In that frantic moment, Emily couldn't have said who was more aghast – it looked to her like a three-way tie between Abby, Clarke, and Raven.

Raven said, "Clarke, it's not–" at the same time Abby said, "Oh Clarke, we were going to–"

But Clarke cut them both off. "Not. Now." Her teeth were gritted. She looked at Raven. "You and I will talk about this later." Raven looked slightly terrified. Then Clarke looked at Abby. "You and I…should maybe never, ever talk about this." Emily had never seen anyone look as guilty as Abby did in that moment.

Emily was still holding Clarke's hand, and now she squeezed it, stepped into the middle of the group and said, "Later. All of it. Right now, we need to get out of this train car." Clarke looked at her and some of the fire went out of her eyes. She nodded and pushed between Raven and Abby, dragging Emily behind her.

They were in the last car of the train, so there was only one option. They headed straight for the door that connected them to the rest of the train, staying low. Clarke grabbed the handle and pulled on it, hard.

The door didn't budge. Clarke banged her hand on the glass in frustration.

"Looks like the fire is coming from one of the rooms back there," said Abby quietly but urgently. The other three turned and saw the source of the smoke, billowing out from under one of the rooms. They could see flames just starting to lick out from beneath the door as well.

"Everyone on the ground," Clarke said. "Stay under the smoke."

Raven crawled over and said, "Let me take a look at the door." Clarke moved quickly away without another look at her.

Raven checked the handle, the doorjamb, the area around the door – there was no lock for her to pick. "Something must be jamming the door from the outside," she said, a little frantically now.

Clarke pulled out her phone, thinking she could call someone to come save them.

Then – "Watch out!" Emily yelled, running out of the smoke. She threw a chunk of firewood through the glass pane of the door. It shattered, and the others jumped back in shock.

"Did anyone get cut? Or get glass in their hair?" Emily said, as she used another chunk of wood to sweep the remaining glass in the window frame outside. They all shook their heads, still a little stunned at how Emily was taking charge. "Good," she said, crouching down and cupping her hands. "Well?" she said. "Who's going first?"

"Clarke," said Abby and Raven in unison. Clarke pursed her lips, gathered up her skirt, and stepped into Emily's hands. Emily boosted her through the window, and Clarke quickly got the door of the next car open. "Come on! It's open," she said.

Abby insisted that Raven go next. Then Emily helped Abby through, and Abby reached back to help pull Emily through the hole in the door. Meanwhile, Clarke made a quick sweep of the next car, looking for any other passengers, but it was clear.

When Emily got inside, she slammed the door shut behind her and leaned against it for just a second. Raven nudged Clarke, looking at Emily, and said "Damn, as if she wasn't hot enough already!"

Then she actually jumped as both Griffin women snapped "RAVEN!" in unison.

"Too soon?" muttered Raven.

Now that they were out of immediate danger, Abby composed herself and tried to take control of the situation. "We need to keep moving. Get as far from that car as we can, and get everyone else to move too."

But Clarke was already moving away, heading for the next car, pulling Emily with her. "I'll dial 911," Raven said, pulling out her phone as she and Abby hurried after them.

When they got to a car with people in it, Abby sent Noel Kahn to run up front and tell the conductor to stop the train. Clarke and Emily were urging everyone toward the front of the train, and Raven was looking out the window trying to get a good sense of their location for the 911 dispatcher. "It's a big…smoking…train!" she finally said. "Tell them to find the train that's on fire and put it out!"

Now the train's smoke alarms had been activated, and people were panicking. Emily thought that probably meant that the smoke had spread to the second-to-last car – A would have disabled the smoke detectors in the car they were in.

Then she realized how automatic that thought was. Of course her mind would always go to A. But who else could have done this?

The train started decelerating, and everyone stumbled. Noel must have made it to the conductor, Emily thought.

"All right!" Abby was shouting. "As soon as the train has come to a complete stop, everyone make your way calmly to the nearest exit!"

Emily saw others helping, too – some of the adults and several of the kids who could keep a cool head. She spotted Marcus Kane just standing against a wall, though, and narrowed her eyes disapprovingly. Spencer seemed to have things under control in her area, and she nodded at Emily.

"Hanna?" Ashley Marin was running from group to group. "I'm right here, Mom!" Hanna called. They ran to each other, and Ashley pulled Hanna into a big hug. "Thank God you're okay," Ashley whispered.

The train came to a screeching stop, and everyone made their way off with a minimum of chaos.

The fire department was there within seconds, and they trained their hoses on the last two cars of the train. The rear-most car was completely ablaze now, and Emily shuddered at how close a call that had been.

