My father would often tell me about a fire that happened before I was born. He has long, bright burn marks from the fire. It gets annoying how much I hear about it, but I understand why he talked about it so much, at least, I do now.  Another fire happened recently. It was exactly like the one before. How do I know? You may ask. Well, I can tell you it's not from my father’s stories. It's from what I saw.
     You see, it was just a normal day. I was heading home when I saw a fire at a small yet ornate barn. It seemed like a tiny fire at the time. Barely making smoke. I charged in. I tried letting horses out, cows, sheep. I didn't know any of them because it wasn't my barn. The fire grew and grew. I tried to slow it down but my efforts useless. It was then I saw a familiar face. A fuzzy, red and white, bear of a dog. It was Beast, my Australian Shepherd.  A trail of fire danced between me and him. I took a few steps back and then ran towards the hungry flames. I felt like fire was a monster, waiting to snap me up as I ran past. At the last second, I leaped through the air. The inferno grasped at my feet, but I was just out of reach. I crashed onto the floor. I looked back at the fire and the burning sight filled my eyes. All I could see was the blaze. Smoke filled my lungs and tore my chest apart. White edged into the border of my vision. A thought flicked through my mind. Aren’t I supposed to see black before I pass out? But soon all I could see was white, and when I woke up, the world was different.
I was still in the barn. It was still on fire. I was still trapped. The difference was what was inside the barn. It had a completely new interior and all the animals were still in their stalls. Wait… these weren’t the same animals. Flames roared around me, but somehow I was able to make out a figure bursting into the barn. They moved from stall to stall, letting out the animals just as I had done. I realized the person looked familiar. They looked me in the eyes and I knew who it was. The mysterious form was my father, and I was in the past. My head spun. How had this happened? Did my father recognize me? How would I being here affect the timeline? If I died here, would I be dead in the future too? A thousand questions buzzed in my head. My father stared at me. It was that do I know you? Kind of stare. He shook his head to snap out of it. I was in a daze. Thoughts still swirled in my head, but it was slow and lazy. I couldn’t register that I needed to act.
“Get out of here!” My father yelled. The fire seemed to morph into a living thing. I almost heard it laugh. It leaped at my father. He bounced backward. “GET OUT!” He yelled. The fire swirled around him and I noticed a woman. Looking at her I realized something. She was part of the flames. 
“Do you know why I brought you here?” She rasped. I scrambled back in terror. “No? It was so you could watch. Watch… and distract.” This thing radiated malevolence as it spoke. Something in my mind clicked. I was watching her burn my father. I was distracting him so she could do more than hurt him. What happened here would completely alter my life. I couldn’t help but think of every good memory I’ve had with my father. I slowly stood up. Fire danced around me, keeping me in this little area by the wall. I looked back at the shabby, charred slab of wood trying to hold the ceiling up with three other similar walls. If I could burst through the wall, it should only make a hole. The barn would stay standing even with one of the walls damaged. I closed my eyes and covered my face with my arms. I gradually moved backward until my legs could barely stand the heat. I ran forward as fast as I could. I could hear my father fighting the fire monster thing. I crashed through the weak wall and the wood ripped at my skin. I barely felt the hundreds of splinters covering my body. I opened my eyes and lowered my arms, wincing. After looking around, I saw a bunch of buckets stacked up. This triggered an idea. The owner of the barn has to give the animals water, so there must be a water source around! I snatched a bucket and searched around. Every step was rushed. A second was a minute, and a minute was an hour. I started to grow panicked after the first minute. Soon, I found a small pond and I quickly filled the bucket. I grabbed a piece of wood and held it over the bucket, so I could run back to the blazing barn without spilling any water. I came inside just to see the fire thing about to strike my father as he scrambled to get up. I threw the bucket with all my force. The wooden top came flying off and the water poured onto the flame lady. She screeched as she dissolved into water vapor. In a matter of seconds, I was transported to a beautiful barn with red walls that had swirling white paint making designs all over them. I realized that I was back in my time, but the fire hadn’t happened. All the animals were still there and- OOF! Beast barreled into me and knocked me down. He began to drown me with kisses and love. I laughed, forgetting all the questions that needed answering. Those questions will be answered another time. For now, I have to deal with Beast.