I'm such a horrible person… I just love torturing James. :P I don't own anything, so don't sue me please.
I awoke slowly. There was a loud fog horn type noise going off and this man's voice talking loudly. Across the room I heard Carlos wake up. He shot up in bed and immediately started rambling. "What's going on? What's happening? What's going on? What's happening?"
Who is that guy talking? I wondered. And why is it so hot in here?
Suddenly, my mind was able to focus on what the "man" was saying. "Please exit the building. This in an emergency evacuation. Please exit the building."
Suddenly, it clicked. That wasn't a man's voice. That was a recording, and the fog horn was the fire alarm. Carlos jumped out of bed and grabbed his phone and helmet. "Come on, Jay! We've got to go!" he exclaimed, grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of bed. I snatched my phone and glasses off my nightstand before following him out the door of our room, where we immediately stopped in our tracks. The entire apartment was on fire.
I had a fleeting thought of wondering where everyone else was before I remembered they were in Minnesota for the weekend. Mrs. Knight's sister was sick, so she took Kendall and Katie, and Logan went down to visit his parents for his birthday.
"Jamie?" Carlos whimpered next to me. "How do we get out?"
I had no clue. We couldn't get down the swirly slide because it was quickly melting into a puddle of plastic, and I had no idea what was down the stairs. Even if we got downstairs, the fire was everywhere. Suddenly, a small path opened up to the door. As dangerous as it was, it was our best bet.
"This way, Carlitos," I coughed, grabbing his wrist. There was so much smoke. It was making it hard to breathe and my heart rate quickened once we got down the stairs and saw the wall of heat in front of us.
I linked my arm with his and led him through the fiery maze. As soon as the front door was in sight, I pushed him ahead of me.
"Which way?" he asked, coughing and covering his nose and mouth with his hand.
"Go to the door," I coughed, following closely behind him.
He grabbed the handle and quickly wrenched it back, hissing. I looked through the peephole, seeing a normal looking hallway. So the handle was just hot from the fire inside the apartment. I put my hand over my mouth to try to breathe better, because it was getting really hard.
I wrapped the bottom of my shirt around my hand and grabbed the handle, biting my lip at the pain. As soon as it was open enough, I shooed Carlos through it and squeezed through myself. I had unwrapped my hand when I was through, and I sincerely regretted that once I shut the door. I had to pull the door shut with my bare hand, and I'm pretty sure it was scorched.
Once in the hall way, I took a deep breath, regretting it immediately because there was so much smoke in the hall way it was making it difficult to see.
"The stairs," Carlos coughed. I nodded, unable to answer.
The stairs were horrible. It was dark and smoky, and I still couldn't get a good breath. I reached in my pocket for my inhaler before realizing, shit, I left my inhaler inside my nightstand. If possible, that realization made breathing even harder.
"James? Are you okay?" Carlos asked once we were in the lobby. I still hadn't stopped coughing, and back dots were starting to dance around my vision. Carlos took my wrist and led me out of the burning building.
All of our friends were watching the firefighters do their jobs. They were asking if anyone was still inside and trying to put the fire out with their massive hoses. We had just reached the safety zone when I collapsed to my knees. I couldn't keep walking and breathing at the same time.
"Jay? It's going to be aright I promise! Please try to breathe! Where's you're inhaler? Jay answer me, please!" Carlos begged, trying to get me to look at him.
Talking was a monumental task, but I was able to wheeze out "room."
One of the paramedics came over with an oxygen mask, but I was beyond the point of that helping. I heard Carlos explaining the situation to them, and then everything went black.
~BTR~
I awoke slowly. My eyes fluttered open to see Carlos sitting next to me holding my gauze wrapped hand. The next thing I became aware of was something in my throat. Whatever it was, it wasn't allowing me to control my own breathing.
Carlos had been watching me, and gasped once my eyes opened. "James!" he cried, gently wrapping his arms around me. I returned the gesture, while also trying to prevent a panic attack. "Don't freak out," Carlos ordered, reaching over to press the call button. "They shoved a breathing tube down your throat so your lungs didn't have to work so hard after the fire and the asthma attack. The nurse said she would take it out once you woke up."
As if on cue, a blonde nurse walked in. "Alright, James. On three I need you to start coughing for me, okay? One, two, three," she counted, starting to pull the tube out. I started coughing, and once I started, it was getting hard to stop. After a few minutes though, I finally got my breathing under control and she went away for a few minutes before coming back with an oxygen mask.
"Since you just inhaled a lot of smoke and had an asthma attack, the doctor wants you to wear the oxygen mask for a few more hours, okay sweetie?" she explained, putting the strap around my head. I simply nodded. I didn't like it, but I understood it.
Carlos must have seen the look on my face, because he said "Don't worry, dude. They made me wear one for the last few hours, too."
"Good. Now I know you aren't immune to hospital protocol," I teased, but I was distracted. Was that really my voice? That muffled hoarse noise? No way.
Carlos just laughed. "Nope. Nearly everyone at the Palm Woods had to wear one," he said. It was quiet for a while, but Carlos broke the seeming endless stretch of silence. "I called Mama Knight. She said they were on the first flight out of Minnesota."
This whole night was too surreal. "'Litos?" I asked, glancing up at my oldest brother. "What are going to do? Where are we going to live?" There was no way that everything that transpired that night actually happened. It must have been some weird dream, and the only reason I was sitting in the hospital now was because of an asthma attack.
Carlos' usually bright brown eyes looked uncharacteristically sad. "I have no clue, Jay," he said. "Apparently, they were able to stop the fire, but about half the Palm Woods burned down. They're going to start construction ASAP."
We talked for a few more hours before lapsing into silence. Before we knew it, we had fallen asleep and were being woken up by a group of people walking into the room.
I opened my eyes ad stretched a little, noticing Carlos was curled up next to me on the bed. I looked toward the door and saw Mama Knight, Katie, Kendall, and Logan and standing there looking at us.
"Oh thank God you boys are okay," Mama Knight cried, rushing forward and hugging us close. She pulled away, studying my face. "James? What happened? Are you boys okay?" She asked.
The other three came over to us and gave us hugs before sitting down on the bed and the one chair in the room.
"Yeah, Mama Knight, we're fine," I reassured her.
She gave me her don't mess with me look and stared pointedly at my hand and the oxygen mask.
I sighed. "Really! I'm fine! I just burned my hand a little and inhaled a little too much smoke," I insisted.
"Yeah and had an asthma attack." Dammit Carlos!
I got a half-hearted glare from Mrs. Knight. She sighed, not seeming to have the energy to actually reprimand us.
She pulled all of us into a hug. "Don't worry children. Everything will be fine. I'll make sure of it."
So the ending is crap. I'm sorry about that. I just kinda lost interest halfway through. I hope everyone is staying warm. It's in the thirties in Florida this week. Let me know what you think please! :)
~ Nikki