Hunting Eternity.

The fire of the town of Berxley in Nineteen-eighty-three, the name couldn’t sound anymore plain. There wasn’t enough detail in the name to tell the real story of the fire of Berxely – not that anyone wanted to know. It was long gone by now, it was old news. But to the eldest residents of Berxely they were yet to forget it.

Of all people, Lavina Demetria Elwes, Vina for short, was the one who would forget last. She was at the centre of the fire and what really happened. It had all happened when she was a young teenager, now she was in her late thirties. Lavina, the name had always sound bitter to her tongue. It was an understatement to say that she had hated it.

But after the Nineteen-Eighty-three Berxely fire she realised, how much she valued her name.

[…]

Vina sighed, she was nervous, more nervous than she’d ever felt before. It was her first oral presentation for grade eight. Her mother had told her to prepare and practice, she had, but the unsettling nervousness inside hadn’t stopped.

She was waiting for her name to be called next. The palm cards in her hands were getting sweaty, she was fidgeting and she was really nervous.

“Lavina, Matt and Carson.” Her teacher, Mrs Hawker said. “I’m afraid you and whoever is after you will have to do the presentation tomorrow, we are running out of time. Class ends in two minutes.”

Vina was slightly pleased. She’d have more time to practice or she hoped so, she had promised her mother that she would go to her afternoon tutoring so any school homework had to be done after that.

The bell rang, she had always hated the bell. It was always loud and obnoxious, but it was the only way to tell students that they were free. Students stood up, packing away their books into their bags, some even exiting the classroom. Vina stood up, swinging her bag onto her shoulder and walked out.

The corridors were even worse, people were loud pushing and everyone was trying to leave. She saw her good friend Shelly Richardson, or Shell as Vina liked to call her. Squeezing through the crowd, Vina stood behind Shelly.

Vina was going to scare Shelly. Shelly always did it to her, today she’d do the same. Standing directly behind Shelly, Vina jumped onto her. “Shelly!” she shouted, trying hard not to cackle in laughter as her friend jumped out of her skin from the shock.

Shelly smacked Vina’s shoulder lightly, “Gosh, you scared me.” She replied with a giggle. Vina put her arm around Shelly’s neck, “Come on lets go home.” She said as they walked through the corridor and out of the school.

As soon as they took a step outside, they felt the sudden summer heat. They both groaned in frustration, nothing felt worse than a hot summer day in Berxely. The girls laughed and chatted as they made their way out of the school gates and onto the b streets.

Vina’s house was a few houses down and Shelly’s was a few houses after hers, but neither the girls were going home today, they both needed to catch a bus out of the suburb. Vina had tutoring now and Shelly needed to study at the library.

A few minutes later, after finally getting comfortable at the bus stop, both girls groaned when the bus pulled up in front of them, being the reason for them to stand up again. The bus was filled with students having just finished school for the day.

With a sigh both girls sat down at the back of the bus. Shelly took out a book to read, meaning she would be ignoring Vina for the rest of the trip. Vina looked out of window and noticed something that shouldn’t be the way it was right now. The sky was red, a shade of red. She blinked a few times to check if she is imagining things but the sky didn’t change colour, she looked out the bus drivers front window as she sat at the back of the bus to see if there was something wrong with her window.

Everything was normal, everything except the sky.

Vina nudged Shelly, who looked up from the book she was reading, “What natural disaster shows a sign before it happens, a sign that may be a red coloured sky?” she asked out of curiosity, if there was anyone who’d know the answer it would be Shelly.

“I’m pretty sure a red sky is a sign that… there’s going to be a fire?” she answered and looked back at her book, but when Vina spoke up she looked back at here. “Shelly look out the window. The sky is…”

“Red.”

“Red.” They both said at the same time.

Shelly peered closer and suddenly broke out into giggles, “Don’t be silly. There’s not going to be a fire. The sun’s going to set soon, it must have something to do with that. We live in Berxely remember? We don’t get natural disasters.” Shelly said as she howled in laughter.

Vina rolled her eyes playfully, “Oh god, what did i think was going to happen? The invincible Shelly who can predict the future says there’s no fire, so lets just all believe that.” she said with small smile and a hint of sarcasm.

Shelly laughed, “Stop being sarcastic all the time. Its starting to grow on you. I can’t have a permanently sarcastic friend.” She said playfully slapping Vina lightly, before slowly (with a laugh) turning her gaze back to the book she was reading.

Vina smiled and looked out the window at the red sky of Berxely. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a sigh and enjoying the peacefulness of the bus. When she had opened her eyes nothing had changed except the page Shelly was reading.

She lifted herself slightly upwards, to sit in a straight position, instead of her previous slouched position. Vina turned to Shelly who was concentrated on her book, “I’m bored.” She said, nudging Shelly’s shoulder with her elbow.

Shelly glanced at her, “We’re almost there. Oh look, look at that statue, its over there, it looks like a giant bird.” She examined. “When did they build that?”

“No idea. But its an ugly statue.” Vina replied, grabbing her bag from under her feet. The bus was going to stop soon and Vina just wanted to jump out immediately. “It’s our stop, Shelly.”

Shelly stood up and swung her bag on her left shoulder. They tried balancing as the bus kept moving, driving towards the bus stop. When the bus finally stopped, both girls got out quickly and started walking down the path towards the library in the summer heat.

Vina and Shelly parted in the library, under the cool air conditioning. Vina went to the study desks to meet with her tutor and Shelly went the young adult/teenage fiction. The outside heat, disappeared within every step Vina took under the cool fans. Forgetting about the heat outside and forgetting the fact that it was summer, she completely forgot about the red sky.