Chapter 10
Lark
Putting my book face down on my bed, I reach up and flick on the overhead fan in my room.
“Why is it so hot in here?” I mutter to my cat, Void. He looks up at me in annoyance since I had shifted to reach the switch and disrupted his sleep. He’s currently nestled into the spot between my legs, which are crossed under him.
Glancing at my book, which is about the history of taverns here in Wisconsin, I chew on my lip as my mind wanders back to conversations I’ve had with Ma, Pappy, and Granny for the last few months.
My chest tightens as I think about Pappy.
A few months ago, at the end of June, he died unexpectedly from a heart attack.
He had supported my ideas, but after he died, Granny seemed to close down and wouldn’t hear of any changes to the supper club.
Leaning back, I rest my head against my headboard and close my eyes as my fingers stroke Void’s fur.
I’ve been trying to convince Ma and Granny that we should shift our focus slightly and become more of a tavern than a supper club.
Or to keep the supper club but also branch out and build a tavern.
To be open for more than just supper and evening entertainment.
There are only a few bars here in Junction Creek, and I know from several of my friends, both young and old, that they wish they had a better place to go without having to drive out of town.
They also want more than what we offer here at the supper club, as we are among the few that still offer dancing on certain nights during the week.
However, it’s not the dancing most would think—we aren’t a club.
Both Granny and Ma have been insistent that we continue our family’s trend in that aspect, but I’ve been looking at the books a lot lately and something needs to change.
Not even a month after breaking up with Aiden, our numbers started to drop a bit and then it plateaued.
It’s not that we’re in danger of going bankrupt—far from it, it’s just, I think we need to diversify and branch out some.
I see a need in the community that I think we can fill.
I just have to convince them that my ideas will be profitable.
I scowl as a thought I’ve had a lot these past few months pops back into my head.
I’m almost positive the Coxes are behind our drop in revenue and our increased costs.
Shaking off my frustrations, I wipe my forehead, frowning as sweat leaves a wet spot on my thin, long-sleeve shirt.
“Why is it so damn bloody hot in here?” I curse again and then freeze as Void suddenly leaps up from between my legs onto all four paws, his back arched, and he hisses in the direction of my door.
“What’s gotten into you?” I reach out to him, trying to pet him to calm him down, but quickly redraw my hand as he swipes at it, his claws visible. Then he hops down off the bed and starts scratching at my door.
“What is going on with you? You’ve never been like this before,” I muse as I uncross my legs, stretching to get the pins and needles feeling to fade. I hadn’t realized I’d been sitting in that position for so long that my foot almost fell asleep.
Then I smell it.
Smoke.
Turning back toward the door, I look closer and can see thin little whiffs of smoke starting to drift into my room through the doorframe.
My eyes widen in alarm. If I can see the smoke, why haven’t our fire alarms gone off yet? I know they have fresh batteries. I just replaced them a couple of days ago. Every month on the first, I check to make sure they are still good with a voltmeter and replace those that need to be.
Jumping off the bed, I put my hand carefully on the door, but it only feels slightly warmer than usual.
Reaching my trembling hand out, I lightly touch the door handle a few times.
Again, it feels a little warm, but not enough to burn me.
I’m about to open the door when I spy my lightweight jacket hanging off my desk chair, and I grab it, balling it up and placing it in over my nose and mouth.
Once again, I carefully touch the door handle and open the door.
I stumble back slightly as a wall of heat and smoke instantly hit me.
“Ma! Granny!” I yell, before coughing violently as smoke starts pouring into my room.
Going down to my hands and knees, I’m relieved that I can see a bit better. I crawl to the end of the hallway while also trying to keep my mouth and nose covered. Reaching the stairs, I come to an abrupt stop.
The flames on the stairs nearly reach the ceiling and I can already hear the wood cracking ominously.
I am not a small woman, though I’m not overweight, either.
And with how those stairs are creaking and crackling right now, I don’t trust them to hold me up.
In the distance, I hear sirens and I pray they get here quickly.
Both Ma and Granny have rooms on the main floor, and I hope they were able to get out already.
Backtracking, I make my way to my room again and shut the door, trying to create a barrier between me and the fire and smoke.
Frantically, I look around, but I don’t see Void anywhere.
