Chapter 12
It took Suzanna a long time to fall asleep, and when she did finally drift off, she fell into nightmares. In her dreams, a black-clad figure in a ski mask and holding a big knife chased her around inside the school.
Up and down the polished hallway floors she ran, terrified as the person got closer to her, and then suddenly, it was Ray chasing her around the teachers’ parking lot outside.
His face was twisted with a rage she’d never seen before, and the knife he held in his hand sliced at her with deadly intent. It was supposed to be me. You were supposed to date and fall in love with me. You slut…you bitch…it was supposed to be me.
He roared with his frightening anger as he got closer and closer to her.
Then suddenly she and Seth were in a field, and a light snow was falling as he told her over and over again that he didn’t love her…
that he didn’t want her in his life. His words sliced through her and made her heart hurt so badly her knees threatened to buckle.
She suddenly jerked awake, her body filled with a fight-or-flight adrenaline. She swiped the tears from her eyes and realized two things: her room was unusually hot and she smelled smoke.
She shot up in the bed and reached out and turned on her bedside lamp. A dense, dark smoke filled the room. Before she could fully process what was going on, flames appeared on the outer wall and under the window.
The fire crackled with hunger, eating everything in its path. She jumped out of bed, and at that moment the flames shot across the room and to her bedroom door.
She screamed. The wall with the window was now engulfed, making escape that way impossible. The blaze toward her doorway was less intense, and that was where she headed. She managed to get to the bedroom door. The minute she yanked it open, the fire blazed a path of destruction across the hallway.
It was an inferno that raced in a direct line between her room and Seth’s.
She could see Seth standing on the other side of the crackling flames.
He had managed to pull on a pair of jeans while she was still in her bright pink nightshirt, not that any of that mattered at the moment.
He yelled something to her, but she couldn’t hear him above the crackling fire.
Her mind was filled with one single thought. Sammy. Oh, she had to get the little boy out as quickly as possible. She ran into Sammy’s room, where Lady paced a small circle around Sammy and whined as if she knew they were in trouble.
“Sammy.” She rushed to the side of his bed, coughing as the volume of smoke intensified. For a brief moment she wondered if he was dead. His lungs were so little. Had he already succumbed to smoke inhalation? Horrified by the possibility, she shook his shoulders with urgency.
His eyes fluttered open, and he looked at her in sleepy confusion. “Mrs. Michaels, is it morning?”
“No, baby, it’s not. But you need to get up and come quickly with me,” she replied.
The little boy got out of bed, and it was only then he realized what was happening. “It’s so smoky…are we on fire?”
“Yes, honey, we are, so I need to get you out of here as quickly as possible. Now, put your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist.”
Sammy complied and then she headed to his doorway, eager to escape and get the little boy out of danger’s way. “Wait,” Sammy exclaimed with alarm. “What about Lady? We have to get her, too.”
Of course. She couldn’t leave the sweet baby pup here to burn to death. Sammy would be inconsolable if that happened and so would she. “I’ll get Lady,” she replied. Lady seemed to understand, for the pup stopped dancing around and sat at Suzanna’s feet.
It took several moments for her to get Sammy situated on one hip and Lady in her arms. Then she stepped out into the scorching hot hallway.
The fire had formed a barrier between her room and Seth’s. The easiest way to get out would have been through Sammy’s bedroom window. However, she had heard horror stories about backdrafts and so was afraid to open the window.
The only way out was through the flames. If she ran fast enough through them then hopefully the three of them could escape without being burned.
However, she’d take whatever burns she needed just to see to it that the little boy she loved survived without being burned. She was terrified, but she couldn’t think about her fear right now. She had to be strong for Sammy’s sake.
Seth stood on the other side of the flames, yelling something to her that she couldn’t understand. However, above the din, she thought she heard the sound of approaching sirens.
But the fire engines wouldn’t get here fast enough for her and Sammy and Lady. She was going to have to run through the flames to reach Seth and safety on the other side.
She coughed from the smoke that swirled in the air. “Sammy, hide your face against me,” she said urgently. “And hold on tight.”
