“Not if you’re going into that goddamned fire pit,” he retorted.
There was another minor explosion, and something collapsed on the second floor.
“My cat is in there,” Autumn rasped out, “I have to get him!”
He heard a soft sound, like a growling meow. It was faint but there. Nico watched the flames flickering through the window.
“Okay.”
“Okay? What doesokaymean?” Autumn turned, flipping herself around, nearly throwing Nico off of her.
You’re a fucking moron, Scala. Stupido.
“You stay here. I’ll get your goddamned cat.” He didn’t give her a chance to reply as he ran towards the burning building.
“Hey! You can’t go in there!” A firefighter blocked his way inside the breezeway. Nico heard Autumn screaming behind him. “This place is going to fall to the fucking ground!”
He coughed as smoke started going into his mouth, “Cat,” he wheezed. He pointed towards the back of the house. He coughed again. Flames flickered from the side of the apartment. “She needs her fucking cat!” He doubled, nearly falling to his knees.
“Sonofa…” The firefighter cursed, then spoke into his radio. Another firefighter rushed by and threw something at Nico’s interrogator. “Here.” He put an oxygen mask over Nico’s nose. “Don’t take it off, under any circumstances.”
Nico raised his thumb then took a deep breath of the much-needed oxygen and took off in the direction where he heard the animal squalling. The firefighter at his side. He saw deep ridges in the wood beneath the door. “What the fuck does she have,” he muttered, “A fucking leopard?”
The firefighter checked the door and then pushed it open. They came face to face with something he’d never seen on the streets. One of the cat’s eyes was permanently closed, and the other widened at the sight of Nico. The animal moaned and then hissed. Two-inch-long white fangs showed with its ears flat to its skull.
The wildcat backed away and bumped into a pole on the ground. The animal spooked and almost moved towards Nico, then did that growl-hiss thing again.
“So that’s how this is gonna be?” Nico muttered.
The animal hissed and let one of his claws fly at Nico. There was another crash behind him as the ceiling collapsed to his left.
“Hurry the fuck up, man! This place is going to go at any moment!” The firefighter held a radio to his mouth.
“You try getting ahold of a fucking wild animal!”
The cat went at him again. Nico sidestep the swipe, otherwise, it would have caught him in his thigh.
“You want out of here, you shithead?”
The cat flattened his ears and growled before it scratched the palm of Nico’s hand. “Fuck,” Nico hissed out. He clenched his hand in a fist as the animal and man circled each other.
Nico noticed a jagged wound on the cat’s side.
Someone had to be in here before the explosion.
When the house made an unnatural belching sound, he grabbed the cat around its middle. The cat screamed and attacked Nico as he held on to it.
“Fuck off,” Nico cursed as he ran out of the room, gritting his teeth against the pain in his arm where the cat’s teeth dug in, trying to get free.
The firefighter beckoned for Nico to hurry the hell up while other emergency personnel raced by him to get out of the apartment. As soon as they breached the front door, the three-story family home collapsed.
“Dune?Dune!”
Nico looked up as he fell to the ground. He pulled the mask off and threw it next to him on the ground. Autumn’s cat was in her arms. She rocked it like a child, all the while getting blood on her clothes.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered into the cat’s neck. Autumn turned her head and looked at Nico. He caught her gaze, and saw the tear tracks down the side of her face. She looked away from him and kissed her cat’s head.
A couple of first responders ran to Nico’s side, “Come with us, sir. You were inside the house?”
