The Correction

"There weren't always dragons in the Valley,

So now, with an army of men,

We will leave on night fall to defeat them,

And we will be safe once again"

.......

"Did you really write this?"

Sarah smiled and nodded enthusiastically as her mother closed her laptop and pushed it back towards her across the kitchen bench.

"What do you think? Are ten verses enough, or should I do a couple more?"

"I think it's brilliant. Really darling. Just as it is. I would have found it hard enough to write one verse, let alone an entire poem. But to put this together at twelve years of age, all on your own, amazing! I'm very proud of you".

"Thanks Mum", Sarah hopped down from her kitchen stool, scooping up her laptop under one arm and her half-eaten piece of toast in her other hand.

"I've got to submit this by 7pm tonight, so I'll go and do that now. What time are we heading out to pick up Dad?"

"In about half an hour. I'll come up to your room and give you a ten minute heads-up so that you can get ready", her mother called after her, still smiling as she watched Sarah disappear up the stairs.

Lying back on her bed, melting into a wall of pillows, headphones on and with Harry Styles playing loudly in her ears, Sarah was done for the year. This was it, the last assignment due.

"Your submission has been received".

"Yes!", she threw her laptop to her side, her mind racing for the summer holidays that lay ahead.

With roughly twenty minutes to spare before duty called and she had to be ready to head out the door, dressed for dinner at one of the city's finest restaurants, Sarah picked up her phone.

Thirty five unread messages. With her final assignment in, she was free to chat until she got that knock on the door.

A flurry of message exchanges ensued and after responding to all of her friends, all of whom were equally as excited as she was to be out of school for the year, Sarah looked at the time. She was late. In fact she was very late. But how could that be? Her mother was a complete stickler for punctuality.

Slowly wriggling her way over to the side of the bed, Sarah took off her headphones.

And just like that it hit her. She smelled smoke.

Racing over to open her bedroom door, Sarah was confronted with a plume of thick, black, acrid smoke and she was unable to see more than two feet in front of her. The heat from the fire raging below was unbearable.

"Mum!", Sarah screamed repeatedly, her senses now on high alert.

"Mum! Answer me!"

There was no way she could go down the staircase to the kitchen and she could only hope that her mother had escaped before the fire had taken hold.

Her phone. Where was her phone?

Sarah slammed her bedroom door shut, ran back to her bed and rummaged around under the covers until she found what she was looking for. As soon as she had her phone in her hands she frantically searched to see if her mother had messaged her.

There was nothing.

The sound of sirens blared in the distance and Sarah knew they were coming for her. Her only thoughts now were focused on what had happened to her mother and how the fire had started in the first place.

Looking out of her bedroom window, Sarah could see that a crowd was gathering below her. The lower level of her home was now completely engulfed in flames and there was no way she could escape via the staircase or by lowering herself out of the bedroom window. The heat was far too intense.

She sat on the edge of her bed and reached for her phone, just as it started to ring:

"Dad"!