Page 38 of Mafia’s Final Play

In Louisiana, they’d call it her gut, and tell her to listen to it. They weren’t necessarily believers in the supernatural, but people in her town knew how to survive, and gut was one thing you followed. Her gut was telling her there was something bad out there and if he went back out it would get him.

“It will only…” his words faltered as she gave him a pleading look. “Alright, fine, but if Matteo gets mad you better tell him it was your idea.”

“I will, I promise.” She reached up quickly, pecked his cheek, and then stepped away, her cheeks red. “Sorry, didn’t mean to invade your space.”

He ducked his head, but she saw the grin on his face. “It’s okay. I’ll go back up then, keep an eye out.”

“Alright, I think I’ll try going back to bed. Maybe without the hum of electricity in this place, I can get to sleep.”

When she crawled into the bed Matteo turned to her, still half asleep. “What’s wrong?”

“The power went out and Anton can’t get the generator to start. I told him to leave it until the morning. It will probably need two pairs of hands and a lot of light to find the problem.”

“Okay,” he said and promptly started to snore again.

A pleased smile crept across her face as she held him to her. The house was really quiet, and she felt safer here with him. Maybe she’d overreacted, she thought as she began to relax, and sleep came to take her. It was probably just an animal outside, nothing more than that. She’d see in the morning, when the light was bright and warm, that there’d been nothing to be afraid of.

* * *

Large pools of water stood between her and Matteo, and her feet were already cold. How was she going to get across all of that water to get to him? He beckoned to her from the other side, so far away, and she wanted to run to him, but the water was in the way. She moaned in helplessness just as she smelled smoke.

When she turned around, she saw a wall of fire behind her, ready to consume her if she didn’t run into the water. A lick of flame reached out for her, turned into the shape of a human hand as the first tendrils of heat burned wisps of her hair and warmed her cheek, she started to scream, turned, and tripped as the flame came even closer. Another scream woke her up and she opened her eyes as she realized it was only a dream.

Her heart still thudded in her chest and it took her a moment to calm down. The dream had felt so real, she could still smell the smoke. She took one final breath and tried to close her eyes, but she frowned. That smoke wasn’t just from the dream. Was Anton refilling the stoves? No, this was too strong.

“Matteo, wake up, I think something is wrong.” She shook him just as Anton came racing down the stairs to bang on their door.

“Fire, wake up everybody, the house is on fire!” Matteo woke up and grabbed a robe and some shoes, while Marie did the same.

“What the fuck is happening?” Matteo demanded, still half asleep but functioning.

“I don’t know. I woke up, smelled the smoke, and thought it was my nightmare, or Anton filling the stoves. I decided to wake you and then he came down. Hurry, grab your phone and wallet. Let’s get out.”

“Fuck, where are the keys?” He looked around on his nightstand, found them, and put them in his pocket. He grabbed the clothes they’d had on yesterday, and then ushered her out of the door.

She had her bag in her hands and her phone was already in the pocket of her robe. She’d scooped her medicines into her bag in one fell swoop, slipped on her snow-boots, and was ready. The smoke was getting thicker the longer they were inside, and Anton was all but breaking the door down banging on it. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait, I forgot something.” He went to a dresser drawer, pulled out a pistol, and put that in his other pocket. “Let’s go.”

Marie stayed quiet about the weapon, she didn’t care right now, she just wanted out of the house. They came down the stairs in a rush, the sound of the fire a raging roar that scared her shitless. She looked around as they came down the stairs and saw that the fire was at the front door too.

“We can’t get out there,” she cried and turned back to Matteo with a mask of fear on her face.

“We can do this, Marie, just stay calm. Here, put this over your face.” She’d started to cough as he spoke.

The sweater he had on yesterday helped to mask some of the fumes, but it was hard to breathe.

“Okay, jump over the banister and head to the kitchen. We’ll go out the window in there.” Tears from the smoke filled his eyes as he spoke close to her ear. “We will be right behind you. You can do this, Marie.”

“I can, I can.” She nodded but then she looked back at the front door. The flames had started to climb to the ceiling and the entire living room was already hidden by nothing but orange and blue flames. Acrid smoke filled the air, filled her lungs, and made her hair stink.

One more deep breath, a final look at Matteo, and then she went over the banister. She dropped down, stayed low, and headed into the kitchen. She couldn’t hear anything now but the roar of the fire as it ate away at the walls, the furniture, everything in the beautiful cabin she’d felt so safe in for so long now.

“You can do it! Keep going, Marie!” She heard Matteo shout over the roar of the fire.

She kept going, almost crawling, but she reached the windows in the kitchen. The flames weren’t in here yet, but the room was full of smoke. She waited for Matteo and Anton but opened the window to breathe fresh air. It was cold air, but she didn’t care, the heat in the house was unbelievable now, and she wanted to go out, wanted to run for the SUV, but couldn’t leave, not until Matteo caught up to her.

She was about to go back and look for him when he and Anton came into the room together. She hugged him quickly as Anton went out of the window first, followed by Matteo, then Marie. Matteo caught her and they headed for the warmth the SUV would offer them as they looked back at the house, the back side, the side where all the bedrooms were, was completely in flames. Marie stopped and gasped as she saw the flames climb onto the roof and begin to move swiftly.