Lark tried desperately to free herself from the harness. The stagehand had
definitely done his job; there was no way that she could fall out of the
harness. But she really needed to at this moment. Gritting her teeth she
took hold of the thin strings that supported her and began to haul herself
upwards. She could feel the heat of the fire beneath her, and this only
made her more desperate to get out of reach of the crackling flames.
Ignoring the pain brought on by the thin wires cutting her hands, Lark managed to pull herself up to the rafters above the stage. She slipped her harness off and looked below her. She was some thirty feet above the stage, which was fast disappearing as the fire devoured it. Lark could see the audience still pushing to get out of the hall. Cat-like she crawled along the narrow beams above the stage.
She found a rope that was attached to a pulley mechanism to lower a piece of scenery. Hoping desperately that it would hold her weight she took it in her arms and jumped. She fell for a few feet before the rope became taught. Gracefully she was lowered to the ground as her weight, slightly more than that of the prop the rope was attached to, brought her downwards. She managed to land at the side of the stage in an area that was not engulfed in flames.
As soon as her feet hit the floor she began to run. She was heading for the exit when she heard a man yell. She turned around, realising that the cry came from backstage.
"The cast and stagehands!" She said to herself. "They might be trapped!"
She ran back the way she had come and crashed through a door to one of the backstage corridors. Flames were licking up one side of the corridor. She could hear shouting coming from behind one of the doors on this side of the corridor.
"Hello?" She shouted.
"Help us!" Came a voice.
"Stand away from the door!" Lark shouted. She kicked at the wooden door and it flew open. "Get out!" She shouted to the two boys inside.
"It's Stuart!" Said one of the stagehands. "He's asthmatic and the smoke.he isn't breathing."
"We have to get him outside!" Lark shouted. Between them Lark and the stagehand managed to hoist the unconscious Stuart up and slowly walked out of the room into the corridor. Coughing violently they struggled up the corridor, only to find that some flames had already blocked their paths. "Through the back way!" Lark called. They retraced their footsteps to a door that would lead to the large props room at the back of the building. There was a fire exit in that room.
"It's locked!" Shouted the stagehand, trying desperately to open the door.
"Come on, there must be another way out!" Lark shouted. She picked up Stuart's feet and they had moved a few metres from the door when it crashed open.
"This way!" Batman shouted to them. Lark saw him in relief. They struggled over to him. The props room had not yet caught fire. Batman closed the broken door behind them. "Lets get out of here!" He said, grabbing Lark's arm.
"No!" She said, pulling her arm away form him. "There could still be people in there."
"Then take him out, I'll check for others!" Batman said.
"No!" Lark blocked his way. "You're the only one strong enough to carry Stuart out. I'll go back."
"I won't let you." Batman replied.
"You know it makes sense!" Lark shouted angrily. "I know my way round the backstage area better than you do. And I know the way to my dressing room, Bruce is still there!" Batman tried to protest but Lark dumped Stuart in his arms and rushed back in before he could say anything.
Batman picked up the limp Stuart in his arms and shouted, "Follow me!" to the other stagehand. As they ran out of the building a fire engine pulled up by the school.
Meanwhile Lark ran through the labyrinthine passages shouting. No one answered her. Eventually she got to her dressing room. She flung the door open to find that Bruce wasn't there, but his walking stick was. He couldn't be far away.
"Bruce!" She called, running aimlessly through the smoke filled passages. "Anyone? Is there anyone else in here?" She found herself in the depths of the backstage rooms, where the fire at least had not spread. She checked every room, but could find no one. She hoped that they had all got out, but she knew that she had to check.
"Hello?" She choked. She worked her way down to the end of the passage to the last door. She left it, thinking that it would be empty, when she heard something moving inside. "Is anyone there?" She asked. Without waiting for a reply she opened the door. Miss McCracken was sitting at her desk reading.
"Miss, we have to get out of here, there's a fire!" Lark shouted.
