Page 97 of Sweet Caroline
CAROLINE
Fight, flight, or freeze.
The last one seems to be running the show, because I’m stock-still, feet cemented to the wooden floorboards and my heart jackhammering against my rib cage like there’s some faulty circuit between it and my brain. Adrenaline floods my system and blood redirects to my limbs.Biologically,I’m primed to fight or flee.
But I’m not fighting. Or fleeing.
I’m frozen.
And the building is on fire.
There’s shouting and shoving. Someone slams into the wall of the stairwell, letting out a cry of pain in the crush of bodies all trying to get out at the same time.
“Caroline!” Ada grabs my arm, the urgency in her voice bordering on confusion. “Caroline! Come on!”
The curtains had gone up first. It had taken only seconds.
“Caroline!” Ada pulls harder, her panicked face flickering in the fire’s orange glow.
Move. You have to move.
My feet finally shift, the rest of my body following suit. Blocked by the mayhem in the stairwell, I search frantically for another way out. The dim red glow of an exit sign catches my eye through the accumulating smoke to my left.
I claw for Ada’s arm and haul her back. “This way!”
It’s dark, but we keep low and feel our way through a narrow hallway, dodging a ghoulish zombie and shrieking skeletons lit in disorienting flashes of purple strobe light. Creepy music still plays over unseen speakers—an ominous soundtrack to our actual terror. I cover my mouth and nose with my cloak, gasping through the fabric as I cling to Ada’s hand.
Finally,finally,the back door pushes open and we drag in desperate lungfuls of fresh air as we barrel down the stairs and away from the tinderbox of a building quickly succumbing to the flames.
The screaming and shouting intensify as we round the side of the haunted house and, as we near the front entrance, I claw the hair out of my face and chance a look back. The entire upper floor of the barn is ablaze, sparks and acrid smoke rising into the night above the roofline.
Oh my God.
I can only hope everyone’s getting out before it’s too late.
Ada coughs and grabs my arm again. “We’re still too close! Come on!”
As if to illustrate her point, something cracks from inside the upper level and a bulge of flame billows up, the blast of heat reaching our faces. I shuffle backward before turning to run with her among the crowd of people fleeing the scene.
Along the sides of the path, strings of lights flicker and die out, no doubt having lost their power source to the inferno behind us. It reminds me of that scene fromTitanic, when the lights extinguished on the ship as it sank—a strange reminder of the way nature can reclaim us, swallow us into the night.
Someone running beside me jostles my shoulder, trips, and grabs at my long cloak, yanking me downward. I stumble and crash into the dirty grass at my feet. The impact triggers a coughing spell and I can’t get up again right away.
“Caroline!”
I lift my head, my lungs straining for oxygen.
Miles.
I push to my feet, my eyes darting in every direction.
Where is he?
“Miles!” I call back, voice ragged from the smoke. I drift forward once more but have to stop again to cough.
Wait. Ada. Where’s Ada?I know she got out, but I’ve lost her. I scan the chaotic, panicked crowd—and that’s when I see him.
He’s backlit against the festival lights, but the silhouette struggling through the crowd of people running in the opposite direction is unmistakable. When he sees me, he muscles past the last few bodies and we collide.
