She was the reason I had to fight.
ChapterForty-Four
Alyssa
The Fire
My chest felt like a weight was on it. I coughed, turning to my side.
My lids opened slowly, and my eyes burned and watered.
Smoke filled the small room.
“Gracie,” I choked out, shaking my daughter awake.
We’d been huddled in bed and asleep when it started. But the thick clouds of smoke seeping through the vents had alerted me to a fire.
“Wet a towel in the sink and place it over your face and nose, baby girl,” I said.
She struggled to the basin and did as I told her, getting low to the floor.
Kneeling next to her, I put a wet sheet over her. “Stay low, okay?”
I wet a second towel, then climbed onto the bed and tried to stretch to look out the window. It was too high up and dark out to see anything, but it didn’t stop me from shouting.
The other women were shouting too.
More smoke and heat so intense it made it hard to breathe.
How could this happen? We were trapped and dying.Had Gregory done this?His attempt at ending me, destroying all the evidence.
“Help!” The shouts of anguish rang all around us.
“I’m scared!” Gracie shouted. I knew she was. A mother should protect her child and assure them that nothing would hurt them, but I couldn’t do that because we were trapped in an inferno.
We were both sweating and could feel the heat even though it hadn’t reached us. I thought about survival 101, and nothing came to mind. I knew all it would take was for the fire to seep through the fume-filled room for us to meet our end.
We’d been through too much to end like this.
“Hang in there, Gracie. We’re going to make it out. I promise you that. Someone will find us. Someone will hear.”
I started feeling lightheaded.
“Stay awake, Mom,” she shouted over the noise of the building collapsing around us and the frantic shouting of the other occupants.
Then the door opened, and there he stood. Luke was like an angel, and for a moment, I wondered if I were dreaming. Surely, he could not be here.
“Come on!” he shouted, but his voice sounded far away. He motioned for me to follow him and so I did. I grabbed hold of Gracie and, casting one last glance at Carmen, then exited the room.
“Stay low,” Luke’s voice echoed. He put an arm on my shoulder and egged me on. And just when I saw the light, I looked back and shouted at Luke to move, but I was too late. A beam fell, and he was trapped.
“Luke!” I shouted.
Another man came up behind me and pushed Gracie and me out, yelling, “Come on, we have to get you out! The fire department is here, and they’ll take care of him, Alyssa,” the man shouted then led us out of the door and into the crowd.Everything was a blur.
Outside, young women huddled together under blankets.
I followed the man, feeling like my feet would give out at any time. Faces, voices, all fading into each other.