"I know." Miss McCracken said coolly, turning the pages of her book.
"We have to leave!" Lark cried.
"No we don't."
"You don't seem to understand. The fire."
"I started it." Miss McCracken said, standing up and facing Lark. In the smoky light she no longer looked younger and happy, but strange and somewhat scary.
"What?" Lark gasped.
"I started the fire beneath the stage." Miss McCracken said, walking forwards. As if to prove a point she pulled some matches out of her pocket, lit one and let it drop to the floor. The carpet began to slowly burn.
"What are you doing?" Lark asked, stamping the fire out. But Miss McCracken took Lark by the throat and lifted the slight girl clean off her feet.
"Don't meddle girl. You have already meddled enough!" She threw Lark against the wall. Lark slid to the ground but hauled herself back up again.
"You are Dracula's Nemesis?" She gasped.
"That I am. You were clever to work it out." The teacher replied sinisterly. "But you were on my trail from the beginning weren't you."
"You planted the note. It was written using school supplies that you got from the school store cupboard." Lark said.
"Yes I did. I had the lighting rigged on a timer so that it would go off after a certain period of time. Then I planted the note." Miss McCracken explained.
"And the Dextorine that Kim drank." Lark continued.
"That was meant for you!" Miss McCracken snarled. "I made it in the chemistry lab, it was rather easy. Then I planted it in your drink, no one noticed. I knew that you took the note, so I thought that I should get rid of you first, but it didn't matter that Kim took it, stupid girl."
"So you tried to get rid of me by placing that grease on the floor so that I would slip." Lark said. The fire was rushing down the corridor, but Lark had forgotten about it.
"Boiler grease from the school machines, the caretaker left it lying around. Then I rigged the light above the stage so that it would fall on Sam, because I knew where he would be standing for that scene. It was all too easy. Getting Dana was the easiest part!"
"Bitch!" Lark shouted at the teacher.
"Language!" She scolded, and then laughed. "Yes, Dana's 'accident' was perhaps the most fulfilling. That crack when she hit the ground, it's a shame she didn't die!" Lark flung herself at the teacher, but she simply knocked Lark aside. "Easy enough to make the explosive too, once again I made use of the chemistry lab."
"Why?" Lark asked, her breathing harsh, partly because of her anger but mainly due to the smoke that had filled the room. Dotted around the room little sparks of fire were burning.
"Because I was being laid off." Snarled Miss McCracken. "They said they had no need for my services in the school anymore. I was permitted to run one more show. So I decided if I couldn't run shows at this school anymore, no one can. After the disastrous events of this production who would want to run another one?"
Lark heard a crash as somewhere nearby a ceiling collapsed. "Miss, I don't care what you did." She urged her teacher quickly but quietly. "Please come with me. We can get you help, they might not sack you. You could do another play, or this one again. But please, you have to come out with me. This place is falling down and if we are still inside when it falls."
"No. I'm staying here!" Miss McCracken said. "If I come out they will just lock me up. I'm going to die here."
"Please, come with me." Lark begged.
"I'm afraid you can't leave either. You are the only person who knows my identity, and I don't want everyone to remember me as Dracula's Nemesis. I want to be remembered as the brave teacher who gave her life trying to save an innocent student from the fire. Poor innocent Lark Robertson, who perished in the fire with her favourite teacher."
"No!" Lark gasped. All around them the ceiling was starting to cave in. Bits of burning plaster fell to the ground where they ignited the carpet underfoot.
"It's too late!" Miss McCracken cackled as a large crack appeared in the ceiling above her. She laughed hysterically as bits of plaster fell on her head. The ceiling gave a tremendous groan and began to buckle. Lark turned and ran.
"It's futile!" Miss McCracken laughed, but her laughs were quickly drowned out as the ceiling finally gave way and collapsed on top of her. As Lark ran down the corridor pictures, doors and ornaments fell to the ground. She had made it to the end of the corridor and was running up another passageway when she heard a huge grumble. As the walls gave in around her she flung herself forwards into a stairwell.
