Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 36387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 182(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 182(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Too late! My common sense finally kicked in but by then I’d crossed the point of no return. Those papers I needed were in my bedroom and surprise-surprise, the fire had started in the fireplace that I’d forgotten to turn off before I left in a pique.
I hurried to the closet where I had all I needed stored away in a box on the shelf in there. I was feeling rather proud of myself now that I’d had the foresight to grab them without any harm to myself.
I turned to rush from the room, still patting myself on the back and in just that short space of time the room had filled with even more smoke. So much more that I couldn’t see two feet in front of me. Shoot.
If that wasn’t bad enough, I started coughing uncontrollably, enough to hack up a lung. I felt my way through the growing dark thinking how strange it was that the light from the snow that had seemed so bright just moments ago, was damn near nonexistent now.
And that’s when it happened, when my life flashed before my eyes and I felt real fear of dying. My foot had connected with something, perhaps the corner of the bed, and I went flying. The last thing I remember is thinking how the smoke looked like something from a horror movie as it crept along the floor.
My actual last thought was that if I died it was all the asshole jerk’s fault. If he hadn’t pissed me off, I wouldn’t have forgotten to turn off the gas and the damn house wouldn’t have caught fire. I’ma come back and haunt his ass for sure. Jerk!
DEVLIN
“Yo Dev, what’s gotten into you?”
“What do you mean?” I wiped the water from my gym shower out of my hair with the towel I’d brought. I don’t know how people use those things here or in any public place for that matter.
Call me anal but I don’t trust my balls to some random stranger’s care. How do I know they’ve washed those things? Or how well they have if they did. No thanks!
“I mean you were hitting the machines pretty hard. I thought you were going to knock poor Doug on his ass when you two were sparring back there.”
I peeped under the towel in my hair at one of my colleagues, Frank. I’d chosen the gym close to the station that most of the guys used on days like this. Frank and I usually had the same shifts off and had grown close over the years.
We were complete polar opposites. He had a nosy ass wife and a houseful of kids. While I was, well you know what I am. Bachelor extraordinaire. I guess his wife was rubbing off on him if he was trying to stick his nose in my shit.
“I don’t know what you mean. Nothing seemed any different to any other day.” I had to remind myself that he had no way of knowing why it was that I was in a piss poor mood. I haven’t shared my thoughts on Ms. Pain In the Ass with him.
But when he stepped back with his hands up in surrender I figured I better roll it back a notch before his nosy ass goes snooping in my shit, or he gets his wife and her nose hounds in my shit. It wouldn’t be the first time, but I’m damned if I want a repeat.
I was saved then by our special beeper going off. We both went into work mode right away and jogged out of the gym, me heading for my truck while he went to his.
We arrived at the station seconds apart and rushed inside for our gear. The rest of our team was already getting themselves together, each man making sure he had his part covered.
“Monroe, this one’s close to home. It’s your neighbor.” My heart stopped and something nasty hit me in the gut at the captain’s words. It took me a few seconds to find my voice.
“Which one?” I knew the answer before he said it. From the way my body was damn near ready to give out on me I knew it could only be one person. I’ll think about my reaction later. Now was not the time.
“A Ms. Joyann Reese.”
“Damn!” I muttered the word under my breath but picked up the pace. All the way there I didn’t take part in the usual banter. My mind was too fogged up to think clearly.
As someone who’s seen it all before, my mind went to the worst places and by the time we pulled into her driveway and I saw the smoke and flames coming from upstairs I’d pretty much convinced myself that she’d be gone. She’d be gone and it will be too late.