In a split second, the haze from her semi-conscious mind pulls away, allowing her to see that this is not a dream. The tiny cottage is engulfed in flames. Aramei flies out of bed, tossing her worn cotton blanket onto the floor on her way across the smoke-filled room. She bursts through the bedroom door and out into the short hallway to see the flames spreading fast in the front room, crawling and licking their way up along the walls and consuming the four wooden beams holding the roof overhead.She chokes on the smoke filling her lungs and pushes her way toward Filipa’s room with one hand covering her mouth and nose, though it does little good to shield her face from the thick, suffocating smoke. A loud pop resonates through the space and just as Aramei passes the threshold and makes it into Filipa’s room one of the beams holding the roof comes crashing down, collapsing the entire back section of the cottage.There is no other way out now except through the window in Filipa’s bedroom.“Filipa!”
