Trust Me

Chapter 3

Olivia

The heat was all I could feel as I regained consciousness. I was confused for a moment, but the crackling of the fire around me quickly jogged my memory. The sound of glass shattering and debris falling was terrifying.

Pain shot down all the limbs in my body, it was enough to make me want to scream, but my throat was too dry for even an ounce of sound to come out. The bathroom walls surrounding me had now pretty much been engulfed in flames. They danced above me as I lay helplessly on the floor.

I shut my eyes as the toxins filled in the air, making them sting and water. The black smoke was potent, giving me the urge to cough, but for some reason, my body wouldn't allow me to. I felt like I was drowning on land. The pain in my chest and back was like nothing I'd ever felt in my life, and with every breath, I took the worse it got. Simply being alive was getting too hard at this point. I was ready to give myself to the smoke and flames and end the misery—all of it.

Parts of the ceiling began crashing down on the floor, burning the skin on my arms. As I tried my hardest to slide away from the chunks of scalding debris, a hiss resounded within me. The tile floor burned my palms as I tried to escape. My entire body was burning against its hot surface.

"Hey!" A male voice shouted from a distance. At least I think that I heard a voice. For all I knew, my mind could have been playing tricks on me. Maybe I was dying and imagining things.

"Anyone in here?" the voice called out again, and this time I definitely heard it. I knew it was real. There was suddenly a glimpse of hope that maybe I would make it out of here, but when I opened my mouth to yell out to him and let him know that I was here and needed help, nothing came out. My heart raced with anxiety as I thought of almost being rescued, only to end up charred to death in the end.

"Anybody?!" He yelled louder, but all I could do was lay where I was and pray that he would find me in this smoggy darkness and save me.

The smoldering door flung open, and in walked two firefighters who instantly brought a sense of relief to mind, but it was short-lived when the rest of the ceiling above completely collapsed right on top of us. I gasped as one of the firefighters leaped over my frail body and held me tightly underneath him, protecting me from anything that might fall. I grasped tightly onto his rugged jacket and let out a soft weep as the terrible sound of it all filled my ears. I was terrified for my life.

He tightened his hold around me protectively and put his head down to my ear before speaking. "I've got you, I promise," He assured me confidently.

I could hardly hear him between the disaster that the fire caused around us and the mask that he wore, but nonetheless, I heard his voice, and I needed to hear those words so badly.

As soon as the aftershock from the collapsed ceiling passed, he scooped me up into his arms carefully and maneuvered as best he could around the flames and over to an open window. He and his partner exchanged a few words before heading a room down and over to a window. Through the smoke, I could see a Ladder with a basket at the end of it connected to one of the big fire trucks.

I held onto the firman tightly as his partner stepped out of the window and into the basket, he then tried to pass me on to him, but I caught a glimpse of how far down the ground was and panicked, gripping onto his bunker jacket in terror.

"Hey, it's okay. We won't let you fall, okay?"

"No," I croaked out, shaking my head slowly.

"We have to get out of here, and this is the only way..." He trailed off. "I'm not leaving this building without you safely in that basket."