From Ashes To Flames

by A. M. Hargrove

  “Because they just do.” Marin looked to me for help, only I smiled and shrugged. She discretely flipped me off so the kids couldn’t see. I hid the huge grin that covered my face.

  “Because why?”

  “Well, if you eat, you make a stinky,” she answered.

  Kinsley wrinkled up her little brow something furious. “Nuh huh. That’s not right. Is it, Daddy?”

  “Afraid so. Marin is right.”

  “Ick. I’m not gonna eat no more.”

  “Any more,” Marin corrected.

  Kinsley’s face looked like she just ate a lemon. It was so funny that I snapped a quick picture of her. Then I said, “Speaking of, I’m starving.”

  “Me too,” Marin said.

  “Let’s find lunch.” I checked the time and was shocked to see it was almost three. “Geez, it’s almost supper time. How about we get a huge snack, like some ice cream, and then after we see a couple more animals, head back to the hotel for dinner instead?”

  “Yay! Ice cream,” Kinsley yelled.

  “I didn’t think you were going to eat anymore,” Marin said.

  “But I’m hungry so I gotta.”

  She tickled Kinsley in the ribs. “That’s what I thought.”

  We found an ice cream parlor and all got sundaes made with gelato. And they were delicious. Then we were off to see the penguins, elephants, and our last stop was at the coati display. One of the zookeepers had one on a leash and Aaron went crazy over it. I’m not sure if it was its long striped tail or its long nose, but the kid loved that thing. It was gentle enough to pet, so Aaron ran his chubby hand along its back and kicked his legs in excitement. I think he would’ve stuffed the thing in his diaper bag if he were capable of it.

  As we walked away, he kept looking back with his little arms stretched out. Marin took a ton of pictures of him with it and I couldn’t wait to see them all. Both kids fell asleep on the way back to the hotel.

  “Maybe we should order room service tonight,” I suggested. “With both of them asleep, I hate to wake them up.”

  “I’ll do whatever. It doesn’t matter. But I think they both had a great time.”

  “I do too. That was a great experience for them.” And a better one for me watching them.

  When we got to the suite, I suggested putting them both to bed.

  “If we do that, they’ll be up all night,” Marin said as she was sitting down with Aaron on her lap. I had the stroller in one hand and Kinsley in the other. She looked up at me and jumped back to her feet.

  “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” She grabbed the stroller and I laid Kinsley on the couch.

  “What should we do?” I checked the time. “It’s already nearly six.”

  “I say we order dinner and then wake them up to eat. Afterward, we bathe them and put them to bed.”

  I stretched out the kinks in my back. It wasn’t hard to notice her staring at me and my dick jumped to life. Maybe I needed to jump in the shower while we waited for the food and I could take care of business.

  “Fine. I’m gonna shower. Will you order dinner? I’ll eat whatever.”

  I hurried out of the room with her staring at my back. I didn’t want her to notice the damn bulge in my pants. That was something I didn’t want to contend with right now. I had enough going on in my head.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Marin

  * * *

  Grey hustled out of the room like I was contaminated. I thought we’d had a great day too. Goes to show what I knew.

  I checked out the menu and ordered a ton of stuff. Pizza for the kids with some spaghetti on top of that. The pizza here looked different from what we ate at home, so I needed back up just in case. Then I ordered salads and some Weiner schnitzel. It was supposedly the hotel specialty, but then again, it was the specialty of Austria so how could I go wrong with that? I added several desserts, drinks, and some sides. They said it would be at least forty minutes. That would give me time for a shower too as long as Grey didn’t take too long.

  I was scrolling through the pictures I’d taken today when he came out. His hair was messy and damp from his shower. I’d expanded a photo I’d taken of him watching the kids and had been staring at him. It had captured every perfect feature of his face—from his intense gray eyes to his full sensuous lips. My fingertip had been tracing those lips when he walked into the room.

  “I’m out if you’d like to shower.”

