Page 93 of From the Ashes
He just nodded and smiled. “I know that too.”
His lips pressed to mine, and all the world melted away around me. All at once I felt like everything was right. This was where I belonged. This feeling I had when I was kissing Nix… this washometo me. The one I’d been searching for ever since the accident. And now that I was finally brave enough to admit it, I was never going to let it go.
“This is a really beautiful moment,” Nix said, pulling away. “And I’ll remember it for my next book. But we need to get the fuck out of here.”
The fire. I’d totally forgotten.
“Right.”
“Grab a bag and get your necessities. We’re leaving in thirty seconds. I’ll be outside.”
Nix pulled me to my feet, handed me my empty backpack, and left out the bedroom door. It took me a few seconds to get my head back on straight, the dizzy elation of his kiss still coursing through me. However, the stench of smoke in the air didn’t allow me to linger on it too long. I ran to the bathroom first, scooping out my medicine cabinet into my open backpack with reckless abandon. My meds were the only thing in the house that could be disastrous if I didn’t have them with me. Then I ran back to my room.
On the corner of my headboard hung a leather cord with the opal arrowhead fastened to the bottom. I put it on, knowing I could never lose something full of so many precious memories. I tucked it safely under my shirt before reaching for my bottle ofoh shitpills.
I held the bottle up for a moment, feeling the weight of the glass in my hand. If I hadn’t taken them Nix wouldn’t have needed to rush back into a wildfire to try to save me. I could’ve been out safely with his parents. Even though I didn’t take them often, I knew they’d become a crutch, especially in the past few months when things were finally starting to look better. I’d taken more than I should have to deal with good as well as bad emotions. And now they’d nearly cost me my life.
Reeling back, I chucked the bottle at the wall, the glass exploding into a billion tiny shards. The small white pills practically turned to dust with the force of the explosion. Without a glance back, I shouldered my bag and left my room, knowing full well it would be the last time I ever saw that place again. I took one last look at the house as I left, taking in those places where I’d grown up, raised by a single mother who was just trying to do her best.
“I won’t forget you, Mom,” I said, glancing over the living roomwhere we used to play board games or watch silly movies. “I promise I’ll learn to live again, even if it’s hard.”
I pulled the front door closed behind me as I stepped outside. Nix was there waiting for me, already perched on his motorcycle. I felt a rush of anxiety as he motioned for me to hop on the back, holding out the only helmet to me. But as I looked up and saw the wall of flames already consuming his childhood home down the street, the anxiety faded away. A motorcycle was nothing compared to being burned alive.
Perspective was important.
“You take it,” I said, pushing the helmet back to Nix. “You need to see. I’m not gonna have my eyes open, anyway.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
I got up beside him and swung my leg over the back of the bike, crawling up as best as I could. The bike tipped slightly and I cried out. But Nix righted it immediately, his legs flexing as he held both of us and the motorcycle in place. He slipped on the helmet and raised the visor, looking back at me.
“Wrap your arms around my waist,” he called over the roaring of the flames that drew ever closer. “And don’t let go.”
I nodded, wrapping myself around him as tightly as I could.
“Don’t let me fall, okay?” I called back, my voice shaking despite my determination to get out of there alive.
I was still terrified. So much more could go wrong on a motorcycle than in a car. At least in a car, it was hard to just plain fall out of it.
Nix looked back at me, his green eyes fixed on mine. “I willneverletyou fall,” he said. “You and I are gonna be together forever. We’ve got too much unfinished business not to get through this alive, right?”
I nodded. “Right.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
Flipping the visor down, he turned forward once more, flipped the ignition switch, and turned the throttle. I jumped and nearly squeezed the life out of him as the bike started to move. But he didn’t fight me. He took it slow at first, getting the bike out of the driveway and out onto the deserted street. But as soon as we were there, he picked up speed quickly, gunning the throttle to get us out of town before the flames consumed us both.
I glanced back as we neared the end of the street and saw the flames licking at the side of my house. The sprinklers were no longer running, meaning the power was out now. How it had lasted so long was a miracle to begin with. But I took one last look at my childhood home, knowing I’d never see it again in its current state. With a final nod, I bid farewell to that place and tucked my head against Nix’s back as we sped toward the southern edge of town.
As we rode, I tried to focus on my own breathing and my vain attempts to keep myself calm. The entire town was on fire and I was on a motorcycle, out of all the times in my life I’d had a panic attack, this one seemed like a given. However, with my arms around Nix and his back pressed against me, I found it much easier to focus on him instead of my surroundings. We’d confessed our love to one another. We were going to be together now. That alone was enough to keep my attention diverted.
Until we began to slow down.
When we finally came to a stop, I looked up, the sudden blast of smoke making my eyes water. It took a moment for my vision toclear, a burst of hot wind pushing the smoke aside. It was only then that I realized the issue.
The southern road out of town was blocked. The woods on either side had caught fire, completely enveloping the town. Not only that, but thanks to the very hot and dry summer we’d had, everything was going up fast. That meant that several still-burning trees had fallen over the road.