“Fuck you, you pathetic little brat. There is no settling this. I will burn you to the ground, and that is how this will end!” my father snarls in pure rage.
“Then I have no choice,” I sigh.
Anxiety bubbles through my chest, up into my throat, tightening my entire body.
“Fuck you,” Paul snarls, sneering at my raised weapon. He turns to run, screaming at his guards, who he doesn’t know are already dead. “Kill them all!” he shouts as I fire one shot into his side.
The impact of the bullet causes him to spin back toward me.
Emotions darken my vision.
I fire again, and the second shot hits him in his chest.
I hear a choke. The wet sound of a man drowning in his own blood.
My father shoves his hand into his pocket and pulls something out. He presses a button on a keypad as he takes his last breath.
Flames burst to life behind us. Art yelps and leaps forward.
Through the kitchen door, we hear Ben and Kaz shouting, “Fire!”
We run toward them, but every single exit has been rigged and is being devoured by licking red flames.
“How the fuck do we get out?”
“The roof is going to come down soon!”
The curtains are devoured in seconds as flames eat through them and wash over the walls onto the ceiling. Dry plaster crumbles and dissolves above us.
“Find a way out!” I shout, choking on the smoke.
We drop to our knees. “There is no fucking way out!”
Just as Ben says it, the front door explodes inward, and Misha runs in.
“Get the fuck up!” he shouts.
“Misha?” Artur mutters, his voice dry from breathing thick gray smoke.
He crawls along the floor toward the door. Misha grabs me under my arms and lifts me to my feet, dragging me toward the door. Behind me, I hear a crash. Ben shouts, “Art!”
I push Misha away and run back inside.
One of the heavy ceiling beams has fallen onto Artur, and he’s unconscious.
“Help me lift it!” I tell them.
Everyone, including Misha, lifts the heavy beam off Artur’s unconscious body.
Blood streams from a cut on his temple.
“Ben, get him out!”
I reach for Kaz, who is swaying in the heat and smoke.
Misha grabs both of us and pulls us toward the door.
We burst out into the evening air, gasping for breath, choking, and falling onto the green grass spread around the front of the house.