  “Ayy,” I yipped and jerked at the same time. My phone went flying out of my hand and landed at his feet. I reached for it, but my hand collided with his. When I looked up, our mouths were only inches apart. The oxygen trapped in my airways, and everything in my body tensed. All I wanted was to act like he didn’t affect me, but that wasn’t possible. That was like eating a habanero pepper and pretending your mouth wasn’t burning like the fires of hell.

  He picked up the phone and went to hand it to me, only at the last minute, he glanced down. Then he saw what I’d been staring at. Him. He scrolled to find more pictures of him. Oh, the kids were in them, but they weren’t the focal point. He was.

  “May I please have my phone?” The humiliation was beyond anything I’d ever experienced. It was worse than leaving Newsworthy Magazine with my banker’s box. It was worse than seeing Damien and my former best friend in the grocery store together after they’d gotten engaged. How had my life gotten so off track?

  He kept scrolling.

  “Grey. Please.”

  Perhaps he saw something in my eyes, or maybe it was the way my voice quivered when I asked, but he handed the phone over and I darted to my room. I went into the bathroom, stripped, and took a shower so I could wash away the layer of shame that clung to me and seemingly didn’t want to let go.

  Grey’s conference was the next day and a half. Maybe I would check into getting my ticket changed after that. Staying here with him was worse than I ever imagined. My heart was already in need of his medical services. If I stayed the rest of the week, there wouldn’t be anything worth fixing afterward.

  I didn’t have a computer with me, and changing tickets on my phone was a pain. The hotel had a business center so I could do it there. The next day I would make arrangements after Grey left for his conference. He would be tied up for only a day and a half. I could leave after that.

  In the morning, I took the kids downstairs to eat breakfast and then went to the business center to check on flights. I could get on a different one in two days. I changed my ticket, which was easy since we had first class seating, and then we made plans. The park was nearby, so we started there and the kids loved it. By the time we played on all the swings and other amusements it offered, it was already time for lunch, so we left and found a place to eat. Then I remembered Paige talking about the catacombs beneath St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which was close to our hotel.

  We rode back to the hotel to drop off the stroller. I opted to use the backpack carrier instead since according to the information, I would have to navigate stairs. The church was built in the 1500’s. The work on it began in the twelfth century but wasn’t completed for three hundred years. Beneath it laid the catacombs and Ducal crypt dating back to Archduke Rudolph IV whose remains had been there since 1365.

  We entered the gothic cathedral and Kinsley asked, “Marnie, I didn’t bring my church clothes. Are we going to church?”

  Laughing, I answered, “Not exactly sweetie. We’re taking a tour of what’s under the church.”

  “What’s under the church?”

  “Just some things from ancient Vienna.”

  “Okay. But will there be things for me and Aaron to play with?”

  “Not really, but this won’t take long. I promise.”

  We went to where the tour started and lucky for us, we didn’t have to wait long. The guide opened the gate and we walked down a flight of steps. We entered a crypt directly beneath the church where he explained how it had been refurbished and looked newer now. It was where the Vienna bishops were
laid to rest. It was a good thing the tour guide had a heavy accent and Kinsley couldn’t understand him because I think this was a little too morbid for a small child, even though Paige had said it was okay.

  Then we moved onward into the depths of the catacombs. I stayed toward the back of the group in case Aaron cried. I didn’t want him to disturb the tour. Even though he never did, I just took the extra precaution.

  As we walked deeper and deeper into the cavernous area, it got cooler and cooler, and darker and darker.

  “Marnie, are there monsters down her?”

  “No, short stuff. No monsters.” My voice was firm, although this place gave me the creeps like nothing I’d ever seen.

  “I’m cold,” Kinsley said.

  “That’s because we’re way underground.” I did worry about Aaron being cold, but hopefully, we would be out quickly.

  The group stopped and the guide directed us to look in the barred windows on the right. Kinsley was too short, thank God, but you could still see the skeletal remains of bodies inside. It was the most disturbing thing ever. My skin crawled so much I rubbed my arms.

