Page 24 of Reaper

“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 amnota 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 sirensand 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 herenow.

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.