Chapter 21
An ear-splitting shriek rent the air and scared the hell out of me.
I dropped the supplies and tripped over a rolling bottle of paint.
Staggering sideways, I slammed into a metal shelving unit hard enough to topple the supplies onto the concrete with a jarring clatter.
I wasn’t sure what hurt worse: the instant headache from the shrill alarm or my throbbing ribs from the impact with the shelving unit.
What the hell was going on? Was that an air-raid siren?
Were we under imminent attack? It took me a moment to collect my equilibrium, and I rounded the corner of the L-shaped closet, only to discover the door was closed.
What the hell? I hadn’t shut it. Rushing forward, I grabbed the handle and pulled down hard, but the damn thing wouldn’t budge.
I reached for my phone, but it wasn’t in my pocket.
I’d left it on a table in the art room. Fuck me.
I yanked and pulled on the handle in vain, then switched tactics.
I banged on the door, shouting for help until my mouth went dry, but no one responded to my pleas.
“Okay, don’t panic.”
But my wrecked voice and racing pulse said I was beyond that.
I took a deep breath to calm myself but coughed instead.
There had to be a reasonable explanation for this.
Had one of the wily seniors thought it would be funny to trap me inside the closet and pull the fire alarm?
While there were a few hell-raisers living on Silver Maple’s campus, none of them had attended my art class, and a sick prank such as this felt too cruel for one of them.
It had to be a short in the system. Faulty wiring.
Yeah, that was it. After all, the fire suppression system hadn’t engaged, or I’d be covered in water, foam, or whatever the hell was supposed to spray out of the overhead nozzles.
I coughed again and registered the first hint of smoke.
Glancing down, I saw tendrils creeping under the door and rising toward me.
They looked sinister, like something paranormal trying to penetrate my body and possess me.
But this was so much worse. There was a fire in the building, and the fire suppression system wasn’t working.
It was time to panic! More banging, more shouting, more smoke.
All I got for my effort was a dry throat, a worsening headache, and burning lungs.
No, I was not going out like this. I reached for the handle again, but the metal was already warm and would be hot soon.
Oh fuck. That’s not good. I covered my mouth with my arm and tried to remember a single safety tip I’d learned in school.
Stop, drop, and roll? Or was that for when a person was already on fire?
I held my breath and watched as more smoke snaked its way under the door, looking thicker and darker on its way toward the ceiling.
That was it! I needed to get lower to the ground, so I dropped to my knees and backed away from the door a little.
The air was fresher, and I sucked a lungful in while trying to figure out other ways to…
delay the inevitable? I would be a goner if someone didn’t rescue me soon.
The smoke would kill me before the flames did.
With fresh lungs, I shouted for help again.
But who the hell was I yelling to? The residents had already left.
None of them were going to charge into a burning building to save me, nor would I want them to.
Wouldn’t Ray get an alert in his office?
But wait. If the fire suppression system hadn’t worked, then maybe the other safety measures failed too.
Holy shit. I was going to die.
The fire alarm seemed to shriek louder, my headache thumped harder, and breathing became more difficult.
Was I running out of clean air, or had a panic attack reduced my airflow?
I lay down flat on the ground, the concrete cool against my cheek.
I fixed my gaze on a dropped bottle of blue paint that nearly matched Ray’s eye color.
If this were to be the end for me, I wanted that blue to be the last thing I saw.
A scene from a movie popped into my head, and I remembered the lead actor covering his nose with a cloth while trying to escape a burning building.
I pulled my T-shirt up over my nose and mouth and worked on getting air into my lungs, one slow cycle of breath at a time.
The discomfort in my chest lessened with each new inhale, and I just kept my gaze trained on the blue paint, recalling the range of emotions I’d seen in Ray’s eyes since meeting him.
I tried to choose a favorite but decided I couldn’t.
All of them were equally precious to me, from the initial recognition by the pool to the shimmering adoration just hours ago.
I would miss the way his blue eyes burned with lust whenever he got me naked. Did dead people miss things?
