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“Hannah?”
I spin in place, almost tossing my container of food with the momentum, only to stop on Raul’s ghostly expression.
My eyes drop to his hands, then swing back up again while my stomach whooshes with nerves. “What are you…” I peek toward the front door, then back to my friend. “Wh-what are you doing here?”
“Uh…”
Axel’s front window explodes on my right, forcing a scream from deep in my throat as glass shards rain across the backs of my legs. I drop to the porch and slam to my chest, so my ribs smart when the food container I brought gets wedged between them and the solid wooden deck.
Tears stream down my cheeks as the source of the crackle I heard moments ago becomes horribly obvious, and the stench of smoke hits my senses, burning into my lungs.
“Hannah!” Raul drops the items in his hands and sprints around the side of the porch, pounding his way up the steps and grabbing my arms.
He yanks me to my feet roughly, so my phone and keys fall from my fingers. “Let’s go!” he roars. “It’s not safe here.”
“No, wait.” I spin out of his grasp and dart toward the house. “Axel!” I slam the side of my fist against the door. “Axel? Open up!”
“We have to get out of here!” Raul wraps his arm around my hips and half-carries me across the porch.
But I’m stronger. Determined. And my legs have always been longer than his.
Adrenaline spins in my veins, while the wail of a fire engine carries on the breeze.
Single-minded, I dig my heels into the chipped wooden porch and fold Raul’s hand back until his wrist bends and a squeal reverberates from deep in his chest. The moment I’m free of his hold, I charge toward the front door and hit it with a slam that steals the air from my lungs.
My shoulder screams in pain, and tears burn my cheeks as though they’re boiling hot.
When the door still doesn’t open, I take three large steps back and slap Raul’s grabbing hands from my body. Sprinting forward once more, I collide with the solid timber with every ounce of strength I possess, and cry out when it pops open and a wall of fire robs me of oxygen for the second time in as many seconds.
Smoke races into my lungs and stings my eyes. But it’s the rumble of a fire licking up the wall that has panic skittering in my veins.
“Axel!” I start forward, only to twist with a feral snarl when Raul’s hands latch on again.
“Let me go!”
“You can’t go in there,” he shouts. “You’ll die, Hannah!”
“What did you do?” I shove him away and work to ignore the memory of the small red gasoline can he carried when we first locked eyes. The shape of a lighter in his breast pocket.
Worst of all, the lines of soot on his cheeks that prove he was inside this home already today.
“Axel’s truck is in the driveway!” I smack his hands off me and shove through the door. “Axel, where are you?”
“It’s too late, Hannah.” Raul races to the threshold, but he doesn’t follow me in.
He’s a coward. A crook.
“Axel!” I duck low to avoid the thicker smoke rising toward the ceiling, and when I catch sight of a familiar shirt tossed over the couch in the living room, I pick it up with shaking hands, and slam it to my face to cover my nose and mouth.
Already, smoke blackens and stings my lungs until I choke on a cough. Tears burn my eyes, but I’m not leaving without Axel. I refuse to leave this house and let him die.
“Axel!”
I crouch and work my way through the living room. Fire rolls along the ceiling, like waves in the sea, but they’re a dangerous orange, instead of the tranquil blue most want to see. I check each corner of the room and thank him, for the first time ever, for not decorating yet. For only having a couch. A television. A coffee table. And none of the million other things I would fill a space with.
Backing out of the living room, I move into the kitchen. But it’s hotter in here. Darker.
My lungs reject the stench of smoke, and my eyes leak until I’m almost blind. “Ax—!” I choke on my breath and press my palm to the floor in search of a moment of rest. To find something other than burning wood and plastic to fill my lungs. “Axel! Where are you?”
