| abstract | - I am walking down a long aisle in the grocery store — no, more like running. There is a person running after me, screaming my name. I don't turn around because I don't want to learn who they are. "Isabella!" I awake with a start. Emily's terrified face is lit with the glow of the sun coming in through the window. "What's the matter?" I ask, smoothing my hair and putting a bow in it. It's not until I sit up fully and notice the soot marks on her dress. "My house is on fire!" Emily shrieks, and I realize that what I thought was the sun was a blazing fire next door. "Oh my gosh, Isabella, you have to help me!" I leap out of bed and race downstairs. "Mama!" I call. "Help! Please! Emily's house is on fire!" My mother comes clomping down the stairs behind us. The three of us rush outside in the half-darkness. Emily's house looks like the sun fell out of the sky and onto her house. Tear tracks are breaking the grime on Emily's face. She breathes a shuddering sigh and turns to explain the story. "I woke up in the middle of the night because I was having a bad dream. I was dreaming that I was walking on the surface of the sun. When I woke up, I saw flames coming from my dresser — I had left an iron on," she says, the tears coming faster. "Oh my gosh, Isabella, my house is burnt down and it's all my fault!" I give her a hug. "It's going to be okay, Emily." "No," she says, "it's not! There's more... "Ferb was one of the first to spot that my house was on fire. He sprinted out across the street — and — and — oh, Isabella, he went into the house! I think he was trying to save me, but I had already gotten out and I saw him running in, and —" She breaks down, sobbing. "Oh, this is horrible!" "Does anyone else know Ferb's in there?" I gasp. "Yes," chokes Emily, "Phineas knows. He ran in after Ferb, and then my father ran in after the both of them! And then my father came out alone, and — Isabella, we have to save them!" "Yes, we do," I say, taking her sooty hand and charging through the front door of the house. The kitchen is ablaze with fire, as though the fire itself is living. It's feeding off everything inside it, the flames creeping higher and higher. "Phineas!" I scream, my voice cracking as I begin to cry. "Oh, Phineas!" After this, I can't talk much anymore. The smoke smothers me, and I just have this feeling, like, This is the end of my life. We run up the staircase and into Emily's room, which is clearly the worst. Nothing is indistinguishable except for two figures in the smoke... "Phineas!" I try to say, but all that comes out is a bit of a choking sound. I run forward and trip over something, catching the hem of my skirt on fire. I scream and beat it out with my hands. I get up very quickly and see Phineas's triangle-shaped head in the smoke. He sees me and runs toward me. "We have to go!" he cries, his voice cracking. He grabs my hand, his other hand clasped around Ferb's, who is nearly unconscious. Emily heaves him up and we run for our lives down the staircase. I trip on the last, flaming step and fall on my arm. I hear a loud crack and feel the tears come again. But this is no time for crying; we have to get out of here alive! We stagger through the flaming kitchen and sink, weak-kneed, on the grass outside, coughing and sobbing. By this time, the fire department and ambulances have arrived, causing commotion up and down the street. My mom, Mrs. Flynn, and Mrs. Kinney come rushing over. I fall back on the grass. The last thing I remember saying before blacking out is "Phin — ee — as..." The next thing I know, I'm laying in a hospital bed. My arm is throbbing like mad. I go to sit up when a nurse pushes my shoulder back on the pillow. "Easy, hun. You inhaled a lot of smoke." "Isa!" my mother croaks, coming to my bedside and holding my hand. "Oh... Isa..." "She's alright," says another nurse. "When she's ready, she can go get X-rays." "X-rays?" my mother asks. "Yes," says the nurse. "We're almost entirely sure little Isabella here has broken her arm." I see Phineas's eyes in the bed next to mine snap open, and even though I can't see his face, I bet he's thinking, again? "Not now," says my mother. She looks at me. "Right, Isa?" I try to speak, but have no voice anymore. Instead, I just nod. My mother realizes I can't speak and produces a whiteboard with a pink marker. "Here," she says. "I thought you might not have a voice for a while after that ordeal." I take the board, write, Thank you, Mama, I love you on it, and show it to her. She smiles. Eventually, the others wake up. Ferb's green hair is streaked with black soot, and Emily has more soot on her dress than it did when she woke me up. Phineas's eyes are still closed, though, and that worries me slightly. I motion over a nurse and write on the board, Is he okay? "Yes," says the nurse. "He was awake a little while ago; your mother provided whiteboards to everyone, so when his mother asked him for a reason why he went into the burning building, he gave a very detailed explanation. The same with your green-haired friend over there. I think you'll want to hear his story, though; it hasn't been erased." She leans over to Phineas's bed and picks up the whiteboard. On it, in Phineas's neat handwriting, it reads: Why did I go into the burning building? It wasn't just because my step-brother and best friend Ferb was in there, not to mention my new friend from Britain, Emily Kinney; no, I had a feeling Isabella would be in there, and that propelled me to go in there more than anyone else. I did it, not just because I've known Isabella since we were two, but because we have a history. And if that history ended in Isabella dying in a burning building because Prince Phineas wasn't there to save her, I would have survivor's guilt for the rest of my life. And let's face it, that wouldn't exactly be fufilling my princely duties, would it? The message ended there and I looked up at the nurse. Please give my whiteboard to him after I write this, I write, then erase and begin a new message: Phineas, while you were asleep, the nurses showed me your note. And I must say, it was very romantic (here, I put a smiley face). If you're Prince Phineas, does that make me the damsel in distress? Love, Isabella. The nurse puts it on his lap and I drop off into sleep again. When I wake up, there's a whiteboard on my lap with one word written on it: Yes. ♥
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