  We walked farther on. To our left was another larger room. One by one each person would look inside.

  “Marnie, what are they looking at?” Kinsley asked.

  “It’s only an empty room.”

  “I wanna see.”

  The rest of the group moved on as she asked me to hold her up to see inside the barred window. I didn’t want to and was telling her so. All of a sudden a thunderous boom shook the walls around us, and I stumbled to my knees. What the hell.

  “Marnie?”

  Then another one hit. But this time I was slammed into something and hit the side of my head so hard that everything spun. Then rocks and debris rained down on me. Initially, I was confused and dizzy.

  Shit. Kinsley. Aaron. I rolled on my back and covered Aaron with my hands as much as I could. All the lights went out, so it was black as coal inside. It was impossible to even see my hand in front of my face.

  “Kinsley? Where are you?” I called out.

  “Marnie? I’m scared. I can’t see,” she cried.

  The explosion, or whatever it was, must’ve knocked out the electricity.

  “Hang on a second. There must be emergency lighting down here. It will probably come on any minute. But it didn’t. I fumbled with the side of Aaron’s pack to find my phone. Then I had to figure out where the damn flashlight button was. When I turned it on, I found Kinsley. She was farther down from me.

  “Kinsley, I’m here. Are you hurt?”

  Then she started crying. Fuck, oh, fuck.

  “Hang on, short stuff. I’m coming.” I checked Aaron and he was fine. My legs were scraped, but I was ok. My head throbbed something fierce, and my shoulder too, but otherwise I was fine. I crawled over all the rock and debris and made it to where Kinsley was laying. Her forehead and leg were cut and bleeding.

  “Can you move?”

  She was sobbing so hard, I’m not sure she heard me. I kissed her cheek. “Kinsley? Honey, can you hear me?”

  “Marnie? I’m scared.”

  So am I. “It’s okay. We’re okay. They’re gonna come and get us. They know we’re here.”

  “Who knows? Did you call Daddy?”

  Fuck me. He had no idea where we were.

  “Yeah. He knows. And the tour people know too.”

  I aimed my flashlight around to find that the walls on either side of us had crumbled down trapping our exits out, and cutting us off from everyone else. Then I aimed it to my left and, oh fuck, fuck, fuck. We were surrounded by piles of bones. They were every-fucking-where. Why the hell had I chosen this place to tour … and with the kids? I had to make sure Kinsley didn’t see that. Oh, God. Please get us out of here.

  “Marnie, call Daddy.”

  “Yeah. I’ll call Daddy.”

  But when I tried, there was no signal.

  “Did you try?”

  “I can’t, honey. There isn’t a signal down here. We’ll just wait.”

  “I’m cold.” She was still sobbing. I was close to that point, but I forced myself to remain calm.

  “Come here.” I got Aaron out of his pack and sat him on my lap and then pulled Kinsley next to me. While we sat there, huddled together, my brain scrambled for ideas of how there might be something I could do.

  “Kinsley, I need your help. You have to be a big sister now, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I want you to hug Aaron and watch him. Don’t let him run around. Can you do that for me?”

  “Don’t leave me, Marnie.”

  I put my hands on her cheeks. “Listen up, my brave, sweet girl. I am not leaving. I’m going right over there”—I pointed to where the rocks were blocking our exit—“to try to clear a way for us to get out of here. You can do that, can’t you?”

  Her head bobbed.

  I used my phone to guide me to the pile of rubble that blocked our exit. “Is anybody there?” I yelled. “Help! Can anyone hear me?” I tugged on one of the rocks to see if I could move it, but they were wedged in so tightly they wouldn’t budge. “Help me! We’re trapped in here.”

  When that didn’t work, I tried the other end that was blocked, doing the same thing. I didn’t give up. Hours passed and I would periodically go to each end and yell.

  “Marnie, I’m thirsty.”

