Whodunnit?

Chapter 17

"It still doesn't make sense.  I don't understand... I don't understand how-"

"You don't have to understand, Angelina.  This is what i'm telling you." 

A buried layer of skepticism hid beneath a shallow smile.

"It's Tana."

Suddenly, the air turned warm  and expectant.  And there was a rattling burst of what sounded like gunfire.

"Oh no.." were Angelina's last words before Maxine's dresser was flipped, and a roaring flame devoured the stairs below.

"What do we do?  What the was that?" Maxine asked, grabbing as much of her prized posessions as she could that were leaking from the overturned dresser.  The flames underneath rose higher.  The crystal chandeleirs and various other plastic decor melted and fell into the voracious fire eating it below.

Angelina's eyes reflected in the fire.  Everything had been lost.

"What time is it?  What's happening?" She rushed out to the outdoors balcony on the side of Maxine's room.

"It's.. Three seventy four." Maxine replied slyly, glancing happily at her watch.  Tears welled up in my eyes.

"Max!  Come here!" I yelled from the balcony.  If there was anyway fathomable that we could escape the fire, we had to jump.

Maxine jogged over slowly, gold jewewlry and diamond necklaces stuffed in her pockets and such, wooly, fuzzy socks and presumably elegant expensive perfumes, as she emitted a familiar sweet smell.

"We have to jump." Maxine looked at the height below her.

"Max, what are you, crazy?"

"Shut up." She hushed me unapolagetically and grabbed my sweaty hand.

"I'm not jumping!" I resisted.

"Look behind you."

I looked behind myself, and then got lost in what I saw- a burning building is what I saw.  I never experienced a fire this close before.  

The rapid, vivid colors were spreading, burning it's every victim into a black crumbly crisp.  

I watched the glass of the oak grandfather clock sweat and then blacken as it withered to the ground defenslessly.  

The smoke suddenly attacked her sight and her lungs,  and everything around me became a smoky white fog bath.  I exhaled sharply, blowing the dust and smoke around me that cleared a small space that quickly was covered up again.

"I'm jumping," she said, "and you are too."

Before I even had the thought to resist, she grabbed my hand, and we jumped over the railing.  

Unlike how most dramatic movie star jumps go, my legs weren't flailed horizantally in the air and I bravely peered at the ground below, and my hair effortlessly blew behind me as I seamessly escape the building the seconds before it blows up.

In reality, I felt quite weighty- when you're on the ground, there's always something there- whether it be a cabintet, a lamp, or the floor.

When you're not on ground, it seems like the whole way down, you're trying to grab onto something that just isn't there.  There's some security when something is in front of you- you take that security for granted- that there's always something around you- and eventually you get used to it.  It's when something isn't there when there's a problem.

My feet stayed vertical, my hair shot up and me and Maxine did not stay together the entire jump.  Her hand was so conditioned with nervous sweat that it slipped out of mine.  As I descended, I felt the heat get hotter beneath my feat and my eyes got dry and stiff.  

I definitely landed somewhere near the rose bushes, but the impact was so severe that I nearly blacked out.

Bright, blinding sun spots suddenly clouded my vision- unlike anything i've ever seen before.  My eyes seemed to work themselves shut instead of open.  I blinked my eyes furiously until I could hear the sound of my own dry eyeballs blinking.

I tried to find Maxine, while trying to save myself as I scrambled away from the building, dirt, stones and thorns still buried into my shorts and skin.

And in the corner of my eyes near the farthest rosebush in the farthesr corner of the courtyard, I saw a faint figure quickly drag a lifeless Tana away- I could tell it was her by the blonde mop following the figure.  The person pulled the drawstring of their hoodie cloosed, encapsulating and covering their entire face.  

Then I saw the gun rising up from their hand, and then I felt nothing- the sound, the situation, the heat, and the tiredness was just all too much.  My head hit the stone beneath me and Sasha and Deena soon ran to my rescue.

I wasn't dead.  But I know whodunnit.