Dead? Oh no. I couldn’t die.
Ray had already lost too much. I would not be just another person who crushed his soul.
Pushing to my knees, I looked for something, anything I could use to pry that damn door open.
My gaze landed on something metallic under the shelf across from me.
It was maybe four or five inches long and slender.
One end had a ringlike circle, and the other hooked slightly.
It was a paint key! I scrambled over and pulled it out from under the shelf.
It wouldn’t be strong enough to pry the door open, but maybe I could insert it into the release hole in the handle.
Tess used bobby pins to break into my bedroom whenever I locked her out when we were kids.
Crawling to the door, I reached up and shoved the paint key into the small hole and wiggled it around.
I couldn’t hear a fucking thing over that screaming alarm, but I felt the moment the lock disengaged.
Holy shit! I did it. Tucking the paint key into my pocket, I pulled my shirt off over my head and wrapped it around my hand.
I pulled the handle and eased the door open to assess the room beyond, but all I saw was billowing black smoke.
The fire was a heavy beast growling nearby.
Fuck. It was now or never, so I tied it around my nose and mouth like a bandana and army-crawled out of the closet.
The fire raged in the opposite direction of the exit, and I thanked my lucky stars.
I knew I wasn’t out of the woods yet because burning debris and ashes cascaded all around me.
The fire made a heaving sound, and embers rained down on top of me, scorching my flesh.
Scooting on my stomach as fast as I could, I made my way toward safety.
More embers singed my skin, but I didn’t slow down to acknowledge the pain.
“Atticus!” Ray yelled.
My name had never sounded so beautiful, and tears of relief filled my eyes. I was going to make it. I would stare into the blue eyes and discover even more expressions.
“Here!” I yelled as I neared the front of the room. The door was right there. Just a few more feet and—
A burning piece of ceiling tile landed six inches from my head, setting the low-pile carpet ablaze.
Crawling was no longer an option, so I jumped to my feet, prepared to hurdle the low flames and dart for the door when Ray appeared out of nowhere, brandishing a massive fire extinguisher.
He blasted the floor in front of me and yelled for me to run.
He continued to battle the encroaching flames while I made a mad dash for freedom.
When I reached him, Ray dropped the fire extinguisher and scooped me into his massive arms and bolted toward safety.
He didn’t stop running until we were safely away from the burning building.
Ray dropped to his knees and carefully laid me in the grass. “Atticus,” he panted. “Baby, are you okay?”
Baby. I thought I’d hate that cutesy name, but it sounded so sexy when Ray said it. “Yeah,” I wheezed before the coughing started.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and my vision dimmed. Or had it gotten cloudy? I looked up and noticed that a large crowd had gathered overhead. One cough led to another, and I couldn’t seem to stop.
“Everyone, back up and give him room to breathe.” Ray’s voice was urgent but calm.
“So sexy when you’re bossy,” I croaked before coughing again.
Ray gently brushed the hair off my forehead.
His misery and pain were expressions I never wanted to see again.
I wrapped my hand around Ray’s wrist, needing to touch some part of him.
I tried to say something, but he shook his head.
“Try not to talk right now.” Then he raised his head and asked if anyone had water.
Several arms thrust bottles toward him, and Ray took the fullest one.
He uncapped the water, raised my head, and held the bottle to my lips.
“Easy sips. I need to ask some questions and assess your injuries. Just nod or shake your head. Okay?”
I nodded as the cool water soothed my parched throat. He let me have a few sips before he eased it away.
“Did you inhale a lot of smoke?”
I wasn’t sure what he defined as a lot, so I held up my hand and rocked it from side to side. That’s when Ray saw the tiny burns from falling debris. They were superficial and sore, nothing that worried me too much, but Ray made a pitiful groan as he inspected each one.
“It’s not too bad,” Ray said, cupping my face. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to comfort himself or me, but I leaned into his touch and stared into his turbulent eyes. “Do you hurt anywhere else?”