Chapter 9 - The Break
“Ma'am, stay on the line,” the dispatcher’s voice boomed through the small speaker. “Engine 4 is two miles away. Are the doors locked from the outside?”
“Yes!” I sobbed, smoke blinding my eyes. “There’s a deadbolt on the exterior frame!”
“Get as low to the floor as possible, Caitlyn. We’re coming.”
I dropped the phone, wrapped my bleeding hands in my coat, and turned toward the window.
The glass was thick, double-paned, and painted shut from years of my mother’s rules about keeping the house sealed.
I picked up a heavy wooden desk chair and slammed it against the glass with everything I had left.
CRACK.
Spiderweb fractures bloomed across the pane. I struck it again, and the glass exploded outward into the cool evening air.
A rush of cold oxygen hit my face, making me gasp and cough as smoke poured out of the broken frame into the night sky.
In the driveway below, I saw my mother’s white sedan parked near the curb.
She was standing on the lawn beside Jessica, holding her handbag, watching the second-floor windows with complete, chilling calm.
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She wasn't calling for help. She wasn't screaming.
Until she heard the sirens wailing in the distance.
