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middle of the night reaching for him, she always came up empty. Her pain was all consuming. Her lungs heaved. Her chest hurt. The second realization came to her, this one far more terrifying than the thought of spending another night without Noah. Her building was on fire. It wasn t the pain of loss that tightened her chest, but the chokingly thick black smoke that surrounded her. Oh, God, she mumbled, only to start coughing. Simultaneously she reached for the cordless telephone on the nightstand and rolled to the floor. Her eyes teared as the dense smoke burned more than her lungs. Blindly, she pushed a button on the phone and lifted it to her ear. She stabbed again, frantic when the dead phone wouldn t turn on. She scanned the room, checking for flame, searching for her way out. Fiery sparks danced in the air. A terrifying roar sounded just before the windows near her bed burst and flames licked in over the sill. Frozen in fear, she watched as they ate their way toward her mother s photographs. How could this be happening? Why hadn t her sprinkler system turned on, her alarm sounded? Without thinking, she lunged off the floor and toward her wall of memories. Her bare feet became tangled, the floor rose to meet her. Her arms shot out in front of her to protect her face as she skidded across the wood toward the theater chairs. The flames licked closer. Blinding pain shot up her arm and she screamed. Rolling off her stomach, she scrambled back, away from the wall. Reaching out blindly to tug at whatever had tangled itself around her ankles. The building groaned. Downstairs, glass shattered. But the smell was the worst, like nothing she had smelled before. And the pain in her arm& Nausea surged. Forcing it back made her cough harder. Panic built as she tugged at the leather around her ankles. Finally freeing her legs, she fisted her hand around the strap and began to crawl. Smoke filled the room, blinded her. She followed the rug that ran the length of her home, moving in the direction of her outside door. It was the darkest part of her apartment, indicating the fire had yet to reach that side of the building. Her lungs burned, her throat ached. Gasping for breath, she crawled a little faster when the heat of the floor penetrated her sweatpants. She didn t have much time. She couldn t stop coughing, and her body felt strangely disconnected. Stay on the rug. Stay. On. The. Rug. Without the ability to see clearly, she couldn t risk veering off in the wrong direction. Body sluggish, limbs clumsy, it seemed as if she would never reach the opposite wall. She coughed steadily now. Her entire body ached, her head throbbed. The fire was loud, louder than she could ever imagine as it devoured the building around her. Her body cried out for her to stop, to rest a minute and allow her to catch her breath, but she recognized it for what it was. She was starving for oxygen. She wasn t going to make it. Already she could feel her lungs shutting down, her airway swelling shut. She could feel consciousness slipping away. Suddenly, her hands came down on something cool and she breathed a sigh of relief. She was at her door, and it wasn t hot like everything else in the room. Reaching up for the knob, she twisted and pulled. Nothing happened. A bubble of fear worked its way up the back of her throat and she cried out. Then her muddled thoughts cleared enough for her to remember to turn the lock. On her knees now, she reached out with her left hand and twisted the deadbolt, with her right she pulled on the door. The dense black smoke cleared for a moment, then the room behind her howled in such a way that she stumbled out the door in a rush. She was weak, clumsy, and moving much too quickly for her legs to keep up. About halfway down the back stairs, her legs gave out completely. Pain. It exploded throughout her body as she tumbled down the stairs, desperately tucking herself into as tight a ball as possible. She landed hard on her hands and knees, the jolt that shot through her limbs enough to make her gasp. But she didn t stop. She couldn t. Now that she was on the ground, she was even closer to the flames. The wall next to her moaned, and she scrambled away as quickly as she could, dragging her leather tote behind her. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |