I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 05

I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 05

My spirit hovered above the records room. Below me, the body that had once been mine curled and blackened in the flames until there was nothing recognizable left.

It took another half hour to put out the fire. When it was finally over, the acrid stench lingered everywhere.

Ethan was the first one back onto the smoke-choked fifth floor, ignoring everyone who tried to stop him. His

turnout gear was torn in several places, and blisters covered his face.

“Claire! Claire, sweetheart!”

He searched frantically through the wreckage, then rushed to the blast door. The heat had warped it badly

and stripped every last trace of paint from its surface.

He grabbed the handle and pulled. The door didn’t move.

Raising his fire axe, he struck the steel again and again. Each blow sent a shower of black ash drifting to the

floor.

“Claire, don’t be scared! I’m here to get you out. It’s the door, right? It’s broken. Just wait. I’ll break it down!”

Jake arrived with several firefighters. At the sight of their captain, every one of them fell silent.

“Captain… the lock’s jammed from the outside.”

Jake said it quietly, but Ethan flinched as though he’d been struck. He spun toward them, his eyes bloodshot.

“Bullshit! It was working fine. How the hell could it be jammed? Get the hydraulic cutters. Hurry!”

It took several firefighters working together a full twenty minutes to remove the warped door. When it finally fell, a wave of scorched air rolled out, carrying the sickening smell of cooked flesh.

Ethan stopped dead. He stared at the wreckage beyond the threshold.

Beneath the charred remains of the shelves lay a curled, completely charred human body. One hand was still

stretched toward the door, as if, even at the very end, I’d been trying to push my way out.

A short distance away, in the corner, the half-melted radio lay undisturbed.

No.

The axe slipped from Ethan’s hand and clanged against the floor. His knees gave out, and he dropped heavily

into the ash.

“That isn’t her. Claire’s had training. She knows how to stay out of the fire.”

He crawled forward on his hands and knees and reached for the body. His fingers stopped an inch or two

from its surface.

He was afraid that if he touched it, what remained of me would fall apart.

Jake turned away, wiping a tear from his reddened eyes. “Captain, I’m so sorry.”

“Get away from me! She’s not dead!”

Ethan suddenly lunged up and grabbed Jake by the collar, wild-eyed. “She’s angry with me. She’s hiding

somewhere else! This is a mannequin. Can’t any of you tell the difference?”

Tears poured down his face as he shouted, cutting pale tracks through the soot. I hovered above him and

watched his grief without feeling a thing.

Now he wanted to act like he loved me? He was the one who’d shut the door that killed me.