Terror lanced through me as I rolled over and fell onto the floor, skinning my knees. I was wearing denim shorts and a tee, and so my legs and arms were bare. I could hear more shouting and engine noises but the blood was rushing so loudly in my ears that everything was muffled.
Crawling along the floor, I pushed myself beneath my dressing table, tears stinging my eyes. The air felt so gritty.
It felt safer under there. It was the table I used to sit at as a little girl and brush my hair one hundred times, just like mommy had told me. “Princesses look after themselves if they want to meet their prince.”
My prince?Phoenix? Where was Phoenix?
I could taste the acrid smell I remembered only too well, the scars on my backburningas if my skin was melting all over again.
My breathing was short as my lungs tightened, and I tried to move out from under the desk, butnothingwas working. My joints were so stiff.
I tried to scream, but no sound came out.
I was helpless, frozen by fear. Squeezing my eyes closed, the tears poured down my face as I curled up into a ball and waited for death.
PHOENIX
As soon as we pulled up at the edge of the long driveway that led to Harper’s old house, I was out of the car before it stopped. Hudson yelled for me to wait, but I didn’t listen.
The scene leading up to Radcliffe Manor was chaos. There were contractors set up on site. I could see a large container-like office and a temporary toilet. Two guys were standing with hard hats on, and plans were spread out on a table in front of them. And then I saw the cop car and a fire engine.
Fire?
As I moved forward, crouching low, I saw the thick black smoke above the tree line staining the sky. Lowering my gaze, my eyes took in the fire that was noweating part of the roof. The bit that had survived the first fire was now not so fucking lucky.
What the actual hell? I raised onto the balls of my feet and watched the amber glow peeking out through the trees.
The house was on fire,again?
Two firemen were in the process of unwinding a large hose, preparing to fight the inferno that was causingmorecarnage to a building that had already been fucked.Fuckedfelt more apt than condemned.
The contractor guys had an expression that suggested they were out of their depth. Something had clearly gone wrong with their plans. The large crane with the wrecking ball just sat there doing nothing.
I raced forward past the cop car and up the driveway to the yard. Keeping to the side, I made sure no one could see me as I tried to see inside the building. Part of the entry into the house was accessible, but the doors were hanging off.
In a nutshell, I could see very little and knew I needed help.
Running up towards one of the firemen who was closest, I started yelling at him, trying to tell him that someone was in the house. He looked up from the hose he was attempting to straighten out.
“You can’t be here?” he shouted through his mask, waving his gloved hands. He then said something about a gas main.
“I think my girlfriend is inside!” I yelled, pointing frantically towards the building.
He couldn’t hear me over the sound of the engine and the spool, which was slowly slackening off the water hose. There was also the sound of the wind in the trees and the fire itself, hissing and crackling into the sky.
I became more frustrated by the second as he started shouting at me to get my ass off the property, pointing towards the gates. As I glanced around, I could see Hudson being held back by two uniformed officers. Oh dear, Hud hated the pigs. His face was red, and he was yelling at them and trying to get past.
A large piece of wood, like an old beam or something, suddenly spewed from the building and hit the floor just behind us, and the fire guy grabbed me, shoving me away before turning and assisting a co-worker to untangle the hose.
“We need to do this now,” he yelled as they started to pick up the pace. Two more firemen ran around from the other side of the engine, both in full PPE gear. They seemed to be arguing, and whilst they were distracted, I took my chances.
Keeping low to the ground, I ran towards the building.
The place was a mess. I heard anotherboomand a shattering noise as the windows of one section blew out.
Once I got to the doorway, I managed to slide my shoulder under there, glancing back to see if I was being followed, but they were still struggling to get the water going. What the hell were they doing? This was supposed to be a controlled demolition, but as far as I could see, there was nothing controlled about what was happening behind me. More sirens sounded in the distance.
Dragging my gaze off the fire trucks and staff who appeared to be running around like misguided fools, I made my way further into the house, the part that was left.
