"Yara, get out of here!" Jeremy screamed through thick, billowing smoke though I wasn't sure how he managed it. 

Shaking my head, albeit he couldn't see me, I yelled back. "I told you, we're in this together!"

When my lungs filled with both dust, smoke and dirt, my body seized and fell into a fit of coughs. Even once I managed to catch my breath, Jeremy still hadn't given me an answer. My heart felt like it stopped. Panic sizzled through my blood making adrenaline move through my system in a coldness that ran down to my bones. 

I pushed myself to run past the rubble, dodging as much debris that I could flying through the air. 

I balanced myself out on whatever structure I managed to grab, trying to concentrate on my senses. Another explosion erupted only meters away, a sharp sound piercing my eardrums. White light blinded my vision and the force it ripped the ground away from beneath my feet. It sent me soaring across what used to be our living room. 

So much to relying on my senses.

Coughing, I tried to ignore every painful impulse immobilizing my limbs from moving. The floors, that couldn't be called proper paneling anymore because they were in pieces all over the place, vibrated fiercely. 

My head throbbed and a force stronger than anything I'd ever felt enabled me to get back on my feet. I half jogged, half sprinted through the archway connecting the living room to the hallway. The stairs to the second floor were destroyed, and the roof above my head was going to come crashing down on me with the next bomb.

I needed to hurry.

Jeremy had to be somewhere back here. His scream had come from the bathroom. He must have tried to use the confines of the bathtub to shield himself from the splinters of wood and glass soaring through the air. My breaths were rugged and my head was spinning, making my surroundings blur in and out of focus. 

"Jeremy, where are you?"

I could make out a muffled groan, though the ringing in my ears was too loud for me to pinpoint where he was, exactly. I made my way to the bathroom, my original assumption. When I got there, all that was left of it was rubble. Shards of the ceramic tub lay scattered around, along with the golden door handle just centimeters from my feet.

Looking at the destruction, I felt a strange and overwhelming sense of loss. 

The Taiits, a political party of Ior'Gea, had been announcing these attacks for months.

And still all of us had managed to be blindsided. The stubborn pride with which my parents led our lives hadn't been helpful. On the contrary. We moved to this politically unstable region years ago, and remaining here when matters had escalated caused an even greater rift between my parents and I. Espheros was vast, and Espherian countries even more so.

 We could have gone anywhere after leaving the west, where Jeremy and I had spent most of our childhood.

Thinking of our fights now, when the bathtub had still stood against the wall and our roof had remained stable above our heads...

I should've done more.

Squeezing my eyes shut and balling my hands into fists, I tried not to let resentment cloud my mind. I needed it sharp and ready, especially now that the ringing was finally quieting to an irritating tinnitus.

"Jeremy!" I yelled out again. 

It was difficult standing upright when the ground continuously shook so fiercely that all I wanted to do was get out of this house and curl up into a ball someplace safe.

"I'm here, where the study... was."

Irritated first and insanely afraid a split second later, I realized that meant he was in the second floor.

I can't reach the second floor.

"The left wing has already collapsed and I'm stuck here. You need to walk around, on the outside, to get to me. Don't you dare use those stairs!" 

A cough followed and I didn't hesitate to follow Jeremy's instructions to walk around the house, regardless of the dangers in the streets. 

There were Taiits marching through countless neighborhoods, finishing off anyone their explosives hadn't taken care of.

Going out was even riskier than remaining within the few walls still standing. Caked in debris and surrounded by smoke, my surroundings gave me enough cover that I couldn't be spotted right away. 

Walking in the streets... Would be even more dangerous.

Making my way through shredded wood, which were mostly doors, parts of the walls and furniture, I tried carefully to move efficiently. My body was working hard to keep my mind focused and everything functioning. I couldn't afford more pain to subdue should I misstep and hurt myself more than I already was. 

I heard another alarming cracking sound, announcing that wood was being torn apart by gravity.

With my blood running cold, I increased my pace and managed to step across the threshold from where our front door used to be just in time for another part of the second floor to come screeching down. The jade tapestries of what used to be my room mixed with the remnants of our home.

Circling around the house, I stayed as close as I could to those structures that were still holding up part of the upstairs. I remained out of sight. 

I barely looked out across the streets, fear and a compelling sense of survival didn't allow it. All that mattered was getting to Jeremy.

And when I did, my heart dropped and my body went rigid.

We should have never moved to Ior'Gea.