Everyone from the Halloween Train stood there, a safe distance from the train. It was a surreal image, all those people in their Halloween costumes and the blazing train behind them.

Emily and Clarke huddled together in their bedraggled, smoky princess costumes. Spencer, Aria, and Hanna ran up and hugged Emily, and then Spencer pulled Clarke in too. "Were you guys back there? Are you okay?" Spencer said. "We're fine. We all made it out," said Emily.

"Thanks to Emily," Clarke said quietly. Emily blushed a little as the others looked at her. "She was amazing," Clarke continued. "She's the reason we're all alive."

Emily shrugged and wrapped her arms around Clarke's waist, leaning her head on her shoulder. "I live in Rosewood," she said. "You learn to be pretty good in a crisis." Clarke kissed the top of her head as they watched the steam rise up from the train into the night sky.

"Hey," said Hanna. "Why were you guys back there, anyway?"

"Um…" said Emily, grinning a little despite the situation.

"Wait – so the fire started in the makeout car?!" Hanna exclaimed. "That's just wrong. I am really upset by this."

"Now you're upset?" said Aria dryly. Hanna just shrugged.

"Aria, are you handling this okay?" Spencer said gently.

Aria thought for a minute, then said, "No worse than anyone else. Although I am seriously reconsidering my last-minute decision to attend."

Hanna broke in, "Yeah, our original plan of 'Netflix and chill with Hanna' would have been way better!"

They all looked at her. "Han – do you know what 'Netflix and chill' really means?" Spencer said.

Hanna didn't have a chance to answer because Bellamy ran up right then and swept Spencer up in a huge hug, her feet leaving the ground. He let her back down gently and put his forehead to hers. "Are you okay? You look okay," he stammered.

"I'm fine," Spencer smiled. "How's Octavia?"

"She's good, she's over there with Caleb," Bellamy said. "Actually, I should head back over there. I'm glad you're okay." He kissed Spencer and walked back over to where Octavia and Caleb stood.

Hanna looked around for Lincoln, finally spotting him at the edge of the crowd on his phone, probably trying to get ahold of Lexa. She considered going over there for a minute, but then saw her mom and went over to her instead.

Several ambulances had arrived just behind the fire truck, and the EMTs jumped out to assess injuries. A few people had minor bumps, mostly from the deceleration, but nothing serious. Clarke, Emily, Abby and Raven got a thorough assessment, and even they had nothing worse than some minor smoke inhalation and minor cuts from climbing through the window.

The police were also there, taking everyone's name and writing down what their costumes were. Parents started arriving, and Veronica Hastings was among the first ones there, giving her usual lecture to the police about interviewing minors without their parents present. Pam Fields arrived soon after, gathering both Emily and Clarke into a hug and sobbing with relief. Ella and Byron Montgomery were both out of town, but Ezra showed up and hugged Aria desperately, just like the previous year.

Spencer noticed that the police were talking to Octavia longer than some of the others. Bellamy had a protective arm wrapped around her shoulders, but she didn't seem nervous at all. Spencer wandered closer, trying to overhear.

"…so you're saying that approximately 10 minutes prior to the fire, you saw someone in the last car wearing a black cape?" the officer was asking. Octavia nodded. "Caleb and I were headed back to the main car, and then I decided I wanted to explore a little. I made it as far as the next-to-last car, and it was totally dead back there, so I decided to head back. That's when I saw the black cape in the last car."

"Do you remember any details? Height? Build? Was it a man or a woman?" the officer asked.

"I – I don't remember," Octavia said. Spencer felt a hand on her arm and looked up to see her mother. All Veronica had to do was raise an eyebrow at the police officer, and he quickly shut his notebook and said, "I think that's enough questions for now."

People were starting to disperse once the police had gotten their names. Veronica put her arm around Spencer's shoulders and said, "Let's get you home."

Spencer kissed Bellamy goodbye, nodded to Caleb and Octavia, and then went to get Hanna and her mom since they didn't have a car there. As she approached them, she heard Hanna saying "…so do you know what 'Netflix and chill' means?" and Ashley burst out laughing.

Spencer grinned and said, "Hey, do you guys need a –"

But then she heard Emily say "WHAT?!" in a shocked voice that could only mean something terrible had happened. Emily's friends raced over to her. Clarke and Pam stood protectively near her as Emily put her phone away with shaking hands.

"That…was Paige's dad," she said, looking at the ground. "She's been in the ICU since yesterday. She…she was stabbed."

Pam hugged her, and Clarke stroked gentle patterns against Emily's back, as Emily burst into tears.

Next time: I get to channel my inner Law & Order, because here comes Detective Tanner!