Four-Word Story #1

A little blurb: I had to incorperate four words which were: fire, ladder, death, love. Picked from a person on Deviantart. After you read this, please give me four random words and the next story I write I'll incoperate them. :D

WORDS I HAD TO USE: fire, death, love, ladder.

He resisted recalling the time he always wanted to put in the past. It was hard to move on from the only women that he had ever loved, but he felt he had failed himself.
I could have saved her…
He thought as he felt himself being dragged into the memory of misery.

________________________________________________________________________

John had been only three weeks as a firefighter and for a 40 year old, he thought he had learned a lot. When the bell rang, his heart sprang, ready to take chances against death.
The fire was set at an old brick warehouse. He always remembered passing the empty brick structure while driving home from work.
Well its about time, he thought.
The building had been ages old, it was time some reckless teenager had set fire to it. He felt excited for the adventure of putting out the blaze until he had heard…
“Female, forties, distressing from third floor window, Male, forties, dead."
The radio fuzzed out, and John spoke to himself once more;
This is your last chance. Put your fearless face on.

Once their truck had got there, two were already trying to contain the inferno.
“JOHN!” The Captain yelled, snapping John from his amazement of the blaze.
“Yes, sir?”
“Get the girl, we’ll handle the monster.”
John nodded and pulled off the ladder from the side of the truck. He looked up at the building so he could figure out where to lean the ladder.
“JOHN!” screamed the women from the window. He looked up and couldn’t believe who he saw.
“JULIE?!”
He wondered what she was doing here, but questions had to be asked later. John stepped bluntly onto the ladder taking step by step. He stopped three-fourths of the way there and thought about what the radio had stated;
“…Male, forties, dead…“
He never thought she would, but she did often leave the house at weird times.
Was she cheating? He thought.
“JOHN! HELP ME!” she cried, half crawling out the window, reaching for him.
He stared at her and looked into her deep helpless eyes. The boys at the bottom were trying to contain the fire monster, but it was growing quickly. Engulfing each red brick at a time.
“JOHN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET HER AND GET OUT!” The captain ordered.
He heard the captain, but refused to move. He had come up with a brilliant plan to pretend that he was stuck.
“I CAN’T SIR, I’M STUCK!” John cried back. The captain looked up to see that John’s belt had been caught on the steps of the ladder.
“You think one of us should go up, sir? ”One of the young firefighters suggested.
“No, let him figure it out. I don’t need two of ya in danger.” The captain replied. “Just keep soakin’ that monster.”
“Yes, sir.” He responded, going back to the hose.
John lightly fussed with his belt, hoping that it wouldn’t come undone.
“JOHN! HURRY!” she screamed.
He had felt the ladder shift, indicating that the foundation was going to give up.
Any time now… he anticipated, while he tugged at his tangled belt. The bottom half of the building had started to collapse and the top part wasn’t too far behind it. The captain noticed and began to panic.
“JOHN! PULL YOUR BELT OFF AND GET DOWN!” He shouted. John quickly unclipped his belt and went up a few steps to finally reach Julie.
“JOHN, HEL-“
The center of the building had sunk, feeding the fire more. The captain told his boys to stop with the hopeless water. Some buildings burned, and others fell. This was one that had to fall. John had tried to reach for Julie’s hand, but before he knew it, the building was falling, and he stepped down as fast as he could, skipping three at a time. When he had finally reached the ground, all the firefighters stood and watched the old brick warehouse crumble to its feet. John had turned around to watch with them, giving his final death wishes to his cheating wife.
________________________________________________________________________

What if she wasn’t cheating? One side of him thought. There was always the possibility that she wasn’t cheating, and that maybe she was just meeting a friend. But most of her friends were women and if she had a male friend, Julie would have of course introduced them. But what if he was just an acquaintance? And maybe she needed a favour?
A favour for what? He asked his thoughts. A favour for nothing, cause she was cheating.
And he always wondered if every time she said “I love you,” how much was actually true?
He had come to realization that nothing had been true from the start. If Julie was true she would have introduced John to him, but if John was a true husband then he would have saved his wife’s life in the first place.

Wow....*applauds*