Chapter 5 #2
Closing her eyes, she placed her hands on the counter and let her head drop in defeat.
“Let’s just see where things go between me and Mason. Today…today was a start.”
But God, she wanted him. Badly.
Gabriela opened her eyes, picked up her toothbrush and toothpaste, and brushed her teeth.
Once she’d finished, she flossed and rinsed out her mouth before turning on the shower.
As the water heated up, she peeled off her clothes, tossing them in a pile on the floor.
It was so nice to finally be out of that damp, smelly bra.
She stepped into the shower, turned, and tilted her head back, groaning as the hot water sluiced down her body and warmed her chilled skin. The scent of her coconut shampoo filled the air as she washed and conditioned her hair, and she breathed deep the calming aroma.
Despite her weariness, she found just enough energy to run a razor under her arms and legs. It was winter, and normally she’d just let her legs go—who was around to care?—but now that she had a date with Mason, well… If things happened to take that turn, she wanted to be prepared.
Body clean and muscles relaxed, Gabriela turned off the water and reached for her towel.
She dried quickly and stepped onto the mat, running the towel through her hair, absorbing as much of the moisture as possible.
When she was done, she tossed the towel atop her dirty clothes on the floor, got dressed, and ran a comb through her hair before plugging in the hairdryer and turning it on.
Warm air blew into her face, making her squint—and striking her with a whiff of smoke. Gabriela frowned and flicked the hairdryer off, lowering the appliance to examine it. There was no smoke coming from the hairdryer. She touched it with her free hand; it wasn’t even hot yet.
Turning the hairdryer back on, she resumed drying her hair.
But the smoke smell grew stronger and acrider as the minutes passed.
The steam from her shower was still thick—so thick that it made her cough as she breathed it in.
She waved her hand in front of her, trying to clear some the air.
Should that steam have dissipated by now, or at least made the mirror so foggy it was impossible to use?
Yet mirror was fogged only along its uppermost edge.
Brows furrowing, she turned her head and glanced through the open doorway. Gabriela’s eyes widened. Shutting off the hairdryer again, she set it down and walked into her room, coughing again. The steam was even thicker in the bedroom—and the stench of smoke even stronger.
It’s not steam at all.
“Oh, my God.”
Rushing to the bedroom door, she yanked it open and stepped out into a blazing inferno that had once been her living room and kitchen.
Her heart ceased to beat. For several moments—they felt like eternity but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds—all she could do was stand there and stare as roaring flames roiled from floor to ceiling, blasting her with unbearable heat.
The air was hazy with smoke, the worst of which was gathering in a thick, impenetrable black cloud on the ceiling.
The pops and cracks of everything being consumed by fire were almost deafening.
This…this couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t. If there was a fire, surely the smoke detector would have gone off, right? That damned detector went off at the slightest hint of smoke from the oven when she was cooking.
As though on cue, a shrill alarm blared.
It was like being woken from a nightmare only to find yourself still dreaming. Worse…this was real.
And the raging fire was between Gabriela and Ana.
Gabriela sucked in a stinging breath that sent her into a coughing fit. Her throat and eyes burned, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
She blinked away those tears and screamed, “Ana!” Her voice was raw, ragged, desperate, and the blaze seemed to swallow it up.
“Mom!”
Though the response was muffled and competing with far more aggressive sounds, Gabriela knew it was from her daughter.
“Go to your window, mija,” Gabriela yelled before she was overtaken by more coughing.
She bent forward and lifted her forearm to cover her mouth and nose, sweeping her gaze from side to side to seek a path to her daughter’s room.
But between the smoke, the bright flames, and the tears in her eyes, she couldn’t even see the door to Ana’s bedroom.
The front and back doors were likewise obscured.
Heart pounding, Gabriela turned away and stumbled back into her own room, slamming the door shut behind her. The smoke was noticeably thicker now. The burning in her throat had burrowed down into her lungs, making every breath painful. But that didn’t matter.
Only Ana mattered. That was all.
Gabby vaulted onto her bed, crawled across it, and leapt down on the other side, catching herself with her hands against the wall beside the window.
She hurriedly threw open the curtains and tugged on the string to raise the blinds so hard that something snapped overhead. She didn’t bother checking the damage.
Her fingers felt clumsy and weak as she fumbled with the window locks.
“Come on, please. Come on!”
Finally, she had both locks undone, and she didn’t waste a second in thrusting the window up and shoving out the screen. Frigid air blasted her, made all the worse by the withering heat she’d just faced.
Grasping both sides of the window frame, Gabriela pulled herself through, swinging a leg over the windowsill. She dropped down into the snow below, landing on her feet and sinking to her knees before she lost her balance and fell on her backside.
“Help!” she shouted into the night as she scrambled upright. “Help!”
Her breath was ragged as she fought her way through the two-foot-deep snow to get to the front of the house, crawling on hands and knees where she had to. She cried out for help—and called her daughter’s name—the entire way.
The snow in front of the house was bathed in the orange glow of the growing flames when Gabriela finally neared Ana’s window.
“Oh, God,” she gasped.
Ana was at the window, with terror gleaming in her wide, tear-filled eyes. She banged on the windowpane. “Mom!”
Gabriela braced herself against the window frame and met her daughter’s gaze. The bedroom was hazy, and darker smoke was creeping in through the cracks around the door, though Ana had stuffed a blanket along the door’s base.
Gabby flattened her palms on the glass and pushed up. The window shifted slightly but didn’t open even a bit. “Open the window, baby!”
Ana had her hands on the window, too, her face strained as she also pushed. “It’s stuck, Mom!”
“Unlock it,” Gabriela cried, spreading her feet to solidify her stance and put more strength into her effort.
“I did!”
The fear in Ana’s voice shattered Gabriela’s heart, but she did not let the pieces fall apart. Not yet.
She’d told the landlord about this window several times—that it had been sticking, that it didn’t slide right on its tracks. She’d told him again and again, and the bastard had never fixed it.
“Someone help!” Gabriela’s scream tore from her throat like it had been made of glass shards. She dropped onto her knees and dug into the snow, throwing aside handfuls of it as fast as she could in her search for something, for anything, buried beneath that could break the glass. “Help, please!”
Her fingers, somehow numb and burning at the same time, brushed something hard and heavy. She grasped the object immediately, dragging it out of the snow as she rose. “Stand back, baby.”
Ana backed away from the window, coughing, and Gabby swung the rock in her hand. It struck the double-paned glass with a dull thunk and a high crack. But only a tiny chip was left in the glass.
The smoke in Ana’s room was even denser now, and licks of flame were creeping in through the tiny gap at the top of the door. The paint around the edges was starting to blacken and peel. Ana was kneeling on her floor with a hand over her mouth, coughing over and over again.
“No,” Gabriela whispered, drawing back her arm for another blow. “No, no, no!”
She hit the window again, and again, putting a couple more chips in the glass. Her heart somehow sped further, pounding hard enough that it seemed likely to burst out of her chest. She raised the rock for another swing, and her foot slid in the snow. She pitched forward.