Thoughts raced through Josh's mind as he placed the mask over Maya's face. He could only imagine how fast the fire was spreading below them. He looked to the door and saw the smoke starting to creep in. He could barely feel his arm now and couldn't tell if it was from straight adrenaline or from lack of blood flow. He ran into their bathroom and starting throwing towels in the sink and wetting them. Once they were wet he started to stuff them under the door and took one to cover his mouth.
Maya looked on in panic as she was lost and had no idea what to do. "Josh what can I do?" she finally asked.
Josh shook his head and continued to shuffle around, trying think of what to do. "I don't know." He walked to the window and looked below it, trying to think of how they were going to get out of the house. "Shit!" He cried out. Not thinking he raised his bad arm and winced, remembering how much pain he was actually in.
Maya watched as he clutched his shoulder. She pulled down her mask and walked over to him. "I need to change your tie. You've bled through the last one."
Josh shook his head. "No, we don't have time for that." He looked up at her. "And you need to put that back on."
"I'll put it back on after I change this." Josh started to protest. "Just let me change it!" Maya sniffled as Josh reluctantly let her change his ties around his wound. Maya could hear the crackles of fire just below them. "So we need to get out of here right?" She could feel Josh nod. "And I take it that when you looked out of the window there was no way for us to get out without dropping two stories?" He nodded again. Maya fell silent as she finished. "Then the only way out is through," she whispered.
"Maya.."
Maya's hair moved with her head as she disagreed. "No Josh. It's either we get out of the house or we sit here and potentially burn alive."
Josh sighed. "I know." Josh tucked his gun into his waist band and threw on a shirt, to protect him from the flames. He turned to Maya and kissed her lips softly. Pressing his head against her forehead he whispered to her. "Keep your mask on and stay low to the ground. I'll go out first okay? You need to stay close behind me. We don't know how big the fire is or where Andrew is but your main goal is to get out of this house and down the road." Josh reached into his pocket and pulled out his car key. "Take this. As soon as you get outside, you run."
Maya shook her head. "And what if you're not with me? Leave you behind? Absolutely not."
"I don't care. Your job is to leave and protect that child of ours, okay?" Maya started to cry once more. "I know," Josh quelled. "But remember, I need you to stay strong okay? I love you so much."
Maya shook her head. "You said that I wouldn't lose you. You said-"
Josh closed his eyes in frustration. "I know. And I shouldn't have said that. But right now we have to be very honest with ourselves." Josh could hear things starting to crumble below them. "We're running out of time. I love you Maya. If I could dance with you forever, I would." He kissed her hard one last time and pulled the mask back over her mouth.
Through the tears in his eyes, he pushed the dresser from in front of the door and threw the towels to the side. Taking a deep breath and making sure that Maya was behind him, Josh thrust open the door and was face to face with a normal hallway, but heavy smoke rising from the staircase just at the end of it. He signaled for Maya to get low as they each crouched to the ground and made their way over to the stairs. Josh went first moving fast with Maya right behind him. As they hit the ground floor, they were surrounded by flames.
Josh pulled Maya close to him as he looked around for a way out. They stood up straight as they ran towards the front door, only to be met with tall, hot flames. Mid run they stopped and turned around. "Go for the back door!" Josh yelled as they ran towards it.
The glass door wouldn't budge as Maya tried to open it. "It won't open!" Maya yelled.
Josh thought quick and took a pot in their now scorching living room and threw it through the glass door, covering Maya from the glass. Out of breath and coughing from all the smoke, Josh bent over. "Go Maya!"
Maya ran through the door, holding her belly. As she reached outside she ripped her mask off her face and turned back to the house. "Josh! Come on! I'm not leaving you!"
The flames started to rise higher and higher as Josh tried to find his way out. From afar Maya watched in anticipation as she watched him try to escape. Her eyes widened as she Andrew creep up behind Josh. "Josh look out!" she screamed.
Andrew tackled Josh to the ground in the midst of all the flames, burning the both of them in the process. "Maya go!"
Reluctantly, Maya ran to the front of the house and started Josh's car. Her lip trembled as she watched their house go up in flames. "Please be safe," she whispered to herself as she drove the car down the hill. She got to the front gate and hopped out to their security post and ran in, just to see all their security knocked out on the ground. "Shit," she muttered to herself. She ran in and searched the guards for a phone and found one.
Maya dialed nine-one-one and held the phone up to her ear and celebrated when she got an operator. "This is 911. What's your emergency?"
Maya ran outside and looked up at the house. "Yes! My house was set on fire. My name is Maya Matthews and my husband is still inside and our stalker is inside with him. He attacked him and-"
"Yes ma'am I got it. I need your address so I can dispatch emergency services."
Maya's mind blanked as she was so focused on the the flames in front of her. "Um, 927 Hidden Hills Drive. How long will it take for you to get here? I need you to get here quickly my husband is in serious danger."
"Yes ma'am I understand. I see there was an emergency SOS sent out from a device on your property approximately fifteen minutes ago. Emergency services should be in there in about ten minutes."
Maya looked up at the house anxiously as she watched it burn from the flames. "We don't have ten minutes."
.:.
