AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He grabbed the loaf of bread from the cabinet and winced at the fuzzy slice toward the back of the loaf, growling out a foul word as he rolled his eyes. He pulled two slices of what looked like ‘okay’ bread from the front of the loaf and pitched the rest of it in the trash. Going to the grocery was not even on his list of things to do around the house – but it was there now.
“Dang it…” he muttered, slapping together a thick sandwich and taking a massive bite, standing there in the kitchen. Chewing, he looked around and sighed loudly, echoing off the empty walls.
The house was a dump – but it was his dump and dirt cheap. Buying a place ‘As-Is’ wasn’t for the faint of heart. No, his house needed some serious work and he did it a little at a time. It was in a good part of town, not far from the school or the fire station, yet had been allowed to get run down by the previous owner. But for a mortgage payment of less than eight hundred bucks a month – he could live with the dated look and hard work.
When he moved in six months ago, the first thing he’d done before even unpacking was take a box knife to the carpet… yanking it all out. The stench of animal urine had been suffocating.
“Boy, that was an undertaking…” he chuckled, rolling his eyes at the memory. As he’d pulled the fifty-year-old shag carpeting original to the house, every bit of grime, dander, dust, and even the occasional earring, had showered him. He knew it would be bad, but not that bad. Nope. He’d hooked up a garden hose and literally doused himself and his clothing on the back porch before re-entering his new home.
Since then, the carpet had been replaced along with four windows on the house. A new window unit had been replaced in the master bedroom window because he couldn’t afford central air just yet. Yeah, his next three days off were supposed to be used to pull off the wood paneling from another bedroom and patch all the holes that he assumed were there because they were in every wall he’d stripped so far. Then came the task of painting the room, including the ceiling, due to cigarette smoke, again from the previous owner.
He nearly devoured the sandwich in three large bites and chugged down two stadium cups full of tap water just so he could fill his stomach before bed. Walking toward the bedroom, he opted to skip the shower due to exhaustion, and he didn’t really relish looking at the pink tile with the cracked grout lines or the leaking showerhead. Nope. That was just a reminder of more work to do, and he already had the tile sitting in a box in the garage – it was just getting to it and having the energy for it.
Stripping on his way to the bed, he collapsed on top of the sheets and blankets, reaching up with a blind hand for the knob on the window unit nearby. Grunting with effort, he stretched and managed to turn it on, before collapsing onto his pillow and letting himself slide into oblivion.
4
* * *
ERIS
Wednesday
Eris was just as cursed as her name.
Her name meant strife, discord, trouble, a mountain of bad decisions… and all of it followed her like her own pack of invisible demons nipping at her heels. Heels that were currently in socks, because her roommate had stolen her freakin’ shoes before leaving her with the bills.
Bills she was already past due on, but she had to work. There was no choice, and she’d made her way painfully along. Except things were getting harder, her pool of people to draw from for help was dwindling much too quickly. In fact, she was lying there on a mattress on the floor of her apartment with Zane beside her.
Her son was sleeping soundly, and all he knew was that Mama would keep him safe and fed – and that was how it should be, she thought, smiling as she touched his cheek. He was three, the apple of her eye, and her entire world, since it had collapsed.
That single thought was interrupted by a piercing shriek above her head and a flashing light in the distance. Zane made a noise and sat up as Eris got up from the mattress and paused.
Smoke.
“Oh my word…” she whispered, horrified, and literally grabbed Zane, the blanket that he’d been sleeping on, and put the exhausted toddler on her shoulder. Grabbing her purse and keys, she left the apartment and saw others spilling into the breezeway of the building.
“Do you think this is a mistake?” her neighbor across the hall asked, pulling her robe tightly around her, and she saw several others asking the same questions, but before she could say anything. A woman appeared, crying, with a cell phone in her hand.
“Yes… it’s on fire. Building six.”
Eris’s mouth dropped open in shock as she realized it was the neighbor upstairs, farthest from her – and looked around.
“Where’s Sorcha?”
“I knocked on her door, but she didn’t answer.”
“Isn’t she dating some young man?”
“Maybe she’s not home?”
“Can you knock on it again?” Eris asked bluntly, only to see the people look at each other warily. She was halfway up the stairs with Zane to go knock on the woman’s door when a fire truck pulled up. Continuing her trek, she banged several times on it and could see smoke from the other apartment, billowing in their direction.
Zane.
She had to get him away from the toxic smoke and prayed wholeheartedly that Sorcha had indeed spent the night at a friend’s house or was still out on a date. They were both coughing as she descended the stairs again with Zane in her arms. One of the firefighters grabbed her by the arm, pulling her away from the building haphazardly as he was speaking to the others.
“All right, listen up, fellas!” the man began. “Listen up – time is of the essence. We hit it and hit it hard. My ‘walk’ is gonna be a ‘run’ – and I want water up on the southeast unit immediately to buy us some time. We’ve got a friend in there and…”
