by Kait Jagger
Luna took Tilly by the shoulders and held her away from her. She didn’t know who ‘they’ were and she didn’t have time to argue. ‘This house is burning down, Tilly. We have to go, you understand?’ With that she began marching toward the door, dragging the child with her. In her haste she banged the torch against the door frame and it immediately went out. Shaking it, then switching it off and on had no effect, so she dropped it.
Back out in the darkened hallway, smoke filling her lungs, Luna was confronted with an awful choice: turn right and head back to the servants’ staircase, now billowing with black smoke, or turn left toward the main stairs, semi-lit by the flames below.
No time, no time, no time.
Suddenly there came the sound of feet pounding up the main stairs and a masked face appeared through the banister. The masked intruder reached the top landing and Luna instinctively pulled Tilly close as he ran toward her.
He reached up to pull down the cloth covering his nose and mouth and at sight of the familiar face underneath, Luna almost collapsed with relief. But there was no time to waste. ‘Out now!’ Stefan yelled, reaching for Tilly, lifting her up into his arms. ‘You go first,’ he shouted to Luna, gesturing toward the stairs, and she promptly raced down them.
Straight into a blast furnace. The fire had spread everywhere. Walls, doors, even the beamed ceiling in the front vestibule was burning. Bounding off the bottom step, Luna hurled herself at the front door, working at the locks, first the dead bolt…almost there…then the Yale lock...almost there, almost there…fingers fumbling on the latch…
‘Luna, no!’ Stefan bellowed from behind her. She turned to find him standing at the bottom of the stairs, Tilly clinging to him for dear life. ‘Backdraft!’ he shouted. ‘We can’t go that way!’
‘But—’ Luna’s body flooded with panic. They were so close to safety; surely there was no other way. Stefan stepped forward, passing Tilly to her.
‘Follow me,’ he commanded, striding swiftly down the burning hallway.
Luna tightened her arms around Tilly. And then followed in Stefan’s wake, back into the house. Into hell.