Page 84 of Kings of the Campus

My chest feels like it’s burning as I breathe in more smoke. I need to get low to the ground. Isn’t that what they taught us in school? I drop to all fours and start crawling, trying to pick my way through the cabin.

I feel like I’m crawling at a snail’s pace. My eyes are watery and dry and I blink a few times. “Tessa! Oh God, please be okay. Tessa!”

Finally, I hear it—a faint cry. I nearly weep from relief. She’s still alive. “Tessa!” I yell out again.

“Devin!” I hear, though her voice is weak and scratchy.

I bump up against something—a chair, or a stool, or something and I reach out blindly, trying to figure out where I’m at.

“I’m coming!” I yell, hoping Tessa can still hear me. I can’t hear anything and my heart pounds in my chest as I worry that I’m too late.

But I keep moving forward. I have to hope that she’s still alive and that I’ll find her soon. My shoulder bumps something and it creaks, moving away from me and I realize it’s a door.

“Tessa!” I call again and when I hear her weak voice, I push forward, scrambling into the room as fast as I can while avoiding the flames.

“Devin!” she cries out and I stand up, checking her over. She’s got some kind of wound in her shoulder, maybe a stab wound, and she’s tied up but otherwise she looks unharmed.

I set to untying her as fast as I can, then pull her to the ground, cradling her against my chest. We cling to each other, tears spilling out as we both realize how close Tessa was to not making it.

“You’re here,” Tessa says, coughing in between her words. “You’re here, oh my God I didn’t think you’d come. I thought you weren’t going to help me. Max showed me a notebook with some stuff in it and I thought you hated me!”

I wrinkle my nose, pushing her hair out of her face as I kiss her. “Notebook?” Then it dawns on me. “Oh my God. That was from last semester. We were being stupid. We didn’t even gothrough with most of the stuff because it was too mean,” I assure her.

“Devin, I have to tell you something,” Tessa says, her voice cracking. I shake my head.

“Not right now, we need to get out of here.”

Tessa looks pale. “Max and I have a history. I took the story because of our history. I never told you guys. I lied,” she blurts out.

A million questions rush into my brain but I bat them away. The fire is spreading even more now and if we don’t hurry, we’ll be trapped.

“We can talk about it later,” I reassure her. “It’s not important right now. The important thing is that we have to get out of here, and we have to do it right now. I have to get you somewhere safe.”

I pull her down to the ground with me and we face out toward the living room together.

The cabin is a suffocating haze of smoke and heat. The flames lick at the edges of the walls, sending pieces of burning debris crashing down around us. Tessa and I start crawling slowly, trying to stay out of the worst of the smoke and the intense heat. My heart pounds in my chest, each beat echoing my fear that we might not make it out of this.

She stops when a piece of debris falls near her, frozen in fear.

“Tessa, we need to move,” I urge, my voice barely audible over the roar of the fire. She nods, her face streaked with soot, her eyes wide with panic and determination. Her hand grips mine tightly, and we continue forward, inching through the choking smoke.

Suddenly, a loud crack reverberates through the cabin. I look up just in time to see part of the ceiling starting to give way. The once-sturdy beams now groan and splinter under the weightof the flames. A section of the living room collapses, completely blocking our path forward.

“Dammit,” I mutter, trying to assess our options. The fire is spreading rapidly, and the room feels like it’s closing in on us. Tessa’s breathing is labored, and I can see the fear in her eyes.

I survey the options, but to the left of us is a wall of fire, and to the right is a large piece of furniture, burning to ash.

“We need to move!”

“There’s nowhere to go!” Tessa yells back.

Tessa and I are huddled together, crouched low, trying to stay as far from the encroaching flames as possible. I feel the weight of the situation pressing down on us, the crumbling infrastructure of the cabin a constant reminder of our dire predicament.

We both know it’s only a matter of time before we’re completely trapped. Tessa’s eyes are filled with despair, her body trembling from fear and exhaustion. I can’t blame her for feeling hopeless; the smoke is choking us, and the heat is unbearable.

A wave of hopelessness crashes over me. I look at Tessa and see her fear reflected in my own eyes. My heart aches as I think about how this is the last moment we have together. Tessa has changed my life in so many ways, she’s given me the courage to become more confident in myself. She’s incredible, so full of life, so brave and determined.

I love her.

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