Authors: Patti Berg
He thought he heard voices outside
. Were those drops of water raining down from above?
Directly behind him he could hear Elizabeth, her every breath
a loud and raspy wheeze.
Oh, Lord. Help me get her out,
Jon prayed silently.
Fast.
Please.
Moments later he recognized the black-and-white linoleum tiles he was crawling over and knew they’d reached kitchen. He crawled over the remains of a fallen door, knowing it had to have led to the basement stairs. If he’d had time, he would have said a prayer of thanks, but flames spread across the floor, coming ever closer, and he forgot everything but getting Elizabeth out.
The heat was becoming so oppressive it was blistering his skin
. He began to cough; his lungs burned.
Again he
wanted to lay down; to go to sleep, but he forged forward. Shoving aside timbers and debris, pots and pans and broken dishes that had embedded themselves into their path. He clawed at them, growing tired, until Elizabeth crawled up alongside him.
“We can do this together,” she said, and somehow managed to get close enough to kiss him softly, a kiss that restored his resolve.
They cleared the opening to the basement as flames begin to lick at the heels of his boots. “Hold my hand
while you go down,” he instructed Ellie. He crawled over the hole to get out of the fire’s path, and as soon as Elizabeth was out of harm’s way, he followed her quickly down the steps.
A
nother explosion rocked what remained of the hotel, and Jon grabbed Elizabeth and jumped across heaven knows how many feet of dirt, carrying her with him into Alexander’s grave. Together they ripped the slats from the entrance to the tunnel and as soon as it was cleared, Jon turned around. “Come on, Alex.” He held out a hand to his great-grandfather.
Alexander shook his head.
“I can’t go.”
“What the hell do you mean, you can’t go? I’m not about to leave you behind.”
“I’m dead. This stuff can’t hurt me. Besides, you need all your strength to get out of here.”
“The hotel’s gone, Alex,” Jon shouted. “There’s no place left to haunt, and once these walls totally collapse, you might disappear completely. Where will you be then? Heaven? Hell? Or stuck in limbo somewhere?”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re the only ones who matter to me now,” Alex cried. “Please. Go.”
Jon looked back at Elizabeth
. Tears and dirt and way too much blood stained her face. “Start moving down that tunnel,” he told her. “Don’t worry about spiders or webs or darkness or anything. Just get to the end of the tunnel and get out of here before the fire barrels in after us.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be right behind you.” He kissed her quickly and shoved her away, then he pulled himself out of Alexander’s grave and stood before the man he refused to leave.
“I’m not going without you.”
“Stubborn fool!”
“Damn right. Something I must have inherited from you. Now, step inside and let’s get going before that fire gets down here.”
“It’s going to hurt.”
“Burning alive doesn’t sound like a great alternative.”
“I wouldn’t know. I never experienced it.” Alexander laughed; Jon frowned.
“Okay. Okay.
But we can’t go yet,” Alex said, offering his great-grandson a weak smile.
“Why not?”
“Give me one second, that’s all I need.”
Alex disappeared in a flash of light
. Jon labored to breathe. His throat was dry; it felt on fire. He couldn’t take the heat much longer, and he needed to know that Elizabeth had made it safely through the tunnel, that she hadn’t made the mistake of turning around and coming back to find him.
He couldn’t wait much longer for Alex, but he couldn’t leave him, either.
Still, he jumped back into the grave, hoping the air there would give him some respite from the heat, from the flames that were leaping down the stairs, coming at him at a quickened pace.
And then he saw the flash of light again, the ethereal streak that could only be Alex.
“What the hell took you so long?”
“
There were a few things I couldn’t leave behind. Now shut up and hold these.”
Jon
grabbed the ledger he and Elizabeth had found at Matt’s, Amanda’s locket, the photos of Amanda, and a piece of pink stationery.
“Edges are a bit singed in the ledger
, but it’s fine other than that,” Alex said. “And I couldn’t leave without all that I have left of Amanda.”
“No, I guess you couldn’t.”
“So, are you ready?”
Jon nodded, and an instant later Alex
’s spirit merged with Jon’s body.
Jon
staggered, grabbing the edges of the grave. Knives stabbed at him. His muscles seemed to wither.
And he heard Elizabeth scream.
Hell and tarnation, boy! Let’s get out of here.
Jon shoved the ledger into the waistband of his jeans and the remainder of Alexander’s belongings in his pocket. He stumbled
a time or two as he entered the tunnel, but shoved his hands against the cold, dank earth, using the walls to support his body and keep him upright. He moved slowly, concentrating all his efforts on the end of the tunnel, and on finding Elizabeth.
He shoved the pain from his mind.
He thought about kisses.
He thought about soft thighs.
He thought about red hooker boots.
“Ouch! You stepped on my foot.”
“Ellie?” Jon whispered, reaching out and touching her face in the dark.
“Who else did you expect
to find down here?” she answered back with laughter in her voice.
“I told you to get out.”
“And you said you’d follow, but you didn’t.”
“But you screamed,” Jon yelled. “What happened?”
“I kicked something. Feels like a metal box.”
“You had me scared half to death!”
Elizabeth laughed in spite of the mess they were in. “I didn’t scream because I stubbed my toe. I just needed some way to make you hurry, and I figured that would work. Now, give me your hand and let’s get out of here.”
By the time they reached the end of the tunnel,
Elizabeth had wrapped her arm around his waist and he’d slung an arm over Elizabeth’s shoulders for support, needing her strength in order to walk.
I told you I shouldn’t go with you,
Alex bellowed inside Jon’s head.
“You’re here and you’re staying put,” Jon belowed
back, right before he and Elizabeth hit the dead end.
