Two Bit looked, horrified, at the burning house. A figure was just visible through the curtain of the front room, but the flames licking out of the burst window were too hot for anyone to get through.
I watched the silhouetted figure- Darry- move about sluggishly; the smoke inhalation must have been getting to him. I couldn't believe Darry was caught in a burning building. Just like Johnny.
As I watched the ghastly scene lit up in red and yellow I noticed the ceiling in the room seemed to be sagging.
Suddenly realising what was happening I leapt as close as I could to the window, and screamed to Darry,
"Get out of there, Darry! The ceiling isn't safe there either! Just jump out the window- you can get through those flames fine! Come one!"
With rising despair I saw the ceiling collapse, and I could have sworn I saw the beams hit Darry, crushing him to the floor instantly.
I don't remember much after that for a while, past running towards the shell of a house, before being held back by Soda and Two Bit as I tried to break down the door. At some point I heard sirens, and saw blue flashing lights, but I was too shocked to do anything.
I'd lost Darry.
When I saw the fireman come out carrying Darry I thought he was alive, but the paramedics checked him over in a matter of seconds, then started shaking their head as they placed his corpse onto a stretcher, pulling a blanket over his head.
Darry really was gone.
Soda was distraught, and looked real mad about something, but I was too worn out to think about it. Looking around myself, I wondered numbly where we'd be sleeping tonight. We couldn't stay at Dallas's place- he was dead, and we couldn't stay at Two Bit's place or our own because they'd both burnt down. Just great. Maybe we could sleep in the parking lot, like Johnny and me had almost done. Just until tomorrow, just until we could make sense of what'd happened, and got everything sorted.
Two Bit seemed to have come to the same conclusion, since he started walking me and Soda towards the lot, his face blank, and his hands curled into fists- he seemed angry about something too. I could feel my mind growing foggier as we wandered into the lot, and it was only by Two Bit's prompting that I even bothered to lay down under a tree, instead of in the middle of the road where I'd been about to.
I went to sleep instantly, which was more or less fortunate, since if I hadn't I'd have been kept awake all night thinking about what happened.