I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 01

I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 01

My firefighter boyfriend let the girl he’d grown up with use his department’s rescue equipment as her personal toys.

When I warned him that using public equipment for personal favors could get him suspended and investigated, he accused me of being heartless. How could I be jealous of someone who suffered from asthma?

Every time, I let it go. Then a fire broke out in the building we were in, leaving me trapped in a records room packed with flammable paper.

He fought his way through the flames, then gave the only fire blanket to his childhood friend, who was pretending to have fainted.

“You’ve had evacuation training. A little smoke won’t kill you,” he told me. “Lily has asthma. I have to get her downstairs first.”

To keep stray sparks from reaching her, he casually pulled the records room’s blast door shut behind him. He didn’t know that the moment it closed from the outside, it would lock automatically.

He also didn’t know that the ventilation duct inside the room had already burned through.

Over the roar of the fire, the System’s cold voice sounded in my head.

System: [Exit by fire is available. Begin the countdown?]

I watched thick smoke curl under the door, then calmly closed my eyes.

“Yes.”

* * *

Smoke billowed into the room through the vent, choking me until tears streamed down my face. On the other side of the door, I heard Ethan Cole’s hurried footsteps and Lily Harper’s breathy, pleading voice.

“Ethan, I’m scared. It’s so hot in here. My chest feels tight. Am I going to die?”

He answered with a tenderness he’d never used with me. “Don’t be scared, Lily. I’ve got you. The blanket’s wrapped around you nice and tight. I won’t let you get burned.”

“Easy breaths. Open your mouth. Don’t panic. I’ll have you downstairs in a minute.”

I leaned against the scorching door and listened to their voices grow fainter. My throat felt raw and dry, and every swallow hurt.

There was no handle on this side of the door. The lock had snapped into place the instant he’d slammed it shut.

Around me, stacks upon stacks of paper files were curling and yellowing in the heat. The walls were getting hotter by the second.

I reached up and pounded on the heavy steel. “Ethan! The door’s locked! Come back! I can’t open it from this side!”

A fit of coughing swallowed the last of my words. My palm hissed against the metal, and the pain made me jerk my hand away.

That was when I spotted the two-way radio lying beside the door. Ethan had given it to me himself, saying I’d always be able to reach him if I was ever in danger.

Gritting my teeth against the pain, I fumbled for it and pressed the transmit button.

“Ethan, do you copy? The blast door’s locked. I can’t get out. The fire’s reached the outside wall of the records room, and the ventilation duct has burned through. I need a crew to force the door.”

Static crackled through the speaker. A few seconds passed before his irritated voice came back.

“Claire Bennett, do you have any idea what channel you’re on? This is a fireground emergency channel. It isn’t here for your jealous little tantrums.”

“You’ve had professional fire evacuation training. That room is a sealed, fire-resistant structure. You’re a hundred times safer in there than out here.”

I dragged in one breath after another. There wasn’t enough air, and every desperate breath came with a harsh, rattling wheeze.

“The door’s broken! It only opens from the outside! Smoke’s pouring through the vent. I can’t hold on much longer!”

Lily’s delicate cough interrupted me over the radio.

“Ethan… is Claire angry with me? This is all my fault. Just leave me. Take the blanket back to her. I have asthma anyway. If I die in a fire, I guess that’s just how it’s meant to be.”

She punctuated her words with a few retching sounds. Ethan immediately lost his temper.

“Claire! Can you hear what you’re doing to her? She’s about to have an asthma attack, and you’re still making a scene because you’re jealous! I closed that door to keep the toxic smoke out. I was protecting you!”

“Get off this channel. Keep interfering with the rescue, and you’ll answer for it when I get back.”

He cut me off. I stared at the radio and managed a silent, crooked smile.

Protecting me. Sure.

Flames pushed through the ruined vent and caught the stacks of old newspapers in the corner. Their glow lit up my soot-blackened face.

“System,” I called quietly in my mind.

System: [I’m here, Host.]

“Turn off my pain receptors. I’d like to leave with a little dignity.”

System: [Pain perception disabled. Ambient temperature: 185°F. Estimated survival time: 45 minutes. Loading exit-by-fire sequence.]

I slid down the scorching door until I was sitting on the floor. A few feet away, the fire kept spreading.

I couldn’t feel pain anymore, but the suffocation kept getting worse. That was all right. Soon, it would be over.