She managed to fling her body out of the corridor in time as the walls collapsed. However a falling metal beam crashed down onto her legs. Lark screamed in agony and tried to move her legs, but the beam was too heavy. She was lying face down on a landing, with stairs leading to the ground level in front of her. She had ended up in the stairwell, where thankfully the stairs were still holding out. But the wooden banisters above her head were burning and Lark knew that it was only a matter of time before they gave way, and if she was still under there when they fell.
She struggled desperately to move her legs, but the beam was too heavy and for some reason she could hardly move her legs. She groaned in pain as she tried to move them. She flumped her head onto her outstretched arms and bit back tears.
"Hello?" She called frantically, hoping against hope that someone was there to hear her, but knowing in her heart that they weren't. She shifted uncomfortably. She was lying on something hard. She reached her hand down and picked it up. It was the personal alarm that Terry had given her.
She chucked it at the wall in anger, which set the alarm off. It beeped non-stop, the harsh tones reached Lark's ears and annoyed her, but she couldn't reach it to turn it off. She sighed and let tears roll down her face. She was going to die.
"Lark!" Lark heard a voice. She thought that she was dreaming. She looked around but could see nothing but smoke and flames. It must have been something else. She put her head back down on her arms again. "Lark!" She definitely heard it that time. Looking up she saw a dark figure descending towards her.
"Batman?" She asked. Batman landed beside her having half abseiled down the stairwell. "How did you?" She asked weakly. The fumes had gone to her head slightly and she wasn't sure if she was hallucinating or not.
"I'm here." He said, kneeling beside her. He picked up her body and hugged her close to him. She coughed but held onto him, this wasn't a dream. "We have to get out of here." He said.
"I can't!" Lark wailed. Batman saw the beam pinning her legs to the ground. He crawled over to it.
"Lark listen to me. When I lift this you have to get your legs out from under it." He said. Lark nodded.
Batman braced himself before lifting the two tonne beam. He could only manage to lift it two inches off of Lark's legs. "Go!" He shouted.
"I can't." Lark said, trying to move her legs but only feeling blinding pain ricochet up her legs.
"I can't hold it much longer!" Batman groaned. With some effort Lark managed to drag herself forwards. Batman dropped the beam once her feet were clear.
He quickly took a look at Lark's legs. "They're both broken." He said. We need to get out of here." They both flinched as they heard a crash as somewhere else another ceiling collapsed. Batman picked Lark up in his arms and used his blasters on his boots to lift them up. They soared upwards and crashed through the skylight at the top of the staircase just as all the stairs collapsed in a cacophony of dust and smoke. Lark clung to Batman as he flew her over to where some ambulances were taking burned spectators and cast members to hospital.
"Here's another one. This one is an emergency." Batman said, placing Lark on one of the beds inside an ambulance. "Both legs are broken and I think she inhaled a bit too much smoke."
Lark turned her head towards Batman. "Bruce.he was in my dressing room."
"He's fine." Batman said. "He wasn't even in the building when the fire started."
Lark smiled before blacking out. Batman watched as the ambulance drove off, lights flashing and sirens screaming. Before anyone could speak to him he flew off into the night, leaving the fire brigade to put out the blaze and the doctors to load the more seriously injured people into ambulances. Once inside a dark alley Batman stripped off his suit to become Terry McGinnis. He rushed back to the scene before anyone could miss him.
"Terry!" Max said, seeing him. "I was so worried, I couldn't find you anywhere."
"I got out pretty quickly, but I think the fumes went to my head, I fainted for a while." Terry lied. "Where's Lark, and Bruce?"
"Bruce went home." Max said as a doctor came over and wrapped blankets round them. "But Lark." Max's voice choked with tears. "She was taken off to hospital, she looked terrible Terry."
