TWENTY-TWO
Ellie didn’t think that she could go back to sleep after the police had left, but she’d gone up to her room and lain down on the bed. Jamey had taken the sofa, and Fee was in her room once more. She must have more or less passed out from exhaustion – her recovery still left her easily tired – because when she woke up to the smell of smoke her clock read 4 a.m.
Ellie blinked, trying to focus in the dark room. Was she imagining the smell of smoke?
No. It was definitely there. She pushed her window open further, rubbing her eyes blearily. Maybe someone was having a bonfire on the beach. But no one was there. Yet, there was a definite burning smell.
I’m just not meant to get any sleep tonight, I guess, Ellie thought as she stumbled onto the landing and went downstairs. But as soon as she walked into the lounge, all of her sleepiness disappeared.
The beach house was on fire.
Ellie grabbed a tea towel, ran it under the tap and held it in front of her face, then went back for another one, ran to the sofa and thrust it in Jamey’s face.
‘Jamey. Wake up. Jamey!’
For a moment, Ellie panicked that Jamey had inhaled too much smoke, but then her eyelids fluttered open with a confused expression. She was just a deep sleeper, Ellie supposed.
‘What?’ Jamey muttered, and then coughed. Smoke hovered in the room like grey ribbon, and Ellie could see that it was getting thicker as the seconds passed. She ran to the front door, struggled with the security chain and the bolts that she had been so glad of just hours earlier, and finally pushed it open.
‘Come on! Quickly!’ Ellie rushed Jamey out onto the beach. ‘Call 999!’ she shouted. From outside, she could see that the fire had started at the back of the beach house and was licking up the sides of the wooden walls fast. ‘I’m going back in for Fee.’
‘You can’t go back in!’ Jamey grabbed at Ellie’s flimsy cotton vest top, but she pulled free.
‘Call the fire brigade. I have to,’ she repeated, and ran back inside the house.
Inside, the smoke was heavier already and Ellie felt it infiltrate her lungs immediately. She held the tea towel over her face and tried to take as small breaths as possible.
She ran up the stairs and found Fee lying on the floor of the landing. The smoke was thick up here now too.
‘Fee! Come on. Time to walk. Wake up!’ she yelled at her friend, but Fee was only half aware of where she was. ‘Okay. Okay,’ she muttered under her breath, coughing.
Ellie knelt down, put her hands under Fee’s arms and started to drag her towards the stairs.
There was no time to consider whether dragging someone down the stairs was a sensible idea or not. But Ellie knew she had no choice. She couldn’t wait until the fire brigade got to them.
She summoned as much strength as she could and started to manoeuvre Fee down the stairs. Ellie’s arms and back screamed with pain, but she kept going. She couldn’t think about her own injuries now.
Finally, she got to the bottom of the stairs, and started to drag Fee to the open door. The smoke was filling her lungs and she was feeling faint.Just a little further, she thought, crazily, feeling disconnected from her body.Just a little further, and this will all be over.
The door was so close, but it felt like miles. The distance telescoped into a long corridor in front of her eyes.Just a little further.
Ellie closed her eyes, tiredness overtaking her. She could hear herself coughing, but it was as if it was someone else, far away. She could feel the sea air through the front door occasionally buffeting her skin.That’s nice, she thought, as she fell into a deep unconsciousness.Sea air is so good for you.
And as she floated away, Ellie remembered what it had been like in the moment before the anaesthetic kicked in, before her surgery. She remembered the doctor, before, telling her they would make her look normal again. Telling her that survival rates were good.
Survival rates.
You’ll look normal again, don’t worry.
You’ll survive.
The phrases were like smoke in her dream, weaving in and out of each other.
Ellie floated, above the beach house, in the ocean of the sky.
