Chapter Sixteen
Hazel coughed, waking herself up. She’d fallen asleep sitting upright, waiting for Doc. What the heck was taking him so long? She opened her eyes. The room was full of smoke. She coughed again. She was having a hard time clearing the fuzziness from her brain. What was going on? Where was all the smoke coming from? She tried to get up off the sofa, but she was seized by big, wracking coughs.
When they subsided, she was finally able to stand and moved over to the doorway. Doc had left it open when he’d gone to make tea. Why was it closed now? She tried to turn the knob, but it wouldn’t turn. “Doc?” she yelled. “Doc?” She rattled the knob some more, but the door wouldn’t budge.
She had another coughing fit. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins as it dawned on her that the old paper-filled house was on fire. She screamed and banged on the door, but no one came. She put her hand on the metal doorknob again, but immediately pulled it back. The knob was now hot to the touch. The fire was close, and the room was filling with smoke.
Hazel coughed as she turned around and scanned the room. There was no water source in the room, and she had no doubt the old furniture and pillows would go up in seconds. She had nothing to block the smoke from coming under the door.
The lights dimmed and went out. The room went pitch-black. She stumbled over in the direction of the window, but she banged into the coffee table in the darkness and fell. She coughed again. Her lungs were on fire. Drawing a breath was like breathing underwater. Impossible. She tried to crawl to the window, but she got disoriented in the darkness.
She collapsed onto the carpet and started to cry. She struggled for each breath, but it was pointless. She sighed. She’d never told Aiden how sorry she was about what she’d said and that she didn’t mean it. She never told him how much she loved him, and now she wouldn’t get the chance.