35. amelia
35
AMELIA
T he wood felt cold beneath my bare feet as I tiptoed down to the kitchen in the dark to grab a bottle of water from the fridge before returning to bed with Gray. I had woken up thirsty but avoided guessing the time. It was the middle of the night. That was all I needed to know.
On my way back upstairs, I glanced out the windows. Below, where the vacation homes were, I could still see the orange glow of the campfire through the trees.
Had some of the guests stayed up?
I paused and squinted.
Could you even see a campfire that small from up here? I frowned, puzzled.
Then, before my eyes, the shimmering turned into a fireball.
The water bottle slipped from my hand. Instinctively, I sprinted up the last few steps.
"Gray," I shouted, even before reaching the bedroom.
On my side, the night nearly turned into day.
"Gray! Oh my god. It's on fire! Gray."
I pounded my fist on the light switch. He sat up in bed, looking at me in confusion.
"It's on fire," I repeated breathlessly.
In the next second, he was past me and in the hallway. I heard him curse. That was what it took to snap me out of my shock. Stumbling over my own feet on the way to the nightstand, I yanked open the drawer and grabbed my phone.
We needed the fire department and emergency services.
Damn. The guests. Manon .
As I made the call, tears already welled up in my eyes. With one hand, I dressed, using the other to relay the needed information to dispatch.
Then I dropped the phone and bolted out the door, down the stairs. There was no sign of Gray, but the front door was wide open.
Before I headed over, I activated the garden's sprinkler system. As soon as I stood on the stone steps in front of the house, a wave of heat hit me. And that smell…
I flew toward the fire and then veered off into the woods to reach the parking lot. Someone needed to take care of the guests who were hopefully gathering there. I needed the list of the people currently vacationing here so I could make sure everyone had safely escaped their cabins.
I heard a dog barking.
Cookie.
Halfway there, I stopped, spun on my heels, and dashed toward the source of the barking. The closer I got, the louder it became. The smoke made my eyes water, but I managed to spot the dog near the cabin I had once occupied. Now Declan lived there.
I called out to the dog, but he stubbornly stayed put in front of the steps leading up to the door. The roof was ablaze.
Even though it was the last thing I should do, I rushed toward Cookie, ready to scoop him up and carry him to the parking lot. But just as I was about to grab him, he took off. I grasped at thin air and watched in shock as he ran back inside.
Barking.
Now it wasn't just the dog I was calling for. "Declan?"
I paced back and forth. I couldn't just… "DECLAN!"
I paused for a moment to listen. But I heard neither his response nor the wail of sirens announcing the arrival of the firefighters. All I could hear was Cookie's increasingly shrill barking.
The bed in that cabin was right under the roof.
I took a step toward the door. Then another. I lifted my arm to protect my head and took the first step up onto the porch.
The next moment, a heavy hand landed on my shoulder and jerked me back so forcefully I almost landed on my behind. Gray glared down at me, but only one word escaped my lips.
" Declan ."
His gaze shifted from me to the cabin. Then Gray was gone, and I closed my eyes. Immediately after, I felt a cold nose press against my leg. This time, I grabbed Cookie and didn't let go, putting some distance between us and the cabin.
The seconds dragged until Gray's large silhouette appeared in the doorway. Behind him, everything was ablaze, and smoke rose around him into the brightly lit night.
The young man lay unconscious in his arms, apparently unharmed. Both were smeared with soot, and their clothes were tattered and scorched at the edges.
"What's wrong with him?" I blurted out, even though my first instinct was to make sure Gray was okay.
Gray hurried past me. "Smoke inhalation, if I had to guess," he replied gruffly.
By now, we were running toward the parking lot, taking a wide detour around the two other cabins engulfed in flames. The others were out of sight, but if I interpreted the clamor correctly…
The parking lot came into view, with the intact assembly hall next to it. I rushed inside and grabbed the guest list.
Meanwhile, the parking lot was swarming with vehicles, their flashing lights illuminating the night even further.
Sergeant Williams approached me. "This is the guest list," I said breathlessly, handing her the paper before looking at her expectantly, hoping she would tell me what to do next.
Then it hit me.
Manon.
I whirled around, scanning every face in my vicinity.
Nothing.
A cold shiver raced up my spine.
Then I searched for Gray, leaving Sergeant Williams standing there as I rushed toward him. He had just handed Declan over to the paramedics and watched anxiously as they examined him.
"Manon," I blurted out. "She's not here. Manon's not here." A piercing ringing filled my ears. Suddenly, my throat tightened.
Gray caught me and the dog before waving someone over to us in alarm.
Behind us, the cacophony of sounds continued to build, turning everyone's attention toward theWildwood Hideaway.
With a loud crash, the first cabin collapsed, completely swallowed by the flames.
A soft scream escaped me, as if my pain were physical.
Gray informed a firefighter that at least one person was missing. Just as he spoke into his radio, someone, apparently emerging directly from the flames, ran onto the parking lot.
