Nightmare on F Street
Currently feeling: Sad
Listening to: Hari ng Sablay by Sugarfree

Past three in the morning today, I have been asleep for only about two hours when I felt my sister tug my foot and say, "Ate! Ate!" Still half asleep, I got to my senses and heard a loud wailing sound. I thought, in a split second, that maybe my sis got scared from whatever was the source of the sound. I opened my eyes and saw my sister pointing outside our bedroom window. My bed being adjacent to the window, I sat up and turned a hundred and eighty degrees.

I initially saw an orange sky and clouds. After another split second, I realized there were huge flames. "Ah, shit!," was the first thing I said. The fire was more like a block and half away from our house, but the view from our window makes it seem like it's just three houses away. I have never, in my life, seen and watched fire this big and this close.

I sat frozen, hugging a big pillow, staring at the fire. You can tell I was so scared. I think I did not blink for minutes. More firetrucks kept passing by our house as I sat there feeling so helpless. My dad ran off already to help out. I heard people yelling outside to warn pedestrians of the rushing trucks. I saw our neighbors get out on their balconies to see how far away the fire was. Or rather, how near. But still, my eyes focused on the billowing clouds of smoke and the terrifying huge flames. Smoke seemed to me like the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bomb mushroom cloud, only this time they were more like button mushrooms than umbrella ones. And they're many. I was observing wind direction; I was observing everything.

In my mind, a lot things are running through. I silently prayed for the fire not to spread towards our house; I prayed for the victims, firemen and fire volunteers. I actually thought about what I'm gonna take with me in case we needed to evacuate if our house is on fire: our birth certificates, passports, diplomas, other important documents and identification, jewelry which can be as good as cash, cash of course, and maybe a few photos lying around. I thought about whether I knew anybody near the site, luckily I knew nobody.

Thirty minutes into staring, my eyes started to hurt, the fire was out. I felt like crying because of the fear and helplessness plus the adrenalin rush. And for the concern that I felt through the SMS messages that my friends sent me, asking about our home and the family. I feel so bad for the victims, especially that it's just a matter of fifty days or so before Christmas. Anyway, I did not cry. Because it would make my sister cry. (She's psychologically disturbed lately.)

Please pray for the victims of the fire. And as thanksgiving to the fire volunteers, my heroes. Bye for now, I have to go through my clothes to donate some for the less fortunate ones today.