Page 55 of The Firefighter's Fate

The roof above her collapses, burning down on top of her with a heavy crash.

And she’s instantly gone.

I don’t save her.

I wake up. My body jerks upright.

Just a dream, Connor. Just a dream.

I’m panting. My lungs are empty. Ember’s face as the roof collapses is imprinted on my mind. She was there, then she was gone...

It was just a dream, man. Wake the fuck up.

It wasn’t real. It was all in my imagination. Ember is still alive. All of that never happened.

It felt so real, though. Mind trickery.

Fuck.

I don’t usually dream, and I never dream about a girl. Dreams only ever come to me when they mean something.

Does Ember mean something, then?

Nothing seems to make sense anymore. Up until a few weeks ago, my life seemed so ordered, so... logical. But Ember stormed in and changed everything.

I get out of bed and head into my kitchen. I pour myself a glass of water.

She’s okay, Connor. Don’t worry. Don’t fucking freak out.

There’s no fire. There’s no collapsing roof over her head.

I can rest easy.

I gulp down the water and try to calm my beating heart.

As I go back to bed, I can’t shake one thought no matter how hard I try - if dreams really mean something to me, then why the hell am I dreaming about Ember Mortensen?

28

EMBER

I wake up to a leakage. Okay, so it’s not me – it’s the motel sink in my room. A very ugly puddle is forming around the sides of the sink, and it’s getting alarmingly larger.

I try to fix it in the only way I can, by calling the motel manager. She literally just shrugs at me down the phone. I can practically hear her eye roll.

“Can I at least move to a different room?” I ask her earnestly.

“We’re fully booked,” she replies curtly.

“Really?”

“Don’t you remember our conversation when you checked in? You have our last room.”

“I thought that was just a ploy to swindle me into paying for the expensive room,” I say. “It doesn’t matter, though, because the sink is still leaking.”

There’s an indecipherable grumble of exasperation from the other end of the line before the motel manager speaks again.

“Deal with it yourself, maybe. You city girls are good with a spanner, aren’t you?”

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