The Blue Dress Sisters

CHAPTER 12: THE BELLS TOLL

It was Massimo, from the barn, who was the first to spot the fiery blaze erupting from the kitchen and the clouds of smoke gathering around the mansion's roof.

The smell of burning was so intense that the boy thought it was too late.

Cannoli was spinning in circles, barking at the window as if pointing out the danger.

The boy jumped out of bed, tied the dog to the leg of his bed, and ran, crossing the field that separated the stable from the house.

His heart pounding, he headed for the back door, from which the flames were shooting out. When he didn't hear or see anyone, he circled the place and began throwing stones at the windows of the girls' bedroom, shouting:

"Fire! Fire!"

Gisele was the first to hear the pebbles hitting the glass behind her bed, followed by Massimo's screams. Not knowing what was happening, she began to scream.

Sensing the commotion, the little girls began to wake up gradually. They soon noticed the smell of burning and that there was a fire somewhere. They called out to each other so that none of them would be left asleep.

Delilah ran around the bedroom, making sure that all the beds were empty.

"Quick, wake up, fire!" she shouted as she shook Pia by the shoulders to wake her up.

Meanwhile, Fatima was busy trying to find a way out. She grabbed the water jug that was on her nightstand, dampened a piece of her sheet to wrap around her hand, and opened the bedroom door.

Immediately, the smoke rushed in, blinding and suffocating them.

"Out the windows! Get out the windows!" Massimo called to them, gesturing.

On the lower floor, as soon as the sisters heard the girls' desperate screams, they woke up and began to leave through the front door, one by one.

Immacolata and Bonafila, on the other hand, crossed the sooty haze, heading upstairs to the girls' bedroom to help them.

Some of them were coughing and vomiting from inhaling the smoke.

Not knowing quite what to do, the two nuns tied sheets together to form a rope long enough to descend from the second-story window to the outside.

Fatima began to help the younger girls climb onto the makeshift rope to climb out the window. Massimo was waiting on the outside to catch them as they descended.

First Gisele, then Mestiere, then Delilah.

When Delilah landed in Massimo's arms, after Fatima helped her down, she hugged him tightly for a brief moment.

"I'll go to the parish and tell Father Flavio!" the little girl shouted, her face full of tears, before darting off through the darkness. The only thing illuminating her path was the reflection of the flames.

Terrified, she rattled the knocker of the parish house insistently as she called out to the priest between sobs and screams.

The man came out dressed in his nightclothes. When he saw the little girl, a bundle of nerves, with her face and nightgown blackened by soot, he was alarmed.

Looking up at the horizon, he saw a mixture of orange sparks and black haze coming from their house.

"It's on fire, help!" Delilah pointed towards the fire, pulling the priest's hand to follow her.

"Quick, Delilah! Get the buckets from the shed, as many as you can!" Flavio ordered her.

The girl obeyed.