Moran Duke, at age 15 was perfectly capable of watching his younger stepsister, Annie Beth, overnight while his parents went out for a drink. But what Moran did not know was that he wasn't prepared for the horrors of that night and days after. In fact, nobody could have been prepared for their lives to be divided by poor and rich, and have everything taken away or burned to the ground.

Moran

Moran was reading a book by candlelight when an obnoxious knock sounded at the door. Who could it be of this late of night? Moran wondered this as he set the book down and carried the candle on the tray with him as he reached for the door handle. He hesitated for a moment. Another knock, this one more disturbing. The light from the candle seemed to flicker in annoyance as it's wax dripped on it's tray. Moran pulled open the door, possibly expecting yet doubting his parents' early arrival.

An elderly man stood there, on the porch, with a frantic expression on his face and wild eyes.

" Is your parents home?" The neighbor asked. Moran shook his head. He thought that, as Mr. Murphy was a good friend of the family that it was safe to tell him.

" Oh, no..." Mr. Murphy murmured. He looked back at the boy. " Of all nights!" He cursed. " Listen, Moran, get your sister and currency. Pack some food and clothes while you're at it," The old man stepped off the porch.

" What's the occasion?" Moran joked, but grew serious whence Mr. Murphy did not laugh. Instead, he shuffled away at a brisk pace to his own house.

" You'll need it, sonny. I don't mean to alarm you, but there was talk of a fire spotted causing havoc on Jefferson street. You know, where that old barn is." The man paused. " And God only knows it it's the Last Days, because I hear this one's a powerful flame." The candlelight from Moran's candle dimmed as the strong winds whipped his face. Mr. Murphy's figure melted into the shadows, along with Moran's calm sanity. He had to get Annie.

Annie Beth

Annie Beth lay in bed, sleeping peacefully. This is, until she was shaken awake by the big shouldered figure that could only be her brother.

" Moran?" Annie yawned, murmuring as she was scooped up by her brother. " Moran?!" She said again in an agitated tone.

" No time to argue, Annie," Moran breathed. Annie furrowed her brow.

" You can put me down now, you big ape," Annie grit her teeth, annoyed. Moran blushed but it went unnoticed because of the darkness. On instinct, she rummaged through her bedding in search for her teddy bear as soon as Moran set her down. She did not need to ask what was happening, because she felt she already knew what the answer would be. Moran did not bring the candle with him, afraid of tripping over Annie's bundles of clothes and toys, therefore he would fall and not help anything by setting the house on fire before the fire would. He skipped down the stairs.

Finally, Annie found the dusty old bear, along with a knurlap sack to put her favorite book, Teddy, and clothes. Once finished, the bag bulged from the pressure. It was specially hard to identify her findings in the dark, but her vague memories of her room helped out through her search.

" Annie!" Moran called out from the kitchen. He had his own sack, stuffed with savings of a dollar and thirty-seven cents, along with a bag of non-perishable food. No need to worry much about clothes, he thought.

" Water," he remembered. As Annie clambered down the stairs in a night dress and wool stockings, she moved near the door. Once she had opened it, and felt an immediate surge of heat from a mile or so away, and the stiff air smelled of burning-

No, enough detail here, if you'd please. As the brother and sister evacuated the house, feeling glum and tired but full of excitement and adrenaline from the unexpected turn of events.

" Oh, man! And I was ready to turn in for the night," Moran joked again, hoping to ease his sisters' paranoid but young mind.

" No need to worry about me, brother," Annie breathed hard as she panted from tired limbs and the workout of the journey. " We must first think about Mother and Father."

Moran felt a pang of guilt. He had nearly forgotten about his parents! His keen mind was wrapped up with his worried feelings towards his sister. Along with the fact of where they would go to find his parents. " Yes, let's," He quickly replied, wondering how his sister had been on top of things today more than he.

They searched the streets, hoping to get a glimpse of a familiar face. Another one of the children's neighbors brushed past them with their newborn child, Morgan. The woman was a large size in the abdomen, looking tired by her early but visible pregnancy.

Annie looked back at the Clarks, but she noticed that Mrs. Clark, the big woman, must be searching for her husband, whom was at work. Little did Mrs. Clark and her young child know that they would find Mrs. Clark to be a widow after the fire.

At one point Moran and Annie believed a couple in gray shawls and a big, orange purse similar to their mother's were their parents. But as soon as the children watched the couple for a few precious moments did they realize it was a mistaken identity.

As they pressed forward, Moran and Annie's eyes began to water from the smoke in the air. Groups of people had begun to shamble through the city, but none of the were Mr. Duke or Miss Beth. The children's coughs brought waves of nausea. At another point a person nearby with a weak immune system heaved up their dinner. ( I hope whoever read that part wasn't eating anything. If so, sorry. )

Soon, swarms upon swarms of people were out on the streets, lugging furniture and other personal belongings they wouldn't bare to part with. Men on horseback and carriage clomped through the streets, not knowing or else not caring that people moved out of the way first. People were trampled because the streets were so packed and narrow, and a crushing burst of insufferable heat radiating from all the bodies of the packs.

" M-Moran..." Annie Beth whimpered, shuddering and feeling dizzy.

" Save your breath, Annie!" Moran shushed her, and a burst of bodies shouldered him from beside his sister and was swept into a more popular crowd.

" Moran!" Annie screamed and immediately regretted it. She had already wasted some of her breath, and she knew her brother would never have heard her, anyway.

" Ann!" Moran realized she wouldn't hear him, either.

