Page 3 of Fire and Bones

Do not open the door. Can you wet a towel or pillowcase and place it over your face?

There’s no water in here.

Choking black smoke was slowly filling the room. She coughed until her belly ached and she tasted blood in her mouth.

What’s your name?

What?

What’s your name?

Skylar.

Skylar, I want you to keep low and move away from the door.

Did the woman sound angry? At her? Was this predicament her fault?

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.

Her gut heaved. She gagged.

Skylar. Move away from the door.

Nausea and terror were taking their toll. She could barely hear. Barely think.

Skylar! Move back!

The barked command made her flinch. And spurred her into action.

Covering her mouth with one shaky hand, she crawled into the narrow space between the bureau and a back corner of the room. Pressed her shoulders to one wall. Shot forward upon feeling the heat through the thin cotton.

Arm-wrapping her drawn-up legs, she gulped a series of shallow breaths. Leaned sideways to vomit. Swallowed to wash the bitter bile from her mouth.

Where was the 911 woman? Had she been abandoned? Left alone to die?

Where was her phone? Had she dropped it when the woman’s shout caused her to jump? Had she really had a mobile? Or only imagined one?

The blaze sizzled and popped on the far side of the door, barely visible through the thick dark smoke. Her ears took in the sounds, detached now, incurious.

Beyond her tiny room, something went whoosh. Flames sent tentacles licking through the cracks around the jamb, painting her body in swimmy amber tones. She watched the plastic sign hanging from the knob twist, blacken, and melt. Shh! Quiet! it ordered.

She thought hypnotically: I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.

The mantra calmed her some. Or maybe her brain was succumbing to the lack of oxygen.

Images skittered through her mind. Her dog, Peaky. Her sister, Mellie. The bridal dress she’d worn less than a year earlier.

Had he found her?

She lowered her lids.

Black dots swirled behind them.

She rested her forehead on her upraised knees.

The room began to recede.

The dots congealed into solid black.

---