The house fire

Jen has bought fresh bread, eggs, bacon and fruit and is driving hurriedly back to the house, eager to get back to her brand new lover. In her head, she replays their night of love-making, feeling giddy with the newness and excitement of it all. Briefly, she worries whether they have moved too quickly and wonders if she would have behaved differently if she had known it was Tilly's first time. She brushes the thought away reminding herself that it had been Tilly who had confidently lead the way when she herself had held back initially. She resolves to ask Tilly whether she is trying to make up for the fact that she was both the younger and the least experienced of the two.

As she approaches the house, she is puzzled to see three or four people gathered in the driveway looking with concern at the building in which she had left Tilly sleeping only 25 minutes before. She is forced to slow down her approach as the assembly of onlookers are blocking the entrance. She pulls over and rolls down the window of the jeep. She peers out - trying to understand the object of their interest – and is. horrified to see flames devouring the living room furniture through the set of french windows at the front of the house. Black smoke is starting to billow out of the window that Joel left open earlier.

Jen parks the car erratically at the side of the driveway and almost falls out in her haste to exit the vehicle. She approaches the small crowd of – she assumes – neighbours and asks in a panic "Have you seen a girl? Her name's Tilly. She has red hair...She was in the house when I left..."

"You mean there's someone in there?" asks one of the group, in shocked tones. "We all thought it was empty! We haven't seen anyone!"

"Oh my God! Tilly! Tilly!" yells Jen, bounding towards the house. She stops a few metres in front of the main door and searches frantically for a way in. It seems like the whole of the ground floor at the front of the house is well and truly on fire. She looks up at the first floor. She tries to figure out which windows belong to the bedroom she had left Tilly in, remembering Tilly leading her upstairs but not quite able to reconcile the relationship between the route they travelled and the layout of the house.

"Tilly!" she shouts again and wonders whether to throw a stone up at the window. No, first she decides to look for another way in and heads for the side of the house. She is stopped by one of the neighbours who grabs her arm. "We've called the fire brigade! You'd best wait for them, it's too dangerous!"

Jen yanks her arm away brusquely. "My ..." she pauses - uncertain how to describe her relationship to Tilly to a complete stranger. "My friend is in there and she could die if we don't do something!" she shouts. She continues on her original path and makes her way around the side of the house. The neighbour follows.

In Tilly's dreams, Jen is laid down beside her, still fully unclothed, hands and lips exploring exquisite, silky bodies. The dream begins to get hazy though and she is brought to consciousness by a loud crash coming from downstairs. She sits up and opens her eyes. She can immediately smell the smoke and rips the duvet off of her. She is naked and feeling vulnerable but quickly spies her dress and deftly puts it on over her head. She opens the door of the bedroom and is almost overwhelmed by the smoke now. She crosses the landing and approaches the stairs. She yells for Jen as she reaches the top of the stairs but the flames are rushing up to meet her and the heat propels her back across the hall into the bedroom. She slams the door in a panic and wonders desperately where Jen is, hoping that she is still out at the shops and not trapped somewhere in the fire.

Since the stairs are on fire, it seems her only hope is to escape through one of the windows. She tries to open the first window but it has a lock on it. She tries the next and the next but each one is locked and there is no sign of a key. She makes her way into the en-suite bathroom. There are two frosted windows in here, one is only tiny. This one has a different catch mechanism and she is able to open it but there is no way she'll be able to climb out of it. She starts to panic again, pulling at her hair.

"Think Tilly!" she says to herself out loud. She rushes back into the bedroom and looks for something to break the window with. The dressing table has a stool with three wooden legs. She picks it up and heads to the window. She tries to break the glass but it is double glazed and her first try makes no impression. She looks around for something heavier that she can easily wield. She sees bedside tables, shoes, clothes but nothing better than the object she already has in her hands. She tries again with the stool, aiming its wooden legs repeatedly at the toughened glass. At last she makes some headway. Two large cracks have appeared. She continues her efforts.

Meanwhile, outside, Jen is also frantically searching for an object that she can use to break in to the back of the house uncertain of what she will do if she manages to achieve that goal but resolving to try. Suddenly she hears the sound of the stool smashing at the window above her head. "Tilly!" she cries again. The neighbour sees the commotion as well and joins in the shouting.

Tilly hears her name and looks down to the garden to see Jen and the neighbour waving up at her.

"I can't get out!" shouts Tilly at the top of her voice. The sound is muffled through the closed window.

Jen looks in desperation at the neighbour. "What can we do?" she cries. The neighbour shakes his head but looks around him. "Maybe they'll have a ladder in the garage!" He points at a small, brick outbuilding that sits to the other side of the house and rushes to open the door, which of course, is padlocked. "Wait there!" he says decisively, I'll go and see if any of the neighbours have a ladder. Jen nods gratefully as he runs back around the side of the house.

Tilly has continued with her attack on the toughened glass and, at last, breaks through. She uses one of the legs to clear out the remaining glass from the frame and sticks her head out to investigate her options for escape. The window is wide enough to get through but she realises quickly that she faces a sixteen foot drop to a concrete patio below.

"Are you alright?" Jen shouts up at her.

"For now..." says Tilly looking nervously behind her.

"They've gone to get a ladder..." says Jen, hoping that the helpful neighbour succeeds, and quickly.

Tilly is reassured somewhat, "OK, I'll put my shoes on" says Tilly, not wanting to cut herself to shreds negotiating the shards of broken glass.

"Tilly, wait!" cries Jen, unhappy at seeing Tilly disappearing away from the window, figuring that Tilly will be OK so long as Jen can keep sight of her. Whilst Jen waits, she looks around the garden again, praying that the fire brigade or the neighbour will turn up with a means to get Tilly safely away from the burning wreckage.

Tilly appears at the window now but turns around in horror as the door of the bedroom – previously closed – is propelled inwards. She is thrown to the floor by the impact of the flames and the smoke sucked in by the air coming through the open window.

Jen can only hear the explosion from outside and cries out "Tilly!" in terror as Tilly's head, once again, but this time involuntarily, disappears from her view.

Tilly recovers and steels herself. The fire has only just entered the room. She picks up the still intact stool and places it by the window.

Jen, below, is relieved to see her lover reappear but then is alarmed that she is stepping through the broken window and onto the outer sill.

"Wait!" says Jen. "What are you doing?"

"The fire's in the bedroom now. I have to get out!" cries Tilly. She looks down and fearfully contemplates the drop.

"I've got nothing to break your fall! You'll break your neck!" yells Jen searching again impotently for anything that would cushion Tilly's landing.

"The fire's too close!" screams Tilly and hastened by the flames closing in on the large double bed at her back, she closes her eyes, makes a silent prayer and jumps...