Terry stood comforting Max as they watched the fire brigade kill the last of the dying flames and enter the smouldering, charcoal black ruin to check for any casualties.
Ignoring the pain brought on by the thin wires cutting her hands, Lark managed to pull herself up to the rafters above the stage. She slipped her harness off and looked below her. She was some thirty feet above the stage, which was fast disappearing as the fire devoured it. Lark could see the audience still pushing to get out of the hall. Cat-like she crawled along the narrow beams above the stage.
She found a rope that was attached to a pulley mechanism to lower a piece of scenery. Hoping desperately that it would hold her weight she took it in her arms and jumped. She fell for a few feet before the rope became taught. Gracefully she was lowered to the ground as her weight, slightly more than that of the prop the rope was attached to, brought her downwards. She managed to land at the side of the stage in an area that was not engulfed in flames.
As soon as her feet hit the floor she began to run. She was heading for the exit when she heard a man yell. She turned around, realising that the cry came from backstage.
"The cast and stagehands!" She said to herself. "They might be trapped!"
She ran back the way she had come and crashed through a door to one of the backstage corridors. Flames were licking up one side of the corridor. She could hear shouting coming from behind one of the doors on this side of the corridor.
"Hello?" She shouted.
"Help us!" Came a voice.
"Stand away from the door!" Lark shouted. She kicked at the wooden door and it flew open. "Get out!" She shouted to the two boys inside.
"It's Stuart!" Said one of the stagehands. "He's asthmatic and the smoke.he isn't breathing."
"We have to get him outside!" Lark shouted. Between them Lark and the stagehand managed to hoist the unconscious Stuart up and slowly walked out of the room into the corridor. Coughing violently they struggled up the corridor, only to find that some flames had already blocked their paths. "Through the back way!" Lark called. They retraced their footsteps to a door that would lead to the large props room at the back of the building. There was a fire exit in that room.
"It's locked!" Shouted the stagehand, trying desperately to open the door.
"Come on, there must be another way out!" Lark shouted. She picked up Stuart's feet and they had moved a few metres from the door when it crashed open.
"This way!" Batman shouted to them. Lark saw him in relief. They struggled over to him. The props room had not yet caught fire. Batman closed the broken door behind them. "Lets get out of here!" He said, grabbing Lark's arm.
"No!" She said, pulling her arm away form him. "There could still be people in there."
"Then take him out, I'll check for others!" Batman said.
"No!" Lark blocked his way. "You're the only one strong enough to carry Stuart out. I'll go back."
"I won't let you." Batman replied.
"You know it makes sense!" Lark shouted angrily. "I know my way round the backstage area better than you do. And I know the way to my dressing room, Bruce is still there!" Batman tried to protest but Lark dumped Stuart in his arms and rushed back in before he could say anything.
Batman picked up the limp Stuart in his arms and shouted, "Follow me!" to the other stagehand. As they ran out of the building a fire engine pulled up by the school.
Meanwhile Lark ran through the labyrinthine passages shouting. No one answered her. Eventually she got to her dressing room. She flung the door open to find that Bruce wasn't there, but his walking stick was. He couldn't be far away.
"Bruce!" She called, running aimlessly through the smoke filled passages. "Anyone? Is there anyone else in here?" She found herself in the depths of the backstage rooms, where the fire at least had not spread. She checked every room, but could find no one. She hoped that they had all got out, but she knew that she had to check.
"Hello?" She choked. She worked her way down to the end of the passage to the last door. She left it, thinking that it would be empty, when she heard something moving inside. "Is anyone there?" She asked. Without waiting for a reply she opened the door. Miss McCracken was sitting at her desk reading.
"Miss, we have to get out of here, there's a fire!" Lark shouted.
"I know." Miss McCracken said coolly, turning the pages of her book.
"We have to leave!" Lark cried.
"No we don't."
"You don't seem to understand. The fire."
