Page 57 of The Headmistress

“The lock and whatever else is holding this thing may be new, but the hinges and the wood are old as dirt, and probably brittle. If we push together on this end…”

With the fire burning hot at their backs, and Magdalene clutching the now much more sedate and scared Willoughby in her right arm, their shoulders hit the door with perfect synchronicity. Two tries and some pretty loud and inventive cursing from the Headmistress, and the hinges flew off the rotten frame, just as Sam had predicted. What she hadn’t predicted was that the two of them would spill onto the floor, propelled by the force of their push and the splintering of the door. Still, bumps and bruises were preferable to the fire that was devouring everything in its path just a couple of feet behind them.

“You okay?” In the light of the blaze consuming the attic, Magdalene’s eyes were made of ice, the anger in them raw and just as deadly. Sam nodded, grabbing the frightened Willoughby from Magdalene’s arms and holding him tight to herself. “We have to get the children and the staff out.”

Before Sam could nod again, Magdalene grabbed her free hand and took off at a run. With one glance behind at the fire now consuming the roof and the floor, its breath scorching and terrifying, Sam, along with the cat, followed.

21

Of Raging Infernos & Gaining Agency

The attic was destroyed by the time Magdalene marshaled the faculty. The evacuation plan which, thank god, they had been practicing religiously since Magdalene had taken over the school, had been executed without a hitch.

By the time the roof of the Sky Blue wing collapsed, Sam and Joanne had been double and triple counting the sleepy students hastily removed from the dormitories. In their pajamas, huddled under blankets in groups of twos and threes, the girls were squinting at the raging inferno that was now consuming their classrooms.

“250 with faculty, Sam.” Joanne’s face was streaked with soot and her eyes were frightened, but she had held up like a seasoned firefighter under all the pressure. So her announcement that two people were missing gave Sam pause.

“I counted 252. Guess one of us is wrong?” Heart pounding, Sam looked into Joanne’s determined eyes and knew the older woman was dead certain of her count. Well, shit. They counted again, and by the time they met at the end of the throng of students and faculty, Sam was indeed proven wrong. 250, specifically one resident of the dormitories was missing as well as one faculty member.

She ran, literal inferno at her back, to where Magdalene was speaking with the volunteer firefighters from town. By their resolute but somewhat dejected faces, Sam knew what pretty much everyone else on the grounds could surmise. There was no saving the school. The adjacent structures, maybe. Perhaps those that weren’t too close to the building spewing fire, and those that weren’t susceptible to the ocean breeze carrying embers their way. But the Main Hall with the dormitory wings was kindling. The nature and age of the materials, the quick spread of the fire in the strong winds, and the only rudimentary firefighting equipment that could be pulled up the cliffs to the school, had all virtually signed the death warrant for the centuries-old edifice.

Still, if she knew Magdalene at all, and how much the school meant to her, how much her dream of what the school could be fueled her, she would not give up without a fight to at least salvage something. But the missing student and teacher took precedence.

“We’re missing two! Headmistress, Mr. Robson! We’re missing two—” Even as she shouted it above the roar of the fire, above the scared chatter of the crowd of girls huddled together and the teachers calling out their names to ensure they were all there, Sam heard a ragged call full of desperation.

“Amanda! Amanda!” Lily, in sooty sweats and a hoodie Sam knew for a fact was Amanda’s, was rushing towards them. “She’s missing, she’s not here, Sam! Headmistress! Please, please, please… Professor Fenway took her aside after dinner, said they needed to talk about the scholarship girls’ situation, but she never came back to the dormitory. I know she didn’t, because she always stops by to wish me good night, even if it’s just for a second, she always stops by. I thought she was with Suzie on the other side of the quad, but she’s not there and I looked everywhere. You have to find her, you have to. Please!”

Like a woman possessed, Magdalene whirled on the Fire Chief.

“You heard her! We have a child inside. Possibly an adult as well. And if I find Fenway, I will kill her myself for being a stubborn mule and not leaving those girls alone!”

Robson took one look behind him, where the fire was now ravaging the third floor of the Main Hall, and shook his head.

“Ma’am, my people are not equipped to go in there. We don’t have respirators or any other such gizmos. We’re a volunteer department.”

In the burning light of the condemned school, Magdalene stood like a doomed angel, shoulders set, eyes dark.

“Are you telling me that, knowing that there are people in that building and one of them a minor, you will not go in?” Her voice taut as a whip, she stared him down.

“Ma’am, I can’t order my men into a fire, on a wild goose chase. We don’t even know where the child could be… But if you just listen to me…”

Lily’s cry of fear and obvious frustration at the words of the Fire Chief seemed to cut through the noise and then she was off into the burning building.

“Lily, stop! Lily!” But all the shouting was for nothing, and Sam watched with terror as the girl disappeared through the massive oaken doors thrown open by the earlier exodus.

“Make that two minors, Robson.” Madalene did not even wait for him to shake his head mournfully. “If you’re not helping, Robson, you’re in my way. Get out of it.” Shrugging off her blazer, Magdalene took off in the direction of the burning school, overtaking Sam, who had taken off after Lily.

“Jesus, Magdalene!” Sam barely managed to catch up to her again as the Headmistress ran down the hallway, straight towards the old staircase leading to the first floor.

“Well, isn’t this just swell.” Sam, who was the younger and supposedly fitter of the two, for all the good that running did for her, lagged behind, desperately trying to catch her breath without inhaling too much smoke. By the time Sam reached Magdalene, she was standing in the middle of a smoke-filled corridor, seemingly lost. In the dark, with only the fire from above casting an eerie glow and the burning wing across from them illuminating the sky, it was difficult to determine which way they should go next.

“Sam, I can’t…”

Determination, desperation, fear, all passed in quick succession on Magdalene’s face, and Sam knew she’d follow this woman to the end of the world.

“Magdalene…” Sam was cut short by a pleading look.

“Whatever you are about to say, Sam, please don’t. Not now. Lily is in here somewhere, no doubt ready to run headlong into the fire if she thinks Amanda might be there. And that old fool is probably in here causing more trouble as well. We can’t leave anyone behind. I can’t do it, Sam. I can’t chance it.”

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