a moment, and when she opened them, she was smiling.
I stepped out from behind the counter, and as I passed by the kitchen door, I smelled it.
Gas.
I turned around, looking at Millie, those sparks in the smoke whirling behind her even more ominous now. "Millie, I smell gas. We need to get out of here."
"Of course you smell gas," she said. "Who do you think turned it on?"
"Goddamnit, Millie!" I said, and headed toward the kitchen door, but I couldn't move it. Something was wedged up against it. I pushed against it with everything I had, and moved it an inch, just enough to see the blue of Cain's T-shirt as the dead weight of his unconscious body sagged against the door. I coughed as the gas that had saturated the kitchen swept in through the crack in the door, then twirled around to see Millie there, arms raised, smoke and sparks seeming to come from her fingers.
"Millie, stop it!" I yelled. "If this place goes up, it'll kill you, too."
"Yeah?" Millie rolled her eyes. "You think she'll let anything happen to me? She's my friend. She loves me."
"She's not your friend!" I ran for the front door. I pushed back the Venetian blinds and tried to open it, but the dead bolt was flipped, and the key we usually kept in there was gone. I coughed again as the smell of the gas scorched my lungs. There was a pounding on the glass and I looked up: Tobias. I motioned for him to go around the back. If he could get Cain out in time and open the kitchen door, we might be able to get out the back. He gave me a quick, frantic look, then ran off. Stacy and Betty, who'd been standing behind him, moved closer. I waved for them to go away, but Betty was motioning to Stacy, saying something I couldn't make out, and Stacy ran off. Betty stood on the other side of the plate glass, her hand flat on it.
"Go away!" I hollered, dizzy from the gas. I fell to my knees, frantically motioning for her to get back. All I could see was her head shaking back and forth, a simple No.
I experienced the explosion in phases, my mind unable to process it all together at once. The first thing I saw was Betty's face, illuminated in red as the flames flashed through the dining room. Then, she was gone, thrown back by the force as all the windows and doors blew out in a million screaming shards. I pushed myself down to the floor and covered my head as the oppressive heat consumed the air around me. Then there was the concussive boom of it, making my ears ring. I gasped for air, unable to hear anything aside from the ringing in my ears, unable to feel anything but the heat from the flames.
A moment later, I felt myself being dragged out, and after a few gasps of fresh air, I realized that Tobias had me. I clutched at him and yelled, "Betty! Where's Betty?" but if he answered me, I couldn't hear him. The street was a mass of emergency vehicles, blue and red flashing lights, and the first thing I was able to focus on was Cain, breathing through an oxygen mask, an EMT next to him inspecting a wet rag. She must have snuck up behind him with chloroform or something.
Someone was prodding at me, asking me questions, but I couldn't answer. There was a mask over my face, and the tanked oxygen felt stringent against my ruined breathing passages. I pulled the mask down and grabbed the EMT attending me by the arm. "Betty? Where's Betty?"
The EMT shook her head, then pointed across the street. I turned just in time to see Stacy crawling into the back of an ambulance and sitting next to a body strapped to a gurney.
Betty.
Then the doors shut to the ambulance and it started away, and I watched it go, my eyes filled with helpless tears. The sound around me started to come back, and when I heard my name being called, I turned to see Tobias moving toward me, covered in soot but seemingly okay. He sat next to me on the edge of the truck, hesitated for a moment, then pulled me into his arms. He put one hand on the back of my head and kissed my forehead, then my cheek, and then held me to him again.