- Chapter 13 - Benjamin Davenport -
Warnings: mentions of fire, burns, fear, death, screaming
Third Person POV

The World Newspaper
Child Loses Whole Family in Fire

By: J.B. Barrington

The Davenport family was said to be a very happy and loving family by their neighbors.

Twelve-year-old Benjamin Davenport was the happiest out of all of his siblings. He was a social butterfly and his teachers said he did very well in school.

That was before tragedy struck.

On Monday evening, the Davenport family was peacefully sleeping. Or, most of the family.

Benjamin Davenport was awake with his oldest brother, fifteen-year-old Jameson Davenport.

Jameson was comforting his younger brother, who was terrified of the thunderstorm outside.

The boys heard a loud crack and saw a large white flash. Benjamin curled further into his brothers arms, who just held him and comforted him.

After a few minutes, Jameson and Benjamin smelt smoke. They sat in silence for a few minutes, before deciding to go see what it was coming from.

The two boys came to the shocking realization that lightning had struck part of their house and their house was on fire.

They quickly ran to wake up their family, but the fire spread fast. The pair had a difficult time waking up their family members and while they were trying to wake them up, the fire spread all across the roof of their house.

Benjamin and Jameson woke up their siblings and tried to run to their parents room, when a part of their room collapsed, blocking the way to their parents room.

The two boys ran back into one of the bedrooms where some of their siblings were. They listened to the screams of their siblings from the other room.

Jameson held his younger brother, searching for any way out as smoke made it harder and harder to breathe. He brought his brother over to the window and forced it open.

More parts of the roof collapsed and Benjamin heard shouts from his siblings and people outside of the house as the fire got bigger and bigger.

Once Jameson forced open the window, he quickly brought Benjamin over to it. They heard more crackling as Jameson shoved his brother out of the window in an attempt to save him.

Benjamin was caught by a few people standing outside of the home. He watched as the rest of the roof collapsed, killing his oldest brother.

Two of Benjamin's other siblings managed to open a window in the other bedroom, but both of them died at the hospital from the severity of the burns they received.

Twelve-year-old Benjamin Davenport has now been taken in by Warden Snyder of the Refuge, where he will stay until they find another home for him.

The Davenports' funeral will be held on Friday, May 29th at 10:00 a.m.

(496 Words)
Buttons's age in the book (for all of the current-day chapters and not the newspaper chapter) is 15.