Ch. 7

"I always knew you would come crawling back to her," she growls. "I should've gotten rid of her when I had the chance." she saunters on.

Finn swings the front door open. Just as he turns to PB, a strong odor fills his nose. She looks around, alarmed.

"Are you cooking something?" she asks, wafting the air away from her nose.

"No..." he replies, thinking. When a thought crosses his mind, he yells "Jake?" Finn bounds up the rungs of the ladder leading from the treasure room, peeking into the living room and catching eyesight of the kitchen. He gasps.

"Jake!?" he yelps like a lost puppy.

"What?" PB demands. She peeks into the room from below. "Is that–"

Finn jumps up into the living room. The heat coming from the kitchen intensifies as he nears it. He eyes the stove. It was engulfed in a bright fire, licking the ceiling.

"Get the extinguisher!" Finn demands, "I need to find BMO and Jake!"

She nods. She runs back to the door and picks up the large red device. She grunts and throws it up the ladder, climbing up after it. "Woah," PB mumbleS, seeing the intensity of the small kitchen fire. She picks up the extinguisher and clamps one of her hands around the nozzle. The powder slowly blankets the fire, as well as the kitchen countertops, but did not extinguish it fully.

"Jake?! BMO!?" Finn yells as he continues to climb up to their lofted bedroom. Finn leaps over the top rung of the ladder, and stumbles around their room. He looks at his drawers, then Jake's bed, then his own. He quickly runs to it and throws the blankets and furs onto the floor.

"Jake! Where are you!" he yells, then hacks and coughs, struggling to breathe. He stumbles back, his foot hitting the ladder.

"Jake!" he yells once more.

"They aren't here, Finn," the princess yells. She gets some of the fire in the kitchen under control, but the towels draping from the stove are still burning.

"Where else could they be? They were here when I left an hour ago!" Finn says.

"Maybe they left when the fire started?" she reasons. Finn hears a noise coming from behind one of the drawers. It's a soft staccato ringing. He runs to the drawer and throws it to its side.

"BMO!" he yells, looking at the space that was hidden before. He saw something shiny and picked it up. It was a wristwatch. Jake's wristwatch.

"What's this doing–" the sound of his voice is cut off from the crackling, coming from below him. The floor starts to cave from the pressure from under the drawer, then more rapidly as it falls through the floor to the kitchen. The cracks of the floorboard spread to his own feet, too quick to react to. and he falls as well.

The fall from the third floor to the second is a short one, and he falls near the stove, the fire spreading onto his clothes and the cabinet. The cracking sound from the wooden floor doesn't cease, until Finn's bed falls through the void.

"PB!" yells, getting to his his feet and taking off.

Debris falls from above them, making it hard to see, while Finn sprints to PB. He pushes her to safety less than a second before his bed falls on top of him. She yells at him, not seeing what just happened, before his furs falling from above catch her by surprise and she collapses awkwardly on one knee. She catches herself, and throws the heavy blankets from her shoulders onto the floor beside her.

She looks over at where she saw him last.

"Finn?" she calls. She sees him struggling to get up. His left leg is pinned under the bed frame. She gasps, then rushes over, trying to lift it off of him. She moves it up, off of him long enough for him to get out from under it. He immediately stands, but falls again, onto his right leg. Sharp pain shoots up from his injured leg. He hisses under his breath.

"Are you okay?" PB asks, worriedly.

"I'm fine," he replies, steadying himself again, and walks to the ladder leading to the treasure room. "We should get out of here. You go first," he says, motioning to the ladder.

"Okay," she agrees, sliding down to the exit. She opens the door, still waiting for him to get down. He slides down the ladder following her, and they exit the house together.

PB sees the expression on his face as they are running from the house, which is now up in flames. He looks panicked.

They rest to a halt, both coughing from the lack of oxygen. Finn takes a breath a deep air, and sits down. She follows his example, but lays down beside him.

"Are you okay? You almost got crushed," Finn says, seeing her exhausted expression. She continues staring up at the sky.

"I'm fine," she assures. She looks over at him and sits up. "But what about you?" She asks as she looks at his leg, bent and swollen. He gives her a quizzical look. "Your leg looks injured," she states.

He bends it, not feeling anything especially noticeable. "I don't feel anything," he responds, shrugging. He touches it and winces. "It's just a bruise."

"That's a serious bruise," she says back, in all seriousness.

"It'll heal on its own," he says, looking up. She follows his gaze.

"It's getting dark. I'll put an alert on for the night, and we can go looking as soon as possible," she says. She remembers her bags, and how they are trapped until further notice. "Do you know where I can find a phone?" she asks.

He shakes his head. "Not anywhere near here, unfortunately," he replies. She sighs.

"Sorry. I can't do anything without a phone," she states solemnly. She catches a drop of rain on her nose and frowns.

"It's going to rain," Finn says, having felt a sprinkle as well. "We should go into the forest until it clears. We'll get good coverage."

As they are walking to the trees, Finn has an idea.

"Meet me over there," he points, "I'm going to get something from the house," he runs off in the opposite direction, being watched by PB as she continues to walk.

Finn runs to the side of the burning treehouse. He scratches at the bark, it not wanting to come off, then moves to the front of the house. He cracks his fingers, then pries loose a few non-burning planks from the entrance floor, gathering them in his arms.

"This should be enough," he assumes, and runs with five large planks of wood toward the tree line.

Don't be afraid to submit ideas for the next chapter, I'm all about that. See you next time!