The Fire

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Present

"Have fun down there," said Josh.

"Say hi to Leah from me!" Katie exclaimed, throwing a small stick into the pit of darkness beneath us, lit at the end with an orange ball which clattered down the stairs, the sound fading as it grew further away.

The door shut. And a squeaking sound emanated from it as a seal around the door fell into place, and beneath our naked hands, I felt an oily substance. Millie and I were on the floor, and the undeniable sound of something bursting into flames met our ears. Millie looked at me with fear as we both turned towards the door. We knew there was no point, but we banged on the doors, even so, screaming for help, for anything, just for one last chance.

"JOSH!"

"KATIE!"

"KATIE!"

"JOSH!"

I stopped screaming first; I had begun to feel the heat, and the smoke entering my airways. I didn't know whether the fact I could see Millie more clearly was because my eyes were adjusting to the darkness, or the flames were growing bigger and getting ever more closer.

"Millie, it's no use."

Her screams faded away and turned to coughs, and the tears rose to the surface and flowed past her lower lashes as she rested her forehead against the door and closed her eyes. I didn't want her to close her eyes. They would soon be shut for eternity, at least provide them with the gift of sight for just a few more moments before darkness became the only thing they remembered. Give them one more chance.

"I can't believe it was him...all along. And Katie too. They took Leah from us...they..."

"Millie, look at me." I managed to say. She turned. To my delight, her beautiful brown eyes opened. "If this is the last time we see each other-"

"No. Don't talk like that, we're getting out of this Soph," she said, gripping my shoulders tightly and shaking me slightly.

"If we don't...I want you to know that I love you and I'm so grateful for everything that you've done for me," my body began to shake with emotion; my mind was telling me this was really it, I coughed in response to the building smoke "my life wouldn't have been the same without you and I can't apologise enough for how much I've blocked you out for the last couple of years. And Christian, please tell him I love him, and I always will. It's been so hard. Maybe it will be nice to forget about the world for a while. Let it go." I couldn't bring myself to say any more words, it hurt too much, but I said in my head as loud as I could, yes Christian, yes. I would have said yes.

Millie was sobbing now. She nodded. "I love you too Soph," she said through broken words and a broken smile. She moved round to sit next to me, one stair up. It was too smoky now; I could hardly make out the parts of Millie which I loved so dearly. Her cute little button nose, her beautiful, curly, orange hair, now frizzy from the events now buried in the past. The harder I tried to focus, the blurrier everything got. I coughed again. Millie said something. Tried to drag me to the door. I couldn't be bothered. The sweet sensation of peace had arisen to take over my body, making each nerve in my body feel a warm tingle. Maybe this hell that I had been living in would finally burn out. And Leah and I could be together. In peace.