"I started it." Miss McCracken said, standing up and facing Lark. In the smoky light she no longer looked younger and happy, but strange and somewhat scary.
"What?" Lark gasped.
"I started the fire beneath the stage." Miss McCracken said, walking forwards. As if to prove a point she pulled some matches out of her pocket, lit one and let it drop to the floor. The carpet began to slowly burn.
"What are you doing?" Lark asked, stamping the fire out. But Miss McCracken took Lark by the throat and lifted the slight girl clean off her feet.
"Don't meddle girl. You have already meddled enough!" She threw Lark against the wall. Lark slid to the ground but hauled herself back up again.
"You are Dracula's Nemesis?" She gasped.
"That I am. You were clever to work it out." The teacher replied sinisterly. "But you were on my trail from the beginning weren't you."
"You planted the note. It was written using school supplies that you got from the school store cupboard." Lark said.
"Yes I did. I had the lighting rigged on a timer so that it would go off after a certain period of time. Then I planted the note." Miss McCracken explained.
"And the Dextorine that Kim drank." Lark continued.
"That was meant for you!" Miss McCracken snarled. "I made it in the chemistry lab, it was rather easy. Then I planted it in your drink, no one noticed. I knew that you took the note, so I thought that I should get rid of you first, but it didn't matter that Kim took it, stupid girl."
"So you tried to get rid of me by placing that grease on the floor so that I would slip." Lark said. The fire was rushing down the corridor, but Lark had forgotten about it.
"Boiler grease from the school machines, the caretaker left it lying around. Then I rigged the light above the stage so that it would fall on Sam, because I knew where he would be standing for that scene. It was all too easy. Getting Dana was the easiest part!"
"Bitch!" Lark shouted at the teacher.
"Language!" She scolded, and then laughed. "Yes, Dana's 'accident' was perhaps the most fulfilling. That crack when she hit the ground, it's a shame she didn't die!" Lark flung herself at the teacher, but she simply knocked Lark aside. "Easy enough to make the explosive too, once again I made use of the chemistry lab."
"Why?" Lark asked, her breathing harsh, partly because of her anger but mainly due to the smoke that had filled the room. Dotted around the room little sparks of fire were burning.
"Because I was being laid off." Snarled Miss McCracken. "They said they had no need for my services in the school anymore. I was permitted to run one more show. So I decided if I couldn't run shows at this school anymore, no one can. After the disastrous events of this production who would want to run another one?"
Lark heard a crash as somewhere nearby a ceiling collapsed. "Miss, I don't care what you did." She urged her teacher quickly but quietly. "Please come with me. We can get you help, they might not sack you. You could do another play, or this one again. But please, you have to come out with me. This place is falling down and if we are still inside when it falls."
"No. I'm staying here!" Miss McCracken said. "If I come out they will just lock me up. I'm going to die here."
"Please, come with me." Lark begged.
"I'm afraid you can't leave either. You are the only person who knows my identity, and I don't want everyone to remember me as Dracula's Nemesis. I want to be remembered as the brave teacher who gave her life trying to save an innocent student from the fire. Poor innocent Lark Robertson, who perished in the fire with her favourite teacher."
"No!" Lark gasped. All around them the ceiling was starting to cave in. Bits of burning plaster fell to the ground where they ignited the carpet underfoot.
"It's too late!" Miss McCracken cackled as a large crack appeared in the ceiling above her. She laughed hysterically as bits of plaster fell on her head. The ceiling gave a tremendous groan and began to buckle. Lark turned and ran.
"It's futile!" Miss McCracken laughed, but her laughs were quickly drowned out as the ceiling finally gave way and collapsed on top of her. As Lark ran down the corridor pictures, doors and ornaments fell to the ground. She had made it to the end of the corridor and was running up another passageway when she heard a huge grumble. As the walls gave in around her she flung herself forwards into a stairwell.
