Page 64 of To Catch a Firefly

“Are you guys all right?” he calls down. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” I rasp, holding Ellis’s hand tight as I rush for the stairs. “We’re okay.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Riley says, stepping back as we reach the surface. I have to cover my eyes for a moment as the sun assaults me, so much brighter than it was when we first went down into the cellar. When I turn around, I stop dead.

Half of the farmhouse is missing. Well, maybe missing isn’t the right word. I can see great heaps of it piled on what was once the first level of the home but now looks more like a post-demolition site. And the rest of it is scattered up to hundreds of feet away, pieces of wood and plaster and even broken furniture strewn over the ground amidst flattened corn and unidentifiable, smaller debris.

But the house—the part that remains—stands like a torn, jagged skeleton, insides opened to the air. The tornado swept the rest of it away as if it were nothing. Inconsequential. And Ellis and I were less than twenty feet below.

“God,” I rasp.

Ellis’s palm lands on my back, running soothing circles over my shirt. Distantly, I register a few men moving about, more than just Riley, and one comes over to us, asking how we’re doing. He has bottles of water he hands us, and I take a few drinks, but I can’t look away from the destruction spread in front of us. Despite the almost macabre horror of the situation, the sun is out, scattering light on the dew-damp ground, making the entire scene glitter. It looks so disparate—death and light—and I can’t help but wish I had my camera, if for no other reason than to remember this day for what it was. For what I could have lost.

A tap on my arm has me looking over. Ellis is holding out my phone, camera app open, as if he read my mind.

“Thank you,” I say quietly before squatting down and snapping a few pics.

“Are you sure you guys are all right?” I hear Riley ask. Ellis doesn’t respond, but I assume he nodded because Riley says, “Okay. But if either of you are suddenly clammy, have trouble breathing, feel heart palpitations, or are vomiting, you could be in shock. Don’t hesitate to call 911.”

“We will,” Ellis says.

I look over in time to see Riley clapping Ellis on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re both okay, Ellis. Maybe take a few days off, yeah? I’m sure Marcus would understand.”

Ellis grunts his assent, and Riley nods my way before walking off. I’m not all that surprised when my phone starts to ring now that we’re above ground, but I am surprised by the caller.

“Dani,” I say, standing back up.

“Took you long enough,” he says. “Before you ask, I already talked to Chelsea. She wasn’t happy, but she agreed to extend our trip out half a week, and I was able to push back our visit to Samaria Gorge until Friday. So, if you can get back before then, we’ll still be able to complete our assignment.”

“Yeah,” I breathe. “I can do that.”

“Now why the hell weren’t you taking my calls?” Danil asks, sounding put out. “If the answer is anything but ravaging the love of your life, I won’t accept it.”

I huff a small laugh. “I was in a tornado.”

Silence greets my ears.

“Well, under it,” I amend.

“Lucky,” Danil says, tone hard. “What?”

I brush my hair back, pacing a little ways away from the house. The nearby field is in shambles, stalks bent and broken. Some pulled from the ground.

“There was a tornado,” I say, glancing back at Ellis. My heart trips. If anything had happened to him… “Ellis and I got underground, but we were right in its path. We’re okay. Safe.”

“Holy fuck. I…” Danil growls. “Damn it, now I feel like a dick.”

I can’t help but laugh. “And this is an unusual occurrence?”

“Oh, fuck off, Lucky-boy,” he shoots back. “I’m glad you’re safe, but I still want to kick your ass. You can’t scare me like that.”

“You realize we do dangerous things all the time?”

“It’s different,” he says. “Those are calculated risks. Getting caught in a tornado…”

He doesn’t need to finish his sentence because I know. It was terrifying.

“Yeah, well, all good,” I assure him, puffing out a breath. I’m sure I’ll spend some time processing it, but I’m uninjured, as is Ellis, and that’s all that matters.

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