Maddie tried to exude calm as she crouched in the brush beside Logan, but her mind was spinning at a million miles an hour and her heart was beating out of her chest as she watched the cabin burn.
This couldn't be happening, could it? Honestly, this entire day felt like an out-of-body experience. Just six hours before, Maddie had been walking to Roseville for a seemingly simple operation. Now she was three hours away in the Appalachian Mountains watching the small cabin burn, the curls of smoke mixing with the dusk and growing more difficult to see as the seconds passed.
The cabin her father was likely still inside.
Stop it, Maddie scolded herself. He got out. He had to have gotten out. She had deliberately lit the fire in the farthest corner from the exit. She'd deliberately slammed the stormer loudly enough that he would have heard it, and known not to go looking for them.
The roof caught, and Maddie unconsciously flinched away from it. She felt Logan wrap his strong arms around her shoulders and pull her in closer. A tear slid down Maddie's cheek as the adrenaline slowed and the reality of her choices caught up to her.
It had only been a few moments, three minutes at the most, since Maddie had lit the fire, but it felt like a year.
Maddie heard a crunch of the brush behind her and pulled Logan down further, whipping her head over her shoulder just in time to see a hatchet fly through the air and sink into the trunk of the tree beside them.
Maddie's hatchet.
As a running Tiffany came into view, Maddie leaped up from the ground and dislodged the hatchet from the tree. She swiftly sliced the ropes around her wrists, then reached down to sever Logan's remaining restraints as well. Maddie swiveled on her heel and turned to meet Tiffany's eyes.
"I've got him," Tiffany mouthed, answering Maddie's silent question.
"Nice throw," Maddie said. Tiffany nodded in response. Then Maddie turned, hatchet in tow, and sprinted back through the clearing to the cabin. She had hoped to spot her father and Rosalie along the way, but she hadn't, so she peered through the window she'd pried open earlier, the heat from the proximity of the fire scorching on her skin.
And that was when Maddie saw them, sprawled on the floor, unconscious. Or dead, a voice echoed in Maddie's head, but she silenced it. She took the handle of her hatchet to the window, turning her face away as the glass shattered. She ignored the sensation as flying bits of glass embedded themselves in her neck, her cheek, her shoulder.
Maddie climbed through the window, and rushed to her father's side. Michael Manchester was 225 pounds of dead weight muscle, and it took all of Maddie's strength to drag him across the floor. The fire blazed above her, and Maddie forced away the knowledge that the roof could collapse at any moment. She reached the window, gasping for air, and hoisted her father's shoulders through it, and into the waiting arms of Casey, who had appeared out of nowhere.
Maddie hesitated for a moment when she came face to face with Casey. An unspoken conversation passed between them. But Maddie had no other choice, so she pushed her father through the window, and Casey pulled him clear of the opening and into the fresh air.
Maddie's hands were covered in blood, and she wasn't sure where it had come from. But there wasn't time to think about that. She pulled herself onto the window, and looped one leg through to the outside. But then she hesitated.
"Maddie!" Casey shouted. "The roof! We have to go now."
But Maddie's conscience tugged her back through the window and into the flaming structure.
Over her shoulder, Maddie could hear Casey shouting, "Maddie, no!" but she ignored it.
Her lungs burned, as she caught hold of Rosalie's arm and heaved her toward the window with everything she had left. Sweat ran down Maddie's face. Smoke stung her eyes. She could barely even see, only feel.
Maddie pushed Rosalie's limp body up toward the opening, but her mind was growing fuzzy, her head was spinning. She felt Rosalie's arms pass through the window, and gave one final shove, but the force of her effort knocked her backward onto the floor itself.
The last thing Maddie remembered was hearing the cracking noise her head made when it hit the ground. And everything went black.
An: Again, I don't know how long it takes to burn down a log cabin, please don't come at me.