She managed to fling her body out of the corridor in time as the walls collapsed. However a falling metal beam crashed down onto her legs. Lark screamed in agony and tried to move her legs, but the beam was too heavy. She was lying face down on a landing, with stairs leading to the ground level in front of her. She had ended up in the stairwell, where thankfully the stairs were still holding out. But the wooden banisters above her head were burning and Lark knew that it was only a matter of time before they gave way, and if she was still under there when they fell.
She struggled desperately to move her legs, but the beam was too heavy and for some reason she could hardly move her legs. She groaned in pain as she tried to move them. She flumped her head onto her outstretched arms and bit back tears.
"Hello?" She called frantically, hoping against hope that someone was there to hear her, but knowing in her heart that they weren't. She shifted uncomfortably. She was lying on something hard. She reached her hand down and picked it up. It was the personal alarm that Terry had given her.
She chucked it at the wall in anger, which set the alarm off. It beeped non-stop, the harsh tones reached Lark's ears and annoyed her, but she couldn't reach it to turn it off. She sighed and let tears roll down her face. She was going to die.
"Lark!" Lark heard a voice. She thought that she was dreaming. She looked around but could see nothing but smoke and flames. It must have been something else. She put her head back down on her arms again. "Lark!" She definitely heard it that time. Looking up she saw a dark figure descending towards her.
"Batman?" She asked. Batman landed beside her having half abseiled down the stairwell. "How did you?" She asked weakly. The fumes had gone to her head slightly and she wasn't sure if she was hallucinating or not.
"I'm here." He said, kneeling beside her. He picked up her body and hugged her close to him. She coughed but held onto him, this wasn't a dream. "We have to get out of here." He said.
"I can't!" Lark wailed. Batman saw the beam pinning her legs to the ground. He crawled over to it.
"Lark listen to me. When I lift this you have to get your legs out from under it." He said. Lark nodded.
Batman braced himself before lifting the two tonne beam. He could only manage to lift it two inches off of Lark's legs. "Go!" He shouted.
"I can't." Lark said, trying to move her legs but only feeling blinding pain ricochet up her legs.
"I can't hold it much longer!" Batman groaned. With some effort Lark managed to drag herself forwards. Batman dropped the beam once her feet were clear.
He quickly took a look at Lark's legs. "They're both broken." He said. We need to get out of here." They both flinched as they heard a crash as somewhere else another ceiling collapsed. Batman picked Lark up in his arms and used his blasters on his boots to lift them up. They soared upwards and crashed through the skylight at the top of the staircase just as all the stairs collapsed in a cacophony of dust and smoke. Lark clung to Batman as he flew her over to where some ambulances were taking burned spectators and cast members to hospital.
"Here's another one. This one is an emergency." Batman said, placing Lark on one of the beds inside an ambulance. "Both legs are broken and I think she inhaled a bit too much smoke."
Lark turned her head towards Batman. "Bruce.he was in my dressing room."
"He's fine." Batman said. "He wasn't even in the building when the fire started."
Lark smiled before blacking out. Batman watched as the ambulance drove off, lights flashing and sirens screaming. Before anyone could speak to him he flew off into the night, leaving the fire brigade to put out the blaze and the doctors to load the more seriously injured people into ambulances. Once inside a dark alley Batman stripped off his suit to become Terry McGinnis. He rushed back to the scene before anyone could miss him.
"Terry!" Max said, seeing him. "I was so worried, I couldn't find you anywhere."
"I got out pretty quickly, but I think the fumes went to my head, I fainted for a while." Terry lied. "Where's Lark, and Bruce?"
"Bruce went home." Max said as a doctor came over and wrapped blankets round them. "But Lark." Max's voice choked with tears. "She was taken off to hospital, she looked terrible Terry."
Terry stood comforting Max as they watched the fire brigade kill the last of the dying flames and enter the smouldering, charcoal black ruin to check for any casualties.