She drew in what breath she could, and then she ran forward. The flames licked her arms and legs as she hugged Sammy and Lady closer to her. The bottoms of her feet were hot against the burning carpet. Everything around her was scorching.
Even though it was a relatively short run, it felt as if it took hours to finally get to the other side of the fire line. She broke through the flames, and with a deep sob, she collapsed to the ground. Seth scooped up Sammy and held him tight.
He hurried to Suzanna, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back up to her feet. “Come on, we need to get out of here,” he yelled.
He led them through the living room and to the front door. “Wait here,” he instructed as he hurried into the kitchen. He returned a moment later, and she saw the butt of his gun peeking out of the waistband of his jeans.
“Let’s get outside and get into my car,” he said. He opened the door and at that moment two fire engines pulled up, along with several patrol cars.
He led the three of them and Lady directly to his car in the driveway, where she scooted into the driver seat. “Lock it,” he shouted to Suzanna through the closed window.
Sammy crawled into the back seat and brought Lady with him. He hugged the pup close to his chest as he stared out the window. The flames weren’t visible from here, letting her know that the fire had started at the back of the house.
The blood in her veins suddenly chilled. Had it been set as a ruse to get her out of the house? Had the person who wanted to kill her set the fire, hoping she’d come running out the front door alone and vulnerable? Or hoping that she would perish from smoke inhalation or in the flames?
As she watched the activity going on around her—firefighters rushing around the house dragging large hoses with them—the realization that she was what had caused all this stabbed into her heart.
Sammy could have been killed. Seth might have been killed, and she’d brought this danger to their doorstep. The very thought chilled her to her bones. She began to weep as quietly as possible, not wanting Sammy to hear her crying.
She wept with the fear she had felt the moment she had awakened to smoke filling her room. She cried with the terror that had swept through her as she’d run through the flames with Sammy and Lady in her arms. Finally, she cried because she was the cause of everything that was happening.
Her arms and legs and the bottoms of her feet still burned, but thankfully she didn’t believe she needed any medical help. A little lotion and maybe some over-the-counter burn aid would be all she needed.
By that time the paramedics had arrived.
They saw Sammy first and pronounced him without any fire or smoke injuries.
They saw Suzanna next and after listening to her lungs, checked out her feet and legs.
They rubbed soothing lotion on the burns and then gave her the bottle of lotion to continue to use for relief and some comfort.
It took about an hour for the fire to be put out. By that time Sammy had fallen asleep with Lady in his arms. She looked back at him often, thanking God that he hadn’t been harmed.
The fire trucks left, but the fire marshal’s car remained, along with Dallas’s car and several other police cars. As all the men came around to the front of the house, Seth motioned for her to roll down the driver’s window.
“I’m going to see if I can grab some clothing for Sammy and myself, and I’ll also get some things for Lady, and then we all need to go to the motel. The fire marshal and Dallas and the other officials will be working through the night to figure out what exactly started the fire.”
“Why go to a motel? We can all go to my house, and I can wash whatever clothes you grab because I’m sure all of them will smell like smoke.”
His face was soot-covered, and he looked totally exhausted. “Is there anything you want from your room?” he asked.
“If my purse is still there, then that’s all I’d really like to get…oh, and my notebooks if they didn’t burn. Everything was on top of the dresser.”
He nodded. “I’ll be back out here in about fifteen minutes or so. Keep the doors locked and the windows rolled up until I come back out.” With that he was gone.
Suzanna rolled the window back up and leaned her head against the seat. Tears burned at her eyes once again…tears of residual terror and utter sadness ripped through her.
The terror had not just been waking to the smoke and fire, it had been the terror of her not being sure that she could get Sammy out.
If something happened to the bright-eyed, loving little boy, she would never, ever be the same again.
Thank God they had all gotten out with their lives. Her sadness was far more complex.
There was no way she’d believe the fire was an accident. The person who had peeked into her room would know that was the room she was staying in. So the fire had been set with the intention of her dying in the blaze, and if Sammy died along with her, he was just collateral damage.