Chapter Ten

The second the small bundle burst into flame, Johnny and Adriana snapped their heads in Claudia's direction. "What do we do?" Johnny asked frantically. The crackling of fire was getting louder, which meant the fires from the bundles that were thrown into the other windows were spreading.

Claudia's face had turned a ghostly white. She thought Anthony trying to kidnap Adriana had been extreme. But now he was trying to burn the freaking house down? That was way beyond what she thought even he would try.

"Claudia!" Johnny shouted as the roar of the fire grew louder. The entrance hall was burning fast, and they were still on the second floor. They needed to get out of here.

Johnny's shout of her name brought Claudia back to the issue at hand. She looked down at the spreading flames, gulping back a frightened lump in her throat. "We'll have to go out the back!" she yelled to her brother. "The front door is blocked!"

Adriana looked over the banister. Claudia's words were true. A line of flames blocked the entrance of the front door, but there were still sections of unburned floor near the hallway that led to the back of the house. They'd make it. With a few burns, perhaps, but they could do it. They had to.

"Come on!" Claudia shouted, leading the way down the stairs, her four-inch heels thumping with each frantic step they took. Johnny was right behind her, his hand sliding swiftly down the railing. Adriana brought up the rear, trying not to trip as she followed her mother and uncle. They had gotten down the steps just in time; as Adriana's feet finally touched the first floor, the fire started moving up the stairs, the railing that Johnny had been using just seconds earlier beginning to crumble under the flame's force.

The three of them ran down the hall, passing the open door of the office, which was completely unrecognizable. Everything in there was burned, and the fire was growing stronger. None of them had seen a fire grow so quickly, but Anthony must have meant serious business when he had thrown the heavy bundles through the windows.

Claudia and Johnny passed the office with ease, but just as Adriana was about to pass it as well, a burning beam from the ceiling came crashing down in front of her, a mere six inches from her feet, which had stopped dead in their tracks. If she had taken another step, she would have been killed.

Johnny and Claudia heard the crash and turned around to see Adriana standing behind the beam, which cut off the hall diagonally, leaving no room for her to pass. The fire from the beam was spreading just as quickly as the fire in the rest of the house, and Adriana took a couple steps back, coughing from all the smoke.

"Adriana!" Claudia shouted, tears forming in her eyes. She didn't want to stand there and watch her daughter burn, especially with such a look of fright on her face. But she couldn't go any closer, or else she would meet the same fate.

Adriana watched the beam burn in front of her, an impending sense of doom settling in her stomach. She didn't want to die this way, slowly and painfully. She continued coughing, tears forming in her eyes from her fear and the flames. She took another step back as the fire came closer. But after that last step, she realized something: she didn't have to meet a fiery death. The old Adriana would have accepted that, but not the new one. She took one last step back, a preparation step, then hurled herself into the air and over the beam, landing on her face on the other side.

"Oh, God," said Claudia as she and Johnny ran towards her daughter to help her up. They each grabbed a hand and pulled her to her feet, where she continued coughing into her elbow. There were a few scrapes on her face from the landing, but other than that she seemed intact. "Are you okay?"

"I'm alive, aren't I?" Adriana choked out through her coughs.

"We need to keep moving," Johnny insisted, continuing the route towards the back of the house.

They didn't meet anymore death traps on their way to the kitchen, but the walls were burning rapidly, the floors not too far behind. As they rounded the corner into the kitchen, the three of them stopped, staring in dread at what lay before them.

The kitchen had to have been one of the first rooms in the house to start burning. Everything, from the walls to the floors to the appliances, was on fire. Sparks from electrical wires added more flames to the volatile mix. The back door, their only exit option, was the one thing that wasn't completely covered in flames. There was a small hole through which they might be able to escape with a few burns and bruises as souvenirs.

"We have to get through there!" Claudia yelled, the roar of the flames becoming louder and louder. Just as the words were out of her mouth, a section of ceiling on the other side of the kitchen fell out of its place and onto the floor, sparks and flames jumping at the fall.

"Christ, it's already at the second floor," said Claudia, looking upwards. "Well, at least Daddy wanted us to have a fast death."

"Claudia, we can't afford conversation right now!" Johnny shouted at her as another section of ceiling made its way to the burning kitchen floor. The second it made contact with the almost disintegrated tile, Adriana felt a pair of arms scoop her off her feet and, their owner running, carry her towards the door. She looked up to see Johnny's determined face as he jumped in the air through the burning back door, a loud crash sounding as they both landed on the grass, Johnny falling on top of Adriana. As she landed, Adriana heard a soft crack, and felt a sharp pain in her right wrist. Once Johnny quickly crawled off of her, she looked down at the source on the pain. Her wrist was purple and swelling, the bone visible through the skin. Tears formed in her eyes, but she didn't cry. She just swallowed the lump in her throat as she turned to Johnny, whose face was covered in minor burns, and said, "I think my wrist is broken."

Johnny looked down at her wrist and saw the damage as Adriana cradled it in her left arm, her fingers curled at odd angles. He felt a little guilty for landing on her, but a broken wrist was better than being burnt alive. Speaking of which… "Where's Claudia?" he asked frantically, turning around. The door to kitchen, along with the rest of the back of the house, was completely engulfed in flames, but there was no sight of Claudia.

"I thought she was right behind us," said Adriana slowly, trying not to gasp in pain and worry.

Johnny continued looking at the burning house. Claudia was still in there, and he was not going to let his sister die. Without another word to Adriana, he started to head back towards the burning kitchen door, preparing to jump through the flames again. Adriana saw what he was doing, and immediately felt even more scared.

"Johnny, you can't go in there!" she insisted. "You'll burn! I have my cell phone. I'll call the fire department and they can go in and save her."

Johnny shook his head. "I can't wait for them to come. Claudia needs me now. Still call the fire department, though. And make sure they send a couple ambulances."

"I can't lose both of you!" Adriana screamed, but it was no use. Johnny had taken a step back and then hurled himself through the remains of the kitchen door again, disappearing into the fire.

Adriana began breathing deep and fast. Both Johnny and Claudia were inside the burning house. What if Claudia was stuck somewhere? What if Johnny burned trying to get her out from under something heavy? Adriana would truly be alone; they were the last family she had left, except for her psycho grandfather and nut-job brother, both of whom had to be responsible for this disaster.

She could barely feel the pain in her wrist anymore. All she could feel was the loud and rapid beating of her heart as she shakily pulled her phone out of her pocket with her left hand, and did as Johnny asked, watching the kitchen door the whole time, and praying that her family came out alive.