempt to try and make out the details of the scene before him.

"Christ! No! That's Teresa's house!"

Jake's mother screamed in distraught and shock. Jake regarded Teresa like an auntie she was close friends with his mother and was always hospitable and kind towards their family. He used his arm to cover his mouth and nose and began to run into the heavily dense soot filled air.

"Come back here, Jake!"

His mother screamed behind him. She tried to reach out and grab him, but ended up bursting into a frenzy of coughs, Jake ignoring his mother's command ran towards the direction of the house, soot and dust beginning to enter his eyes, forcing tears to roll down his cheeks. Piles of bricks were now before him, the house in complete ruins. Jake looked left and right to try and find a body or some sign of life. Nothing. In his heart he wanted to believe that maybe, maybe, no one was in the house, but he knew that Teresa would always spend her afternoons indoors. Then it hit him, a smell like that of burnt meat…