  “Here.” I handed both of them some water. I was always prepared with the kids. We’d been down here for four hours. Surely someone would help. They had to know we were trapped by now. Every twenty to thirty minutes I’d keep yelling and shouting just to make sure. In between those times, I told the kids stories, made things up, did everything I knew. Aaron slept part of the time. He was oblivious to our distress, thank God. And thank God I had brought a mobile battery with me because when my phone started dying, I panicked until I realized I stuck it in the pack. It would’ve been torturous to be stuck down here in absolute darkness.

  After ten … ten excruciating hours, someone finally answered my shouts.

  “We’re coming. Please be patient. We know you are there. We are clearing the debris.”

  “I have two small children with me. Can you call their father?”

  “Yes, I believe he is already here.”

  “Did you hear that, Kinsley? They’re getting us out.”

  She was still whimpering off and on and I was so worried about her. It wasn’t like her to act like this. Aaron, on the other hand, had only fussed when I wouldn’t let him run around. It was too dangerous in here to allow that. So, he’d sit in my lap and kick out his legs.

  The stabbing pain in my head persisted from where I’d hit it and my shoulder also ached. But my main priority was getting these kids to safety. They hadn’t eaten anything since lunch and only had water to drink. I was out of everything and if we didn’t get them out of here soon, I was afraid they’d get dehydrated.

  We were all huddled together in the chilled air, trying to stay warm, when a ray of light broke through. Then it grew until finally a man in a hard hat climbed in.

  “Hello, are you okay?” he asked in a heavy accent. “I’m here to get you out.”

  “Thank you. Yes, we’re fine. Here,” I handed Aaron to him.

  He took him and asked, “Can you walk?”

  “Yes.” Kinsley and I followed, navigating our way through the rubble. When we climbed over the debris to the other side, a team of search and rescue workers waited to escort us to the outside. When we got there, it was dark, and Grey was waiting.

  “Thank God you’re safe.” And then his arms were around us all, even me.

  My head swam and overwhelming dizziness made it impossible to stand. I clutched his arm as I began to crumple.

  People were clustered around me when I came to and was lying on a stretcher. They wheeled me into an ambulance and drove to a nearby hospital. It happened so quickly, I didn’t have time to ask about the kids. The hospital staff was very accommodating, bu
t I didn’t speak the language and was frightened. Were the kids okay? I was more worried about Kinsley than Aaron, but no one seemed to know anything.

  A doctor came in and rattled off something, but I didn’t understand him. He only smiled, patted my hand, and left. Soon they took me to another room to do a scan on my head. As I laid on that hard surface, I sobbed. The person running the machine came out and instructed me to be still. Her English wasn’t great, but at least I understood her. I sucked it up and after the scan, I was returned to my curtained off cubby. Being alone was awful and I wished there was someone to sit with me. But I knew Grey had his hands full with the kids.

  A different doctor came in this time—an English speaking one— and said I’d suffered a severe concussion but would be fine. They wanted to keep me overnight. I had also injured my shoulder, but he said it wasn’t serious and could be tended to after I got home.

  “Do you know what happened?” I asked.

  “It was a gas explosion of some kind,” he said. “It happened near the church, so the section of the catacombs you were in was affected because that’s where the gas lines ran. They are still investigating it.”

  “Are the kids okay?” I asked, grabbing his arm as he tried to move away.

  He was puzzled by my question. “The kids?”

  “Yes, I was with two children.”

  “I’m sorry. You came in alone. They may have taken them somewhere else. Were they injured?”

  “Yes. One had some cuts and bruises and was very shaken. The other one was fine.”

  “Perhaps they determined the hospital was not necessary.”

  “Maybe.” Then I asked, “When can I fly?”

  “Tomorrow would be fine.”

  I wouldn’t miss my flight, so that was good. The sooner I could get out of here the better. This trip had turned into a catastrophe.

  They moved me to a room and there was still no word from Grey. I didn’t expect one because he had enough on his hands without me.

  Every time I thought about Kinsley, I had to force back the sobs. My heart hurt for her. The poor thing had been so frightened.