Never the Way We Were
The fire spread quickly. The smoke had me choking on the floor, and the burns had gone deep enough that the pain stopped registering. I sobbed and clawed my way toward the door.
"Elara Langley, you worthless piece of garbage, do not die in here!"
If Stellan came back and found a charred body, he would never recover from it.
The words flashed urgently, guiding me. "This way, over here! Move this way!"
I crawled as fast as I could in the direction the words pointed, but the air was already gone. My consciousness slipped away.