Page 145 of On The Rocks

The clang rang my damn ears, but I did it again and again.

“Griffin! Is that you?” Annette’s voice came through.

“Hey! Yes, I’m in here.”

I could barely hear the beeps of her putting in the code for the door but then it swung open. “Oh, my God.” She pulled me through the door. “We have to get outside.”

“Where’s Lennon?”

“She’s checking to make sure everyone is out.”

The whole hallway was full of smoke. How the hell had that happened so fast? I wasn’t in the back that long.

“Griffin!”

“Here!” I coughed.

Lennon’s voice seemed too far away.

I grabbed onto Annette’s hand and hauled her down the hall to the main dining room. I pulled my shirt over my nose and mouth, coughing. My eyes stung and the room was blurry as my eyes watered to try and get them clear. “Lennon!”

“I’m here.” She had a bundle in her arms. “Elmer was hiding behind the bar.”

I took him from her. “Okay, go. Get out of here.”

Reassured when he whimpered, I ushered her through the dining room to the back door. The smaller, side door was open. I ran down the stairs with Elmer and set him on one of the Adirondack chairs before I hauled ass back up the stairs.

Lennon was right beside me as we wrestled open the accordion doors of the dining room to get the smoke out.

“Did you call 911?” I asked.

She nodded, her own shirt over her mouth and nose.

“How long was I in the back?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Where the hell is it coming from?”

The patio filled with smoke as it poured out into the sky, but I still couldn’t see inside the dining room.

She turned around to the patio and I could see her counting.

“Who’s missing?” I stumbled down the steps gulping in fresh air.

Lennon was coughing, her eyes streaming. “Where’s Ronnie?”

I glanced around. “Ronnie!” I called over the shrieking fire alarms. Fear crawling up my spine as I ran around the side of the building.

“Do you see her?” Justin followed me around the building.

“No.”

We both ran for the picnic tables along the back of the kitchen. The smoke was thicker there.

Kitchen fire?

The kitchen had been closed for well over an hour. No one was cooking.

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