“Sorry, I wasn’t sure it was you. You are exactly how he described.” The stranger shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Levi!” she called to a tall figure who moved his way over. Understanding slid over me. This was Levi and his fiancée, Claire. This was the first time I’d talked to them face-to-face after hearing all about them secondhand from Pace.
I wished it was in much better circumstances, so I could focus on saying nice things and making a good first impression, but I couldn’t care right now. I could only think of Pace and a burning building.
“We were looking for you,” Levi said. He tugged off his Phantom of the Opera mask.
“You were?” I asked. My heart raced; my thoughts were moving so fast I almost couldn’t keep up with this conversation.
“We were with Pace when he got called in. He was waiting for you. He wanted to make sure you knew that he didn’t ditch you.”
Pace’s thoughtfulness, knowing I would be worried, soothed some part of me while amplifying my desire to see him. I just needed to look at him and know that he was okay.
We were all walking, presumably toward where the rumored fire was. We walked as quickly as we could without running, but it wasn’t fast enough. Claire half-jogged to keep up.
“I heard. Do you know where he is?” I asked, winded from nerves and exertion.
“We just know where the fire is.”
“I’m going to go,” I said as I decided.
“Maybe we shouldn’t. They probably don’t want people there, it’s a safety risk,” Claire said cautiously.
“I-I just need to make sure he’s okay,” I said. I had already begun to spin back around to where Grandma’s SUV waited for me.
“We’re coming with,” Levi said, close behind.
“I don’t think we should get too near the fire,” Claire added.
“I won’t,” I said to her and to Levi, “Just tell me where to go.”
Before they were even buckled in the back seat, I maneuvered out of the spot with the speed of a secret spy.
Levi had his eyes closed, knuckles grasping the headrest of the passenger seat, the entire time. I wanted to speed, but the last thing I needed was to get in a wreck or be pulled over on my way to see if Pace was okay. I drove abhorrently close to the speed limit but never over, so Levi’s highly dramatic behavior was not my fault.
Claire chatted worriedly about the logistics of it all, but I couldn’t reply. My whole body was clenched like a fist. I wanted to talk and make a good impression on Pace’s friends, but I could only focus on willing us to get there faster.
In the rearview mirror, I saw Levi grab Claire’s hand and squeeze. She stopped talking and smiled at him. “Thanks,” she whispered softly.
No matter how long we drove, the column of smoke never seemed to change in size. We couldn’t drive fast enough, hard enough. It was one of those stress dreams where everything around me stayed still as I struggled to move forward.
I whipped onto the freeway and merged between semis and cars. Finally, the exit we needed was next.
“Oh, no,” Claire whispered as we rounded the forest road and the old warehouse came into sight. The flames were twice as tall as the building. The light from it made us wince. I felt dizzy.
“He is a professional,” Levi said.
“He’s fine,” Claire agreed but looked worriedly at her hard-to-read fiancé, whose mouth formed a flat line of concern.
Trucks flashed blinding lights in the dark night, and men in heavy equipment ran everywhere. It was impossible to see which one was Pace.
I shouldn’t be here. This wasn’t a good idea. But I couldn’t stop myself. I was a woman out of control of her body.
Just as I slowed the SUV to a stop, there was a sudden explosion. From the south side of the factory, a massive blast of heat and light burst up into the dark night, followed a fraction of a second later by a loud boom.
I was out of the car even as I heard Claire and Levi calling for me to stop.
I began to run. There was no thought. I sprinted across the road. Feet slamming on the asphalt and then gravel, my entire body sprinting faster than I’d ever moved.
A sound of horror came out of me as I ran the final yards. Multiple fire trucks were there, not just the local trucks, but ones from the nearest towns over too. My heart pounded so hard I felt like I might be sick, but there wasn’t time for that. The scene was a sort of controlled chaos with shouts of directions. The explosion had caused them to pull back, and the heat was immense this close. How could anybody run toward that sort of danger? Every instinct in my body told me to run in the opposite direction.