I don’t remember him slipping past me in the hallway, but he’s a sneaky little guy and he very well could have.
Especially when you add in the fact that he’s completely black with the exception of a small patch of white fur on his chest that’s almost in the shape of a heart.
I cough again as I look around. The smoke is getting thicker. I need to get out of here now.
Crossing the room, my shaky fingers fumble with the old latches on my window.
“Come on,” I grit out in between coughs. I swear, these freaking old boards in this old house are constantly shifting, which makes opening any window in this house a freaking workout.
Another coughing fit hits, this one violent enough to have me doubling over as it racks through me. When it mostly passes, I press my nose and mouth into my elbow and use my other hand to try and lift the old window. It still doesn’t budge.
I stumble to the other window in my room, but again, I can’t get the window open. Cursing, I pull up with everything I can but then I cry out in surprise as strong arms wrap around my middle, pulling me away from it before the person lifts me into his arms bridal style.
“It’s okay, Miss. I’m going to get you out of here,” he says. With his helmet and mask, it’s impossible to know who he is, but I swear his voice is familiar.
“My mom and grandma,” I start to say but then another coughing fit hits.
“Already outside,” he says, his voice clipped and urgent sounding as he heads down the hallway.
Relief flows through me, but then I realize he means to carry me down the stairs and I feel my muscles tensing as fear runs through my veins.
The fire out here is even worse than it was a few minutes ago.
Dread pools in my stomach and I silently send up a prayer to every deity out there that we get out of here alive.
As the firefighter starts walking down the stairs, I can hear them creaking and groaning even worse and it spurs the man carrying me to go faster. At the landing halfway down the stairs, my startled and fearful gaze meets his own determined gaze as the creaking gets even louder.
A second later, I feel the stairs give way and we drop.
A scream rips out of my throat and I barely register a different voice nearby asking what happened.
But then I realize we’re still falling, and when I look up, the pool of dread in my stomach gets bigger as I realize we’ve also fallen through the second set of stairs.
We’re falling into the basement!
The firefighter turns us so that he’s more underneath me and we both wheeze as we land hard on the floor. More creaking has me looking up and I scream again as pieces of the ceiling and decorative timbers that used to line the ceiling are knocked free.
“Fuck,” the firefighter curses and he turns us again, quickly repositioning his body over mine to shield me.
I close my eyes and try to shield my face better, but then I realize my arms are trapped by the firefighter’s hulking weight, though I know a lot of the weight is from his gear.
A groan has me opening my eyes just in time to see the firefighter’s eyes roll to the back of his head. Then I see the beam laying across him and realize that it must have hit him in the head.
“Sir! Sir!” I call out between coughs as I desperately try to wiggle my arms out from between us.
My skin, eyes, and throat burn as I try to wake him while also trying to get out from under him. If he doesn’t wake up, we both might die down here.
“Fuck!” a new voice calls out, which has my head whipping to the side only to cry out in pain at how my skin shifts with the move.
“Rookie, radio the Chief an update and then get your ass down here,” the new voice calls out and then through the smoke, I can see him rushing over to us. “It’s okay, Miss. We’re going to get you out of here.”
“The beam...” *cough* “hit him...” *cough* “unconscious.”
I can almost see him frowning because of how his eyebrows dip down, but his mask hides the rest of his face.
He hoists the firefighter off me and I roll, coughing as I try to get to my feet, but then I stumble.
Strong arms catch me, and as I look up, I realize this must be the rookie the other guy spoke of because he has brown eyes whereas the other guy had green eyes.
He picks me up, which has me crying out in pain.
Fuck, why do my ribs hurt so much? I don’t think it’s smoke related. Did I hit something as we fell?
My eyelids flutter open, and the next thing I know, I’m being laid down on a flat surface, which my foggy brain belatedly realizes must be a gurney. Did I black out for a little bit?
As they wheel me across the driveway to the ambulance, I hear the sounds of more wheels on the driveway and it dawns on me that it must be for the firefighter who was knocked out trying to save me.
I weakly wave to Ma and Granny as we pass them, but what I see behind them has numbness spreading throughout my body.
My vision turns blurry when I realize this was no accident.
Because both our house and our supper club are on fire.
Both of them.
There’s no way it could have been an accident or something electrical.
Who could have done this?
And why?