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Panic sets in when a flash of orange leaks out from the threshold at the base of the door. Fire. No.
I smash my fists against the wood and shoulder it as hard as I can. “Anabel, stop!”
“If you won’t let me have you, then you can’t have her!”
Smoke starts to pool under the door.
I kick it as hard as I can, making indents in it, but the lock holds.
“No. Marissa,” I whisper.
Coughing comes through from the other side. The whole house will burn down if I don’t get in there.
“Le—Leandro,” Sia tries to talk to me, but her voice echoes a hundred times in my frantic rage. My vision narrows as I return to reality. “If you have a hose, go get it. I can pick the lock.” She takes a bobby pin from her hair. “Who do you think helped her in?”
My nose wrinkles. I don’t know what to do. Her first week here and chaos has already ensued in my small Mormon farm. Maybe she’s a sign that I should just let it all burn.
No. No. I have to save my memories at all costs. She’s right. I can salvage this if she can get in.
“Hurry,” I say, then sprint to the back. I kick the storm door off its hinges and unscrew the hose valve. Whipping the line for twenty feet of slack, I rush back into the house to find Sia wincing while trying to shove the door open.
“It’s unlocked.” She coughs from the outpouring smoke. “She’s blocking the door!”
“Move.” I make sure to grab the twisted knob when Sia let’s go so Anabel can’t relock it, then I kick the door forward with all my might, sending Anabel flying to the end of the room. With my leather jacket over my face, I press the nozzle to douse the flames erupting from my memories. Marissa’s half-burnt face sends silent tears rolling down my own.
My teeth are gritted in pain. As the budding fire smothers, there’s a stabbing sensation in my ribs. Her notes to me, our pictures. No.
I throw the hose uselessly to the floor as mounds of smoke fly into my face. It doesn’t matter if I can’t breathe. Suffocate me. End it.
I fall to my knees, reaching for a scolding hot picture – letting the edges burn my fingertips. Through the foggy haze, I glimpse her million-dollar smile as she hangs in my arms. I clench my jaw hard as my mind transports me again to another time.
Breathing in makes me cough, dragging me back.
I go to kiss the picture, but as my lips get close, it crumbles to ash.
It’s all over.
Chapter 9
Leandro
Through the strangling smoke of my burnt shrine, Marissa’s face stares back at me. Her expression is all concern.
Is it finally my time? I ask. Will we even be together in the afterlife? You’re an angel, and I’m… something else.
“Leandro!” a voice that’s not Marissa’s comes through her mouth. She’s tugging on my arm, dragging me back to reality. Her towel is hanging off to reveal one beautiful breast jiggling every time she pulls. My mind is a scattered mess, but I do realize something…
I’m not dead.
“Get it together!” she exclaims, and I succumb to her grasp.
I cough, spitting out black tar as I wave away the smoke. Alessia, right, I remember.
“You have to save her,” she says, pointing frantically back in the room where Anabel must be.
I snap out of my stupor. “Get Maria ready. I’ll bring her down.”
Alessia adjusts her towel, giving me a perplexed glare, but my expression says it all. Trust me. Just go.
