Page 176 of Please Open Me
“Keep coming,” I said, suppressing a cough. “You’re close.”
“It hurts to breathe,” she choked out.
“Then don’t. Take a big breath and hold it,” I said, panicking. “Once we’re outside–”
CRACK.
The sound split the air. I looked up to see glowing orange veins spider across the ceiling.
Oh fuck.
The orange glow deepened, and my knees went weak, but I fought the urge to drop.
“Mason, come on–”
BOOM!
Tangerine light swallowed the room. For a second, I saweverything.
The beam collapsing in a rain of sparks. Ash falling like snow. Mason’s books igniting, page by page, like they’d been waiting for this.
But I couldn’t see her.
And that was worse than the flames.
Because I couldhearher.
Not gasping, not shouting. Screaming. A blood-curdling,I’m in painscream.
“MASON!”
Before I could think twice, I dove toward the wreckage, dropping to my knees as a burst of fire singed the carpet behind me. Heat clawed at my face, smoke filled my lungs–but nothing compared to the raw terror of not being able to reach her.
“I’m here! I’m right here!” I yelled, crawling under the smoldering drywall. “Hang on! I’m coming!”
Her screams dissolved into gasping sobs, and I followed the sound like breadcrumbs through hell.
Then I saw her.
Curled near the desk, half-buried in debris. Eyes wild with pain, hair matted to her face. But all I saw were her hands clutching her belly.
My heart stopped.
Then I saw her ankle pinned beneath the beam. Her foot twisted at an angle no human foot should twist.
“No.”
“Mason,” I breathed, crawling closer. The floor was hot and sticky, the scent of iron thick in the smoke. “Fuck–oh my God.”
“I’m okay,” she lied through gritted teeth, eyes swimming with tears. “I’m okay.”
“You’re not. Your foot–” I reached for the beam, but she pushed at me weakly.
“Don’t! You’ll hurt yourself–”
“I give asingle fuck!” My voice cracked as I reached again, desperate. “You’re trapped, Mason. There’s fire, you’re pinned, you’re pregnant–”
“Sebastian,” she sobbed, clutching my shirt. “You need to go. I’m stuck. If you stay, you’re going to die.”
