Page 172 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part One

And then?—

BOOM.

The explosion tears the morning apart. Fire blossoms across the drive, and I’m thrown backward, landing hard on the paver stones, ears ringing, lungs screaming for air.

Smoke. Heat. Flame. Screaming.

It makes no sense that I run toward the fire, my heart stabbing itself against my breastbone and I try to make sense of?—

“Mom! Dad!” I shout, coughing as I get a few feet from the burning car, and I almost collapse to the ground when my mother’s charred silk shirt flutters against a manicured bush.

“No! God, no!”

I’ve got to get them out. I’ve got to get them out, got to get them out, got to?—

I cough, choke, try to get closer to the vehicle when arms band around my middle, dragging me away.

“Get the fuck off me!”

I get farther and farther away from the scene?—

“Let me go!”

Bodies clad in black tactical gear rush from the house and toward the wreckage. Security. They were supposed to?—

“Help them! Fucking let me help them! Let me?—”

My back hits the ground, and I grapple at the earth as smoke, thick and acrid, takes my vision and my breath.

It’s everywhere. Everywhere. Chaos.

Death.

“No…” I rasp.

“Storm, we’ve got to get out of here!” Riale. Riale’s got me, he’s the one who pulled me away.

“No!” I shout again, my voice like stone on stone, pain blooming sharp in my throat like I’ve swallowed knives.

Take care of yourself, son.

Mom. I clutch my chest. No,Mom.

Death. Chaos. Death. Fire.

Get out of here, son!

Blaring sirens compete with the ringing in my ears. Everything is noise.

Everything is agony.

“Let’s fucking go! I’m not asking you, Storm!” Riale grabs me again and I fight against him, struggling to go toward the blaze that’s become a full inferno.

Fire. Fire. Everythingburns.

No….

The air gets cooler as we rush up the small hill. I blink.

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