Chapter 10 - The Fall
The timber snapped with the sound of a rifle shot. The subfloor beneath Julian’s boots disintegrated into a roaring vortex of orange embers and falling plaster.
Julian’s eyes widened in terror as gravity claimed him. His scream was abruptly swallowed by the roaring furnace of the second floor as he plunged straight down through the gaping hole, disappearing into the raging heart of the fire. A violent updraft of burning embers surged into the attic, singing the rafter beams directly above Lena's head.
""Move!"" Mara screamed, throwing herself over Lena and the newborn to shield them from the shower of burning sparks.
The entire southern half of the attic floor was gone, exposing a cavern of roaring orange flame below. The air had turned into an inferno; the heat scorched the skin within seconds.
""The window, now!"" Mara grabbed Lena beneath her arms, half-dragging, half-carrying her and the wrapped infant toward the shattered dormer window.
Outside, the aluminum rungs of an industrial rescue ladder slammed against the sill, fracturing the remaining wood. A man wearing a heavy fire-resistant turnout coat and respirator appeared at the top of the frame.
""David!"" Mara yelled over the roar of the blaze. ""Take the baby!""
David leaned in through the frame, his gloved hands taking the wrapped bundle from Lena’s arms with infinite care. Lena cried out, a mother’s instinctual panic flaring even as she knew it was their only salvation.
""I have him! He's safe!"" David shouted, his voice muffled by his respirator. He handed the bundle to a secondary rescuer on the ladder below, then reached back in, extending both arms to Lena. ""Your turn! Climb, now!""
Lena forced her battered limbs to move, driven entirely by adrenaline. Mara hoisted her from behind, pushing her over the sill into David's grip.
Just as David secured Lena onto the descent rungs, Mara stepped up to follow.
From the smoke-filled stairwell door on the other side of the room, a shape emerged.
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Victoria had not fled the property. She stepped through the flaming doorway, her navy dress burned away at the hem, her blonde hair singed to the scalp. In her right hand, she held a snub-nosed revolver, its steel frame reflecting the leaping flames.
""Nobody leaves,"" Victoria whispered.
