get dressed.
"Could be as far away as the mountains, but I don't think so . . . the
light's too close. Could be down the street . . . Ah, God, the
boardinghouse . . . You don't think . . . " Cole shouted as he raced
down the stairs.
Daniel was right behind him. The night manager was sound asleep in his
chair behind the front desk, with his head and arms resting on the
countertop, when Daniel leapt over the railing and shouted to him to
ring the fire bell. Startled by the abrupt noise, the manager struck
his head on a lamp and overturned his chair when he jumped to his
feet.
"What . . . What did you say? " he cried out.
"The fire bell, " Daniel roared as he crossed the lobby and burst
through the door in Cole's wake. "Ring the fire bell." He caught up
with Cole at the corner. Side-by-side the two men ran, the only sounds
the pounding of their boots against the ground and their harsh
breathing as each pushed himself to his limit. They were halfway down
the block when they smelled smoke. Running as though the fire were
licking at their heels, they sprinted around the curve in the road and
saw the flames. The first floor of the house was a blazing inferno.
Glowing red embers, like demon eyes, spewed out the open windows and
floated up into the night sky. Tattered remnants of lace curtains,
blackened with soot, billowed outward with each burst of dense smoke,
and the freshly painted white wood blistered and boiled from the
intensity of the heat.
No one was outside.
Cole and Daniel leapt over the fence at the same time and raced across
the lawn. Daniel headed for the back of the house, hoping he could
find a way inside through the flames, while Cole circled around the
opposite side.
The front door crashed open, and they saw Jessica slowly backing out.
she was bent at the waist, dragging Grace to safety.
Her friend wasn't moving. Daniel reached the porch before Cole did and
lifted the unconscious woman into his arms. In the firelight, he could
see the blood trickling down her left temple. Something had struck her
hard, and considering the amount of swelling, he thought she was damned
lucky to be alive. He held her close against his chest and ran down
the steps and out into the yard, where he gently laid her in the
grass.
Jessica followed him down the steps, then stopped. Screaming Caleb's
name, she was turning in a circle, frantically searching for the baby
and for Tilly, when Cole dove from the porch railing and tackled her to
the ground.
He landed hard and knocked the breath out of her. She was thrown
backward in the grass. She couldn't catch her breath and didn't
understand what was happening, or why. All she could think about was
Caleb and getting to him in time. Where was he?
Jessica tried to roll to her side so she could get up and search for
her baby, but Cole was suddenly pinning her down. Then he started
pounding at her legs with the palms of his hands, shouting to Daniel to
help him. She cried out and renewed her struggles to push him off
her.
Flames were greedily eating the hem of her robe. Cole was trying to
put the fire out and get the robe off her before she was burned. By
the time he had rolled her onto her stomach, Daniel was at his side,
helping. The two men were tearing at her clothes. Screaming Caleb's
name over and over again she struggled to get up, but they wouldn't let
her move until Cole had ripped her robe off her shoulders and Daniel
had pulled it free.
Cole lifted her up. She grabbed hold of his shirt and screamed, "I
can't find Caleb. You have to help me find him. He's with Tilly. .
.
She was taking him outside while I searched for Grace. They were
beside me upstairs. Where are they? I have to find them." She jerked
away from him and tried to run back to the house, but Cole grabbed her
from behind. She fought like a wildcat to get free, clawing at his
arms and kicking at his legs.
"I'll find him, " he promised. "Do you hear me, Jessie? I'll find
him.
You stay with Grace. Can you do that? " His calm voice cut through
her hysteria. "Yes, yes, I'll stay with Grace. Please hurry."
"The old lady and the baby are still inside, " Cole shouted to
Daniel.
He jerked Jessica around to face him. "Where are their rooms? " She
pointed to the center window above the porch. "Tilly's room is in the
middle. Caleb and I are next to her . . . on the left side . . . by
the tree." Daniel was already on the roof. He'd swung himself up from
the overhang above the porch. He used the heel of his boot to break
the glass in the center window and jumped back to avoid the flames and
smoke that billowed out. Then he dove, headfirst, inside.
