I had never known fear until I watched those cruel orange flames lick my house, crackling like evil demons. It was almost midnight, my family was getting ready to go to bed. I was in my room reading a book, online. It was just the typical night time routine that my family was engrossed in.

As my father turned off the last light in the lounge, our house plunged into complete darkness. Just then, we heard yells from outside. I rushed out of my room, smelling something burning in the air.

Panic gripped us. We ran about the house in a state of frenzy, trying to see what the noise was all about.

The scene I saw before me turned my insides into jelly and my heartbeat louder than a musical beat in a concert. I was paralysed with fear.

The rising scream almost tore throughout my body, but was suppressed because I was too scared even to breathe.

There was fire at the back of the house, so we moved towards the front and quickly made our way out through the front door. My father went towards the back to see what was happening.

My father soon realised that the fire brigade was going to take a long time so there was no sense in waiting for it. Something had to be done before that. The watchman had scooped up sand in the gardener’s barrel and was busy throwing it over the fire to put it out. With the help of our neighbours, we were able to extinguish the fire in less than an hour.

We had managed to save half of the house and keep the damage minimal. The situation could have been much worse, but fortunately, we had been saved. The fire brigade arrived after an hour, and they were happy to see their work already done by others. They turned their orange truck around and drove off without a hint of guilt.

The next day, my father informed that our generator had caught fire because the hot water geyser beside it had been turned on. The petrol in the generator and the flame in the geyser together had caused the deadly fire.

Before this incident, I thought I had known what fear was, what it felt to be frightened, but I was wrong. I had known the thrill and the rush of adrenaline on amusement park rides. I had worried about my assessments. All those emotions I had previously considered as fear were not fear at all, because fear is when you watch your shelter being consumed by flames when you see all the memories held within those walls turn to ashes.

Fear is when you watch your inner self burn. It was something I had never experienced in my life. I hope I would never have to experience it again.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 18th, 2020