Chapter 59
HARPER
At first, I thought the sound was the wind.
That same howling that had been rattling the windows all night, making the whole house creak and groan. I sat on the edge of the bathtub, hammer clutched in both hands, straining to hear Knox’s voice through the walls.
He’d told me to wait. He’d told me not to come out until I heard him.
So, I waited. The silence stretched and warped until it didn’t feel like silence anymore. It felt like something holding its breath.
Then came the smell.
Faint at first, slipping under the bathroom door like a warning I almost missed. My nurse’s brain cataloged it automatically—not woodsmoke from a fireplace, not a candle left burning. This was sharper. Chemical.
Smoke.
And then I heard Knox screaming my name.
The sound of his voice, raw and desperate, sent me flying off the bathtub before I could think. I yanked open the bathroom door, and the hallway hit me like a fist.
Heat. Poison. A wall of black smoke so thick, I couldn’t see the end of the corridor.
The side of the house was already engulfed. Flames climbed the walls like living things, orange and furious, eating through drywall and wood with a hunger that made my stomach drop. The smoke was so dense, I couldn’t see more than three feet ahead.
“Harper!” Knox’s voice again. Closer now. Coming from the front of the house.
I dropped to my hands and knees instantly. Something from my nursing training surfaced through the panic: Cleaner air near the floor. Smoke rises. Stay low.
I started crawling.
The floor was hot beneath my palms. Not burning yet, but warm enough to tell me the fire was spreading faster than it should.
Through the haze, I caught a glimpse of Knox through the front window. Just a flash. His face illuminated by firelight, twisted in horror, his mouth forming my name over and over.
Then the smoke swallowed everything.
I tried to call back to him. Tried to tell him to stay back, that I was coming.
But with each movement forward, the thick black smoke invaded my lungs and brain. It slowed my muscles. Clouded my vision. I couldn’t see through the smoke. Couldn’t see through my tears.
And then the heat hit me. So hot. The flames were licking their way inside much faster than should have been physically possible.
The front door shuddered. Once. Twice. Knox’s kicks landing like thunder against the wood.
If only I hadn’t locked that dead bolt.
Ten feet. That was all that separated me from him. Ten feet of smoke and fire and a body that was slowly shutting down.
I can do this. I can make it out.
I dragged myself forward. Elbows and knees scraping against the floor. The smoke was unbearable now, pressing against my skin like a physical weight, and every breath felt like inhaling razor blades.
Eight feet.
My arms buckled. I collapsed onto my stomach, cheek pressed to the floor, where the air was marginally cooler. Marginally breathable. I could taste ash on my tongue. Could feel my heartbeat slowing, each thump taking longer than the last.
Get up, I told myself. Get. To. The. Door.
The door cracked. Splintered. Knox’s voice, hoarse and desperate, cut through the roar of the flames.
“Harper!”
I’m here, I wanted to scream. I’m right here.
But my throat had stopped working. My lungs had stopped cooperating. All I could do was push myself back onto all fours, my limbs trembling like they belonged to someone else. Someone whose body was already giving up.
Six feet.
I crawled another inch. Two. The smoke was so thick now that I couldn’t see the door anymore. Could only hear Knox on the other side, still fighting, still trying to reach me.
Four feet. Maybe.
My vision started to narrow. Darkness creeping in from the edges like something patient. Something inevitable.
I thought about Knox. About the way he’d looked at me before I closed the door. The way he’d said, “Always,” like it was a promise he intended to keep for the rest of his life.
I wanted that life. I wanted it so badly.
Three feet.
My arms gave out. My face hit the floor.
And this time, I couldn’t push myself back up.
Then the darkness that had consumed my house began consuming me too. Starting at the edges. Closing in.
Until there was nothing left at all.