Josh slowly came to as the intense heat made sweat drip down his body in buckets. He winced as he felt his injured shoulder throb immensely from the pain. He looked to his right to see Andrew passed out as well. Josh carefully got up and felt his pants for the gun and panicked as soon as he couldn't feel it. He looked around and spotted across the room. He ran over to grab it but fell to the ground as Andrew kicked his feet, causing him to bang his head against the ground.
"Give it up Josh," Andrew said as he limped to stand up. Josh looked down at his leg to see a bad burn running from his calf to to his knee. He pulled a knife out from his back pocket. "Remember this?" He twirled it in his hands and stabbed Josh directly in the thigh. Josh screamed out in agonizing pain. As Josh clutched his leg Andrew towered over him again, ready to give one more fatal blow when Josh took his good leg and kicked Andrew's burned calf, knocking him down and making him wince in pain.
Josh pulled himself forward and grabbed the gun and took off the safety. He tried to stand up but felt his leg buckle from the pressure. "God you're crazy." Finding the strength to stand up, Josh took the gun and aimed it at Andrew, who's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
"Alright man, don't lose your mind now. It's me. Think about how long we've been friends."
Josh shook his head. "Don't try that with me. You're literally trying to kill me!" Josh let out a shaky breath. "It's a shame that it had to come this but I will do what I have to in order to protect my family."
As Josh fired the gun straight towards Andrew, he rolled out of the way, smirking as he watched the floor above them come crashing down.
.:.
Maya screamed as she saw the house start to collapse in front of her. Just as she screamed, paramedics, firefighters, and police officers pulled up around her. "He's in there," she whispered through her tears. "My husband is in there."
All the first responders moved with a swiftness as a paramedic pulled Maya back to check her out as she let out a deafening scream. Hysterically she told everyone around her that they needed to get him out. They had to. They had no choice not to, she had no choice not to. "Ma'am I understand that you're in distress but I need to take a look at you. I want to make sure you and your baby are okay. I promise that someone will have an update for you on your husband."
Maya stopped fighting and was reluctant to go with the paramedic. "Fine but I'm not leaving. I'm staying until I see my husband walk out of that house."
Maya followed the paramedic into his truck and sat down and watched in anticipation as he took her vitals. "How far along are you?"
"About eighteen weeks." Maya nervously looked down and out the back of the truck. "I've had a miscarriage before so I'm a bit concerned with all of the running and smoke inhalation and stuff."
"Here." The medic placed an oxygen mask over Maya's face. "Breathe this in. I already know you won't leave the site for me to take you to the hospital to see an obstetrician so just breathe this and try to keep yourself as calm as you can. Alright?"
Maya took the mask and breathed in slowly, taking a spare blanket and wrapping it around her body. She turned to face the fiery building and bounced her leg up and down nervously. "Come on Josh, I need you."
.:.
Thick black smoke surrounded entered Josh's lungs as sputtered awake. It was so hot. The last thing he remembered was the ceiling crashing down on him. Luckily, the trunk of it missed his body. Yet, he was still in immense pain. The flames were hot and high and intense. The heat nearly crushing Josh, he stood up and limped as he looked down to see the blood spilling from his thigh. From just across the room, he could spot an opening and started to limp towards it, his body in loads of pain. He grunted with every step and glanced around to see if Andrew was anywhere.
As Josh inched closer and closer he found himself nearing sanctuary. "Running away?" Jos turned over his shoulder to see Andrew holding his arm. It looked like the bullet went straight through his arm.
"I'm done fighting with you Andrew." Josh pushed on as he trudged towards his opening.
"I'm not surprised. You've always been one to run away from your responsibilities. Anything that could possibly threaten you."
Stopping in his tracks, Josh turned around painfully. "You were my best friend. Hell, you were the best man in my wedding! I don't know how I could be so blind to just how fucked up in the head you are. You had a little crush on my wife, inappropriate but fine. I could easily take care of that. But the fact that you actually thought you'd replace me in my own life? I get it, you regret the choices you've made but that's not my problem. Go straight to hell."
Andrew's jaw tightened as he started to make his way to Josh, just a few feet away from him when the roof caved in and Josh made it outside while Andrew remained buried underneath the rubble. Josh rolled outside onto the ground as medics and firefighters surrounded him. With his mouth agape and chest heaving up and down, he looked on in disbelief and what just happened. "Josh!" He looked up as he heard Maya's sweet voice enter his ears. He saw her running towards him and shakily stood up. "Josh!"
Maya ran into his arms as he cradled her head in between his shoulder and his head. "I'm here baby. I'm here."
The glow from the flames beautifully illuminated the pair as they embraced each other tightly. Thanking god that they still had each other at the end of this. They both looked up at their once put together house and sighed. Black smoke all over their faces as they looked at each other and silently celebrated. It was over.
It was finally over.
A/N: And just like that Andrew is gone! As I wrap this story up I just want to say from the bottom of my heart thank you to everyone who has followed Josh and Maya on this journey. I'm sad to announce that this will be the last time I'm writing this version of them for the First Dance series but I am excited to annouce that I will still be writing more stories for them! We're just saying goodbye to these two dancers who fell in love and have such an extraordinary life. There are a few chapters still left but I just wanted to say thank you. As always, let me know what you think!
