The man standing next to me on the fire escape said nothing as we both watched my burning apartment.

It started with the peeling of the paint. If I remember right. <br><br>I’d lived in the apartment for almost a year and a half, and after signing a three year lease, I was so glad I picked it.<br><br>I think it was a day in September when I first noticed something. I was cleaning the closet I had converted into my office, since I worked from home. Most of my family and friends liked to joke that I was super lucky to be able to do so. But, the truth is that it’s very stressful, and I had to give up about 70% of my free time to do it. It was worth it, but not ideal. <br><br>Regardless, I was working on getting the closet organized, since even though it was small, there was nothing I could do, so I was trying to make the best of it. I had a desk in there and a big bag of pens that hung off a hook on my door. And that’s when I noticed it. It started with a small crack in the corner of the window seal next to my desk, the paint was peeling off. But, only in a little spot. I figured it was the result of the ancient AC in the apartment. It was a window unit and kind of old, so I figured it had been leaking into the walls and was causing it to peel. <br><br>It made sense. I was glad that was all it was. They were going to replace the unit over the winter, so all I had to do was wait a few months. I was planning on going to my sister’s for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I wouldn’t even be there for most of it. I forgot all about that little crack in the paint for a while, then one day my cat scratched into it and all of the surrounding paint peeled off and the wall under it was covered in mold. <br><br>I called my landlord.<br><br>The next day, one of her workers came over to look at it. He crawled around in the ceiling and checked the AC unit for overspill. A day later he came back and put a piece of tape over the crack I had initially noticed, and was out the door. I was confused and asked if he had figured out what was the problem. He said the leak had been coming from the roof and the tape would seal the paint to the wall and keep the water from getting in. Then he said I should call my landlord if the mold came back. I asked him when it should be safe to paint over it and he said a few months. <br><br>I asked my landlord about it and she said it was fine and to worry more about packing than the stupid paint. I told her I planned on staying for a while and she said not past the end of my lease. It was a little strange, but I figured she was just being older and a bitch. <br><br>So I forgot about it for a while. Then a few weeks later, my cat scratched into that same spot again. I looked over and the mold was back and worse. But I noticed that the tape had actually been peeled back into the wall, like someone had grabbed it and pulled it out. I crawled up into the ceiling and looked around, I didn’t see anything. I thought maybe my landlord had sent someone over while I wasn’t there to check again and they had pulled off the tape. I didn’t think about it much and just took some clorox wipes to the area and scrubbed it, but it didn’t do much. <br><br>I didn’t forget about this part. I decided that the leak that was causing the mold must have ran from the tape into the wall and ruined it. I didn’t want to deal with the hassle and my landlord was a bitch, so I just left it. It was small, like the size of my hand. I just left it. <br><br>It was 11 months and 28 days after I moved in that everything went wrong. <br><br>I didn’t want to, but I had to go to a party that night. I didn’t want to go to the dam party, I didn’t like the person who was throwing it. But, my friend was dating him and he was going to propose in the coming weeks and I figured I should be on good terms with him, since he was going to be in my friend’s life for a while. I didn’t like him and he didn’t like me, but I still felt the need to go. <br><br>I was taking a cab home and had just left the event. It was still early and I was planning on getting home around 10pm. I lived in a high rise building that overlooked the city, so I got a great view on my way home from the cab. There was a park near my apartment and I could always see the big Christmas tree that they had set up every year from my place. I looked over at it as we passed and enjoyed the view. <br><br>When we were about a block from my apartment, I noticed a huge amount of smoke in the direction of my apartment. I asked the cabbie to pull over. <br><br>I got out of the cab and ran down the street towards my place. <br><br>The building was burning. There were already a few firetrucks and a bunch of people were standing outside in the freezing cold, watching the building burn. I tried to go inside and I was grabbed by a fireman. I tried to explain that my cat was in there and he said there was nothing he could do. <br><br>I stood there and watched my whole life burn. <br><br>I was in shock and couldn’t really think about anything. I sat down on the curb and cried. Everything I owned was in there. I didn’t have any family, my sister had only recently come back into my life after a long separation, but I still didn’t know her very well. I didn’t have any friends to call. <br><br>I had nothing. Soon I wouldn’t even have a place to live, since the apartment was gone along with my life. <br><br>I didn’t know what to do, I just sat there and cried. <br><br>I sat there for a while and cried. I was so cold and my teeth were chattering. It was freezing and I didn’t have a coat. But, I didn’t leave. I sat there and watched as huge flames engulfed everything I had ever known. <br><br>After a while, a man in a fire proof suit walked over to me. I stood up and started to explain that my cat was in there and he cut me off again. He said it was gone. That it had been overcome by smoke before they even arrived and he was sorry. I started to cry again and he offered me his coat. I refused and he just set it down on the sidewalk next to me. <br><br>I sat back down and he went over to another man, who didn’t have a fire proof suit and was standing on the fire escape on the top floor. He was taking pictures of the inside of the apartment. I watched him in confusion as he just stood there, watching everything burn. <br><br>I watched him for so long, the man who was on the roof had gone back to fighting the fire. I was so caught up in watching the man on my fire escape, I didn’t even notice him was gone. <br><br>The man on the fire escape finally turned around. I could see that he was a man, I’m a woman. He was also much taller than me and wearing a big coat. He didn’t see me watching him at first, then he finally looked my way. I felt a strange feeling when he looked at me. Like his eyes had landed on me from across the street, but we were 12 stories apart. <br><br>I was so enthralled by him, I forgot about everything that had just happened. I forgot that I had just watched everything I owned burn to nothing. All I could focus on was the man on the fire escape of my apartment. <br><br>He just kept looking at it as it burned. It was a little strange, but I figured he was probably watching his place burn too. I hadn’t seen anyone else who lived in the building, I figured they must have all been at work or out. But, he was just watching as the building burned. <br><br>He watched it for what felt like hours. I don’t even know how long. But, he finally started to make his way down the fire escape. I hadn’t thought about how he was going to get down, but, now that he was, I realized he must have gotten in through one of the windows. <br><br>I watched as he crawled through my office window, the one I had first noticed the peeling paint in, and made his way down. When he got to the ground he walked towards to me. <br><br>When he got closer, I could see that he was tall and had messy brown hair and big brown eyes. He was wearing a big coat and it made him look even bigger. He was a bit older than me, but not by much. He looked to be mid 30’s. When he got next to me, he just stood there. <br><br>I asked him why he was in my apartment and he didn’t answer. I didn’t push it. I just stood there, I think I was in shock or something. But he just stood right next to me as we watched everything I had go up in flames.