Poison Tree

𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝

~

*two months later*

"Dad?" Dylan strolled into the kitchen area to see her dad putting his shoes on, "where are you going?" She shook her head. Pat looked up at her, "to see Ronnie" he shoved his jacket on. Dylan furrowed her brows, "who now?" She shook her head. Pat smiled weakly, "Ronnie Strauss, he lives on the top floor, kind of old. Disabled guy" he ruffed up her hair. Dylan smiled, "awwhhh, is he your bestie?" She smirked. He laughed and rolled his eyes, "you're cruising for a bruising" he nudged her arm as he grabbed his phone. She smiled, "well if you're heading upstairs, am I okay to go see Lacy?" She sighed. Pat stopped at the door, "as in blue haired Lacy? On the 21st floor?" He nodded. She smiled back with a small nod, "alright, but take your phone and let me know if you need anything" he planted a quick kiss on her head before smiling and leaving the apartment, he took the keys too.

~

"But you're good at phys Ed, I'm terrible at it" Lacy smiled and shook her head. It was around 2:35pm on a Saturday afternoon and the pair had nothing better to do other than chatting away on the blue haired teenagers bed, "yeah but that's the only subject I'm good at, you're like a brain box in chemistry, that's actually a useful subject" Dylan sighed. Lacy nodded, "school isn't everything though, good grades aren't the be all and end all" she smiled. Dylan nodded, "you sound just like my brothers" she laughed. Lacy laughed too, "good, that means one of us will eventually get through to that small brain of yours" she smiled. Dylan smiled back and sighed but before the pair could continue their conversation, lacys dad burst through the door. Panic was written all over his face.

"Hey... Dad? What's wrong?" Lacy stood up. Mike nodded, "there's a fire on the floor below us, c'mon girls. We gotta get outta here" he held the door open. Dylan practically ran out of the room then followed Lacy and her mom into the hallway, "Dylan honey, you gotta stick with us..." Kirsty shook her head as Dylan began running the other way. "My dads on the top floor..." Dylan could feel the fear kicking in. Kirsty smiled sadly, "I'm sure he's already on his way down there Dylan, we can meet him outside" she held her arm out. Dylan hesitated but ran back over to lacys family and followed them towards the stairs. They all began descending the steps along with the other terrified families, but they soon had to rethink their decision when a huge flame bolted up the middle of the staircase.  The fire alarms blaring as loud as they could.

"Go! Back up, now!" They heard a male voice yell from the fires floor. Dylan turned her head to see lacys mom grabbing both her daughters arm and her own before she was pulled back up the stairs, tears streaming down everyone's faces. Dylan looked down the hall as a Misty fog began filling the air, it was faint but it was there, and the strong scent of smoke began to fill everyone's lungs. They made the executive decision to go back into their own apartments in case the fire spread upwards, they'd be safer that way. Dylan sat down on the couch and wiped her tears away before pulling her phone out, "I have no signal" she sniffled. Kirsty looked around, "I'm sure he's okay honey, focus on taking deep breaths" Mike nodded.

~

Jay was finishing up on checking out a lead from his CI when he caught the tail end of a call coming through his radio, "active structure fire at ***3, all available units report for backup" the dispatch caller announced calmly. His heart stopped, that's his dads apartment complex... He came to a sharp halt at an intersection and quickly made a U turn before zooming down the narrow streets in order to speed up the journey. After a ten minute drive to his dads apartment complex, he hopped out of his truck to see a huge cloud of black smoke filling the air above, yet what worried him most was the fact that the fire was too high up, so much so that he even thought it was on his dads floor for a second, but he couldn't really tell. He looked around before deciding to run into the lobby of the complex.