First, I recognized Wilder.
Then Manon, clinging to his neck, her legs tightly wrapped around his waist. Wilder's hand rested on her midsection until he let her slide to the ground and handed her over to a paramedic. Beside him, the fire chief appeared, shouting at him loudly.
A sob broke from my throat.
It was all too much.
Gray's life's work was going up in flames right before our eyes.
"Everyone's accounted for now," I heard Sergeant Williams announce. "Three injured."
Declan, Manon, and… who else?
"Who else is injured?" Gray demanded.
"We're still trying to identify him. The burns are quite severe. One of the guests pulled him from the burning porch of his cabin. He doesn't know him though. I'll let you know as soon as I have more information."
Gray nodded, and I wrapped my arms tighter around him.
"I didn't mean to hurt you back at Declan's cabin," he began.
Shaking my head, I chuckled. "You didn't hurt me. It was foolish to want to run back in. But Declan…"
"I didn't realize you hadn't stayed up in the house. I thought I shouted to you, but then seeing you outside the cabin with that determined look on your face…"
"We should make sure you get checked out too. You were in there. And since Declan already…"
"Later," he muttered.
Around us, there was a hive of activity. Firefighters, police, the distraught guests… Wilder approached us with a grim expression.
"I've just been suspended from the fire department," he announced.
I wasn't even aware that he was part of it. "Why?"
"Because I heard the radio on the way back to town and turned around to be the first on the scene. I had no equipment when…"
He left the sentence unfinished.
Gray said something to him, but my gaze remained fixed on the fire. The battle against it had been joined, but a nagging feeling told me it wouldn’t be easy to control.
My feeling was confirmed when one of the firefighters approached us. He was carrying something in his hands but walked past us toward Sergeant Williams.
Wilder cursed. Apparently, he had caught a glimpse of it. Now he held my attention as he leaned closer to Gray.
"This was arson. I know these patterns. They're soaked with accelerants and placed at strategic points."
Which didn't require much ingenuity for cabins made primarily of wood and located in the middle of the forest.
"Of course, we can wait to see what Sergeant Williams says after the investigation, but if you ask me…"
That's why not just one cabin was burning.
By now, I couldn't even feel remorse. A fire was tragic when it happened without cause.
But if someone had set it deliberately, sadness wasn't the right emotion. Instead, anger spread through my stomach.
Who would want to destroy such an idyllic place? It was a positive spot. A little paradise. Important for the town. A project into which almost a decade of Gray's hard work had flowed.
To my anger were added tears of helplessness as everything was about to go up in flames.
Irreversibly.
I had lost all sense of time as one of the paramedics approached me. I couldn't tell if it had been seconds, minutes, or even hours since I had been standing close to Gray, just staring into the inferno. In the meantime, a paramedic had also examined Manon’s condition.
"Are you related to the young lady?"
He sounded so calm and matter-of-fact. The complete opposite of what was going on inside me. My eyes shifted to Gray—how must he be feeling?
I nodded alertly. If I denied it and told him I was just her best friend, he wouldn't give me any information.
"Is she all right?"
"I'd say she's doing okay, all things considered. She inhaled a lot of smoke and suffered some minor burns. It was really fortunate that the firefighter was able to get her out."
"Will you tell that to his supervisor as well?"
He looked at me, puzzled.
"I'm sorry. What happens to Manon now?"
"We need to take her to the hospital for monitoring. Unfortunately, there isn't one nearby, and the next is almost seventy kilometers away. We've requested helicopter transport for the other injured person. They will take her along."
"Declan?"
This time, his look was questioning. Of course he didn't know the names. I gestured toward him, and he shook his head.
"That young man over there was just as lucky as your relative. It's about the other man."
"Do you know why Declan didn't wake up?" I asked quickly before the paramedic could turn away and get back to his job.
"He's sleeping."
"What?"
"He's not unconscious. He's asleep—which probably suggests he took some pills. Otherwise, he would have definitely woken up… even now, during treatment." This fact seemed to bother the paramedic less than it did me.
Declan had just come of age, worked a physically demanding job outdoors, and still had trouble sleeping at night?
I looked up at Gray, who nodded. "I'll talk to him as soon as he's back on his feet."
The paramedic returned to the ambulance, and I thought I could lean against Gray again, just to close my eyes for a moment, but Sergeant Williams appeared next to us.
"The guests are being relocated gradually. However, both of you need to accompany me to the station."
"Why?" Gray sounded skeptical.
"Interrogation. It's standard procedure. This isn't about blaming you for anything."
"Can't it wait?" I demanded in a feeble attempt to shield Gray from further ordeal.
Sergeant Williams shook her head. "But we can leave now. There's nothing more you can do here and… well, if you're lucky, you might be able to go back to your house later. The fire department says it's undamaged. But more on that soon."
She guided us to the car and, lacking the strength to resist any further, I followed her, my hand tightly clasped around Gray's upper arm to keep my bearings.