“We can’t go any further,”
she said.
“
It’s going to take a whole lot more than a dirt wall to keep us down here,” Jon roared. Using what little strength he had, he pounded his fists on the barrier that stood between them and freedom. Somehow, he forget the pain. All he could think of was Elizabeth and getting her out of this makeshift grave.
Hit the wall above you.
Thank God Alex was with him. Thank God Alex was thinking clearly when his own head felt like it was being crushed in a vise.
Jon
raised his hands above him until his fingers felt something solid and hard. Wood.
He stretched upward and pushed. Nothing. He pushed again, but it was too high and he couldn’t get any leverage.
He grabbed Elizabeth around the waist. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m going to lift you up, and you’re going to get that opening cleared.”
“You can’t lift me, Jon. You don’t have the strength.”
“The hell I can’t!” He took a deep breath, then one more, and attempted to lift, but he couldn’t get her high enough. Instead, he knelt down. “Don’t argue, just get on my shoulders.”
There was so much pain shooting through his body he couldn’t feel the extra weight on his shoulders. Somehow he stood, straightening his
legs. “Are you close enough, Ellie? Can you push on the door?”
“I’m pushing, “I’m pushing,” she called down to him, and there was no doubt in his mind that she was using all her strength. He could feel the muscles of her legs tightening around his neck and shoulders with each push.
“It’s open!” she shouted. “We can get out.”
Jon felt her weight lift from his sho
ulders, and he knew she was safe. Reaching up, he wrapped his fingers around the exit and slowly pulled himself to freedom.
It was pitch black in the bank’s
basement, if that’s where they were, but they could feel heavy crates stacked everywhere. They pushed and climbed and stumbled, somehow making it to the other end of the room, where they found and climbed a flight of stairs.
The door at the top was lock
ed, but it didn’t put a damper on their escape efforts. Jon shouldered his way through, splintering the wood down the center. He slammed into the door again and busted a hole big enough to climb through.
The
bank’s front entrance door was another story completely. It was locked; it was solid. There was no way to escape to the outside.
Jon heard
yet another explosion. He jerked around. Had a bomb gone off?
But it was only Elizabeth, standing in front of the bank’s
shattered plate glass window, the metal box she’d found in the tunnel clasped tightly in her hands. She grinned sheepishly. “You’re the mayor,” she said, shrugging. “The citizens of Sapphire, not to mention the bank’s owner, might not understand if you were the one who broke it.”
They were going to wonder what he was doing in the bank in the first place, not to mention how he’d gotten inside. But that was all beside the point.
Jon felt free and without fear for the first time in what seemed like hours. All he wanted to do now was kiss Elizabeth, and he did. He kissed her with pain and fever and passion. She tasted like dirt and smoke
and ashes and blood, and he figured it was a taste he’d love for the rest of his life.
You two ever going to get out of here?
Alex had a point.
Jon kicked the remnants of glass out of the window with his boot and stepped out
into the frigid night air. He reached back for Elizabeth, pulling her to safety and into his embrace.
Suddenly he pushed her to arm’s length. “
We’ve got to get you to the hospital or the doctor.” He ran his fingers through her hair, over her scalp. “I don’t know where that blood’s coming from, but…”
Elizabeth
touched his brow with cool, soothing fingers. “It’s not my blood, Jon. It’s yours. You’ve got a gash on your forehead.”
“Ah, hell”
—he grinned—“a little blood never hurt anyone.”
“If I’d known we were going to end up out in the cold,
” she said, slipping back into his arms, “I would have worn something warmer to our party.”
He curled dirty fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face up so he could get a good look at her
. “God, you’re beautiful.”
A tear rolled down her face,
streaking through the soot, and as she rested her head against his chest, she began to cry.
Jon wrapped one hand around her back and smoothed her hair with the other. He looked down the street to the area where friends and neighbors were standing, hosing down what remained of the old hotel. Flames leapt high through the wooden structure, lighting the faces of Harry and Andy, who stood with Libby and Jack, their heads hanging in sorrow.
“Come on. I think we need to calm the fears of a few people,” Jon said, allowing his arm to drape
over her shoulder for support as they walked toward the crowd. Now that they were safe, now that the adrenaline had quit pumping through his veins, the pain and weakness returned.
Harry looked up first, and a slow grin spread across his
smoke-blackened face. He nudged Andy, then ran toward Elizabeth and Jon. “You don’t look too good,” Harry blubbered, trying to squeeze a little laughter into his words.
“We look alive, don’t we?” Jon asked.
“Yeah,” Harry said, sliding another arm around Jon for support.
“We’re all alive—somewhat,”
Jon stated, winking at Elizabeth. “That’s all that matters at the moment.”
Andy and Jack threw blankets around Elizabeth and Jon’s shoulders, and Libby gave them cups of fresh strong coffee.
“Let’s get you two into the cafe,” Harry said, trying to steer Jon across the street.
Jon pulled away, took a sip of coffee, and felt a little strength building inside. He had no intention of going anyw
here. He sensed Matt was outside, hiding somewhere, and he planned to confront him.
“Where’s Matt?”
Jon asked, sensing his former cousin was responsible for the explosion.
“Mourning,” Andy stated, then laughed. “His own demise, that is.” He pointed to a spot past the burning hotel where the old Sapphire fire engine and half a dozen trucks were parked. “Would you believe that lady he was with at Elizabeth’s welcome party is an undercover warden? Hell of a shock to me. Even more of a shock to Harry. Anyway,
she saw Matt running away from the hotel right before the place blew up. She has him handcuffed to the steering wheel of her pickup. I get the feeling she doesn’t care too much for your cousin.”