Tramples of footsteps and clomping of hooves and the intense pounding of her heart was all Annie could concentrate on. Who knew where Moran was forced to go? But she also had to worry about herself and finding her parents. She prayed that Moran thought the same. The wind whipped and slapped Annie's bare face and legs. The lacy night dress was a bit too thin for Annie's liking to be around others who had the power to snatch her out of the crowd. And would anyone care to help? Would they deem her as lost? She shuddered.

The crowd she was sandwiched between headed East, away from the fire. Until, at Washington Street, movement became impossible.

Moran

Moran was tripped and fell on his face as several frightened people walked over him, claiming his further space in the crowd. Tears tried to stream down his face but were scarce. The heat dried Moran's face and tears. He couldn't get up, and suffocation began to grasp his breath, snatching it from him. His vision began to blur from the sweat dripping from his forehead and the hazy heat. He closed his eyes, lost to himself and his pain.

Annie

Finally, a break in the crowd. She dashed for the opportunity and made it. Even luckier, her knapsack was still slung over her shoulder! Unfortunately the hard cut leather cut in her shoulder blades. Still, she couldn't believe it.

She landed on a doorstop to a restaurant. Could her parents possibly be there? She glanced at the sign. Yes. It was her parent's favorite place to dine. She walked in and saw a huddle of people. One of them was her father.

" Father!" Annie cried out, running in. He looked dazed, with a glint in his eyes. In a slurred tone he asked,

" A-Annie?" He looked around. " Where is your brother?" He belched.

" I don't know!" She cried out. Her face was flushed. Her step-father was drunk and she knew it. " Where is Mother?"

Mr. Duke just blinked. He looked around.

" Never mind!" Annie snapped, her shoulders sagging. " I'm sorry. But Moran and I got separated." She looked into her step-father's eyes and saw anger, confusion, disbelief, and then fear.

" Where... Is your mother?" His eyes widened as he stood up from his stool. The other men, apart from few women, were dead drunk and passed out. The bartender was gone, probably to leave his customers to die.

" Elizabeth?!" Mr. Duke yelled. She was nowhere to be found. Dizzily, he grabbed Annie's arm and tugged her with him as if she was a fragile doll.

" Daddy?" Annie's heart pounded. Her step father said nothing. They searched the rest rooms, and eventually found Ms. Beth's purse by a closed exit door. Still silent, they grabbed the purse and followed out of the door.

" Father, why not tell the others and save them, too?"

" Sweetie, you, Moran and your mother are my top priorities right now," Mr. Duke croaked. The alley they were in was stuffy and small. A woman screamed in the distance, and it sounded like someone they knew. Some of the crowd was parted and a figure lay on the ground, shaking.

It was her brother and she knew it.

" Moran-!" The crowd was gone, except for a few injured stragglers. Mr. Duke ran over to his son and checked to see if he was breathing. Moran was bruised, her skin littered with blisters.

" He'll be alright," Annie asked, flustered. "... Right?"

" You... You'll be okay..." Mr. Duke stroked his son's forehead and winced when Moran shivered and his eyes fluttered open.

" D...Dad? Annie?" Moran sat upright so fast that his bones creaked and cracked. He howled in pain.

Mr. Duke cursed. " He must have some broken ribs," He explained in a gruff voice to Annie. Annie nodded. The heat now was impossible to ignore. The fire was so close, now.

" I'm fine... Annie," Moran groaned as his father picked him up. " Dad, you're too old for this, I..."

" Moran, I'm only forty-seven," He hoisted Moran up onto his shoulders.

" Hey, at least I've still got my humor," Moran joked.

" That's my boy," Mr. Duke said, cracking a smile.

Moments Later

" MOTHER!" Annie yelled out, and rushed towards a woman in a man's trench coat that she had 'borrowed' from one of the drunken men from the parlor. The lady turned around, with lines of worry on her face.

" Children?" She said in disbelief. Miss Beth embraced her daughter, and kissed her not-yet-husband on the cheek, and stared at Moran on her husband's shoulders.

" He and I were separated," Annie quickly explained as they rushed onward towards Lincoln Park where plenty of others hoped to escape the fire.

" Oh, dear..." Miss Beth exclaimed once Annie had finished telling their story.

They looked around. They had arrived in Lincoln Park. And surrounding crowds of people was the lake, the fire progressively worse by the minute, and plenty of firemen put hard to work without sleep.

" Mother, I don't feel so good," Anne confessed as she coughed and blinked hard. She was bedridden with sleep.

"It'll be fine, sweet heart... It'll be fine, I promise..." But she worried. Beyond worried, she was terrified for her children's health. The stench in the air was strong, smog clouded everyone's vision. Some individuals were hacking their lungs, others were heaving and some looked sickly. 

It became obvious that while the town would be demolished by the licking flames, hearts would be crushed and families torn apart. Dread and tension hung in the air which seemed to only fuel the pain, worry and suspense even more. 

And to think this all started from a small accident...

-----UNFINISHED-----

Okay! 

So, this was made back in sixth grade for a project. We were learning about the Great Chicago Fire, and our assignment was to make a story! I loved making this, and a few paragraphs above were just added right now, two years later. 

I started this on my BIRTHDAY of 2017, which to be honest was awesome to do for the last day before Winter break began. 

Now, I liked this story a lot, but it's of course unfinished. I would finish it and publish the darn thing but, to be honest, I don't think I can. It's been two years, and I would have to do research for this fire. 

AND I KNOW! This ISN'T a fan fiction! *pats myself on the back* So, this was it so far. We were supposed to turn this in, but people were SLOW and we never got the chance to turn our stories in for grades. My grade was fine but STILL. I really wanted to see what I would actually get, but it was probably gonna be a good grade anyways because it was pretty easy to get a good grade in that class.