The roof above the porch collapsed a second later. Cole had run to the
other side of the house to try to get in through one of the windows on
the first floor, but he couldn't get close enough, for the heat pouring
out was too intense. His eyes burned and watered as he backtracked to
the gnarled tree closest to the house. Thick branches hung down over
the eaves and he hoped he could get close enough to jump onto the
roof.
He began to climb. Seconds later he swung out, hand over hand, and
then dropped down to the roof. Daniel appeared at the window with
Tilly wrapped in a blanket and draped over his shoulder. Before Cole
could help him, Daniel jumped through the opening and sprinted toward
the opposite side of the roof. The branches on that side of the house
were lower and easy to grasp hold of.
"Caleb wasn't with Tilly. Get out of here, " Daniel shouted. "The
roof's going to go." Ignoring the warning, Cole headed for the window
Jessica had pointed out. Tongues of fire were hissing and spitting at
him from the opening, but fear lent him strength. He was so damned
scared he wouldn't find the baby alive, he recklessly followed Daniel's
example and plunged headfirst inside.
He was surprised to find the floor was still there. He landed with a
thud on his left shoulder, rolled, and stood up. A thick wall of black
smoke knocked him backward to his knees. Ashes poured over his face
and matted his eyelashes. His eyes burned so badly he couldn't see
where he was, he couldn't breathe, and the heat inside the bedroom made
his skin feel as though it were melting. He dropped down to the floor
and took a deep breath of cool air. Then he began to crawl forward on
his belly.
There was almost a foot of clean air trapped between the floorboards
and the dense, deadly smoke. Taking another deep breath, he shouted
Caleb's name.
The sound of his voice was lost in the crackling inferno. He slowly
inched forward. He couldn't see anything, but he hoped he would bump
into a clothes closet. Every bedroom had one, and he knew that
whenever his little sister had become afraid, she'd hidden there. He
hoped to God, Caleb had done the same thing.
The bed was his second choice, but he found it first. He hit the side
of the headboard, squeezed himself along the length, and reached
underneath, sweeping his arm back and forth in a wide arc.
There wasn't anything there.
Every second that passed was another second closer to the babyws
death.
Cole was silently praying and begging for God's help as he made one
final sweep under the bed. He was just pulling back when Caleb grabbed
hold of his hand. The baby let go just as quickly. Cole rolled his
shoulder under the frame, lifted up, and reached for him. Caleb had
squeezed himself up against the headboard. Cole found a leg and gently
pulled.
He could hear him whimpering and making loud, sucking sounds with his
thumb in his mouth, and Cole thought those were the most beautiful
noises he'd ever heard, for it meant that Caleb was unharmed.
He lifted the baby into his arms and rolled to his knees. Caleb threw
himself backward and grabbed his baby doll off the floor. A forked
flame of fire leapt up from between the floorboards as Cole pulled
Caleb back.
"Let's get out of here, " he whispered to the baby, his voice hoarse
and raw from smoke.
He wanted to wrap Caleb in a blanket from the bed, but when he reached
for it, he saw the embers raining down from the ceiling on top of it.
The blanket ignited and rapidly burned. In desperation, Cole tucked
Caleb's head under his chin, wrapped his arms around him, and doubled
over, his hope that his own body would shield the baby's.
He figured he had only a couple of seconds left to get out. The
bedroom was closing in on him. Flames where shooting up from the
cracks in the floor and dropping down from the ceiling above.
And then the walls began to move as though they had suddenly come
alive. They bulged forward, hovered, then, with an eerie swooshing
sound, they slowly receded before throbbing forward once again. It was
the spookiest damned thing he had ever seen. He could hear the heart
of the fire beating behind those walls. It pulsated and throbbed as it
sucked every breath of air it could find.
Cole knelt near the floor, took a deep breath, rose to his feet, and
raced for the window. The monster chased him. He heard a snapping
sound behind him, felt the floor shift under his feet, and leapt
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