Page 12 of Demon's Desire

He kissed me back, moving one of his hands up to slide into my hair. “Mmm…”

I shivered and started to pull back when I heard everyone around me gasp. I opened my eyes and paused when I saw that all the lights were out. I dropped my arms from Elias, but he kept one of his around my waist.

“Hey, guys! Hey! It’s all right!” I heard Torie’s voice as everyone started to get out their cell phones and turn on the lights. “It’s no big deal! Mica and I are going to go check the breakers and get everything back on!”

Suddenly, the lights came back on, and everyone visibly relaxed. I saw Torie standing at the entrance to the hallway. She smiled. “Oh! Awesome! See, no reason to panic!”

I heard electricity buzzing, then it sounded like something snapped. I whipped around and saw smoke in the corner where the TV and the speakers sat. A few people closer to the devices screamed, then started pushing their way through the crowd.

“What the hell?” I frowned, trying not to get crushed by anyone. When the people in my way moved, I saw what had scared them so much.

Behind the left speaker, the curtains had caught on fire, and the flames were starting to rise.

4

Smoke started to thicken in that corner of the room. It was slow and thin at first, but I wasn’t going to wait for it to get worse.

I turned back to Torie and pulled away from Elias, heading in her direction. “Torie, the curtains are on fire! Do you have a fire extinguisher?”

“What?” She shrieked and tried to move over to see the flames. The smoke was getting thicker near the curtains but the smell had spread through the room already.

“Torie!” I grabbed her arm. “Do you have a fire extinguisher?”

“I… N-no.” She looked like she was in shock. But someone needed to step in and make sure everyone got out safely.

“Okay,” I said quickly, squeezing her arm. “You need to get everyone out of here. Get everyone out of the living room and onto the front lawn, now.”

While Torie was still coming to terms with the situation, I ran down the hall. I didn’t see my friends. I figured they’d gone back into Mica’s room, so I rushed over and opened the door. The room was full of smoke.

“Mica, Kelly, everyone else, outside, now,” I ordered. “The curtains are on fire. We’re all going to get out of the house.”

“What the fuck?” Kelly cried.

“Mica,” I said from the doorway. “Where are the stairs that lead to the second floor?”

“Fuck,” he hissed, standing up. He was clearly freaking out. “Um… Th-through the alley.”

I nodded. “Kelly, knock on every door in this house and yell fire. Mica, when you get outside, call 911.”

Without another word, I ran back through the hall. There was smoke throughout the entire living room now and it was slowly filling the rest of the house. The entire section of curtains were up in flames at this point. I could feel heat coming from the room.

People were struggling to get out the door because everyone was trying to leave at once, but they were mostly all gone. Still, I wasn’t going to even try to go that way. I had seen the back door in the kitchen earlier, so I ran out of it as quickly as I could. There wasn’t really a backyard, but there was a thin strip of concrete with two trash cans in it. I ran around to the side of the house until I found the stairs, then ran up.

When I got to the door, I banged on it as loud as I possibly could. “Hello? This is an emergency!”

After a minute or so, the door opened and a woman who looked around forty was standing there in pajamas, looking annoyed. “Is that damn party–?”

“Torie and Mica’s apartment is on fire,” I said quickly. “Get everyone in your house and leave, now. Do you need any help?”

“Holy shit!” she gasped. She ran back into the apartment, not even bothering to shut the door. I waited where I was. I wouldn’t leave until I knew everyone up here was safe.

I could hear her banging on doors and yelling. Slowly, the smell of smoke started to drift up to where I was. Three minutes later, she and a man around her age came out. One of them was holding a toddler and the other was holding hands with a girl who looked around ten. The man was also holding a cat carrier.

“Is that everyone?” I asked.

“Yes!” The woman, who I assumed was the mother, nodded as the family practically flew down the stairs. I followed them closely.

When we got to the ground level, I pulled my phone out from my purse and called 911. I’d told Mica to call, but he was also baked, so I wanted to be safe.