Limitless

Chapter 37

All I heard was a commotion behind us. People started yelling and running around so I assumed that it was a fight until I felt the warmth from the- 

"FIRE!"

Harry looked up from the lacrosse team circle as someone shouted and alerted the rest of us. His eyes widened as he looked behind me at the flames. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see the black curtains hanging along the windows of the hallway be engulfed within seconds, and moments later the flames jumped to the curtains that lined the bookcases in the library.  People started to rush by me as my eyes locked on Harry's. He dropped his drink and leapt over the table in front of him.

Mentally I was completely jumbled up.  It seemed like when I got into situations like these, my mind shut down and my body just took over.  When Catalina set the bathroom trashcan on fire after beating be up, I watched the flames spread to the paper towels and then up the wall, to the wooden bathroom stalls and then continue to spread all around me.  Mentally, I just gave up.  There was no panic, no sense of urgency.  I just laid there on the floor, feeling beaten and helpless.  As I stood in the Briarwood library and took in all that was going on, I tried my hardest not to let my mind slip into some sort of apathetic nothingness.  My feet began to move toward Harry and my hand stretched out in front of me, reaching further and further for Harry's hand. Our fingers entwined and Harry's grip around my hand was tighter than ever. Before, I gave up because I thought no one would care if I burned to death.  But the same guy who cared enough to save me, a stranger, the first time cared enough to protect me, the love of his life, again this time.  He looked around. 

"We can't get out the way we came! The hallway is scorched!" He yelled down to me. I looked up the tall walls of the library to the windows just below the ceiling of the room. Why did we have to have such a tall library? 

"Is there another library entrance?" 

Harry shook his head. "I don't know!" 

The flames behind us swayed and grew as someone opened a door and allowed a rush of air into the room.  The flames leapt onto another bookcase and instantly overwhelmed them.  Harry turned and began to pull me toward the back of the library. Girls and guys all rushed around us in a panic. I spotted Louis standing on a table looking around. He finally spotted me waving my hand and shouting at him, and he jumped down from the table, grabbed Niall and Liam, and pulled them through the crowd to us. 

"Where do we go?" Louis yelled at Harry. Harry looked at Liam. Liam shrugged.

"I don't know from here!" Liam raised his voice over the commotion. 

"It's your school!" Louis shouted, glancing nervously back at the fire spreading behind us. 

"What about like a teachers lounge behind the library or something? There has to be a little librarian hangout!  Maybe there is an exit there!" I called up to Harry. He bit his lip but turned quickly and pulled me behind him to the library desk. The other three boys followed us. When we got into the room behind the desk, Liam shut the door. 

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" I blurted, suddenly having horrible flashbacks from the fire that was set at my party. 

Harry rubbed my shoulders and kissed me on the top of my head. "It's okay baby, we'll make it out," he said breathlessly, looking around the room. 

"Apparently one of the sophomores thought it would be funny to start a fire like last time," Niall explained. 

"Funny..." I grumbled. 

"Guys over here!" Liam called from behind some shelves of paperwork and old textbooks. He unlocked a door and pushed it open to reveal another hallway. We stepped out into the cool halls that had been untouched by the fire. "I think this is the C Wing.  It connects to the main hall," Liam explained.  Down the hall, I could see the glow from the flames that were roaring in the front hallway. At the opposite end of the C Wing was a door to outside. We all ran to it and Louis and Liam tried to pull the doors open. Niall and Harry jiggled the handle on a few of the classrooms around us in hopes of at least getting to a window.