Лиза Смит - The Return - Midnight

Then she almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of an axe crashing into wood, of wood splintering, and of the axe crashing again. She opened her eyes and saw that Matt hadn’t listened to her, but she was glad because he’d found the door. His face was black with soot. “It was locked,” he explained, hefting the axe.

Any optimism Meredith might have felt splintered like the door as she looked inside and saw only flames and more flames.

My God, she thought, anyone in there is roasting, is probably dead already.

But where had that thought come from? Her knowledge or her fear? Meredith couldn’t just stop now. She took a step into searing heat and shouted, “Isobel! Mrs.

Saitou! Where are you?”

There was a weak, choking cry. “That’s the kitchen!” she said. “Matt, it’s Mrs.

Saitou! Please go get her!”

Matt obeyed, but threw over his shoulder, “Don’t you go farther in.”

Meredith had to go farther in. She remembered very well where Isobel’s room was. Directly under her “grandmother’s.”

“Isobel! Isobel! Can you hear me?” Her voice was so low and husky from smoke that she knew she had to keep going. Isobel might be unconscious or too hoarse to answer. Meredith dropped to her knees, crawling on the ground where the air was slightly cooler and more clear.

Okay. Isobel’s room. She didn’t want to touch the door handle with her hand, so she wrapped her T-shirt around it. The handle wouldn’t turn. Locked. She didn’t bother to investigate how, she simply turned around and mule-kicked the door right beside the handle. Wood splintered. Another kick, and with a wooden scream the door swung free.

Meredith was feeling dizzy now, but she needed to see the entire room. She took two strides in, and — there!

Sitting up on the bed in the smoky, hot, but otherwise scrupulously tidy little room was Isobel. As Meredith neared the bed she saw — to her fury — that the girl was tied to the brass headboard with duct tape. Two slashes of the stave took care of that. Then, amazingly, Isobel moved, raising a blackened face up to Meredith’s.

That was when Meredith’s fury peaked. The girl had duct tape across her mouth, to prevent her from making any cry for help. Wincing herself to show that she knew this was going to be painful, Meredith grasped the duct tape and stripped it off.

Isobel didn’t cry out; instead she took in lungful after lungful of smoky air.

Meredith stumbled toward the closet, snatched two identical-looking white shirts, and swerved back to Isobel. There was a full tumbler of water right beside her, on the nightstand. Meredith wondered if it had been put there deliberately to increase Isobel’s agony, but she didn’t hesitate to use it. She gave Isobel a quick sip, took one herself, and then soaked each shirt. She held one over her own mouth and Isobel mimicked her, holding the wet shirt over her nose and mouth. Then Meredith grabbed her and guided her back to the door.

After that it simply became a nightmare journey of crawling and kneeling and choking, pulling Isobel with her all the time. Meredith thought it would never end, as each inch forward became harder and harder. The stave was an unbearable weight to heave along with her, but she refused to let go of it.

It’s precious, her mind said, but is it worth your life?

No, Meredith thought. Not my life, but who knows what else will be out there if I get Isobel into the cool darkness?

You’ll never get her there if you die because of — an object.

It’s not an object! Painfully Meredith used the stave to clear some smoldering debris from her path. It belonged to Grandpa in the time when he was sane. It fits my hand. It’s not just a thing!

Have it your own way, the voice said, and disappeared.

Meredith was beginning to run into more debris now. Despite the cramping in her lungs, she was sure that she could make it out of the back door. She knew there should be a laundry room on her right. They should be able to feel a space there.

And then suddenly in the dark something reared up and struck her a blow on the head. It took her dimming mind a long time to come up with a name for the thing that had hurt her. Armchair.

Somehow they’d crawled too far. This was the living room.

Meredith was flooded with horror. They’d gone too far — and they couldn’t go out the front door into the midst of magical battle. They would have to backtrack, and this time make sure to find the laundry room, their gate to freedom.

Meredith turned around, pulling Isobel with her, hoping the younger girl would understand what they had to do.

She left the stave on the burning living room floor.

Elena sobbed to get her breath, even though she was allowing Stefan to help her now. He ran, holding Bonnie by one hand and Elena by the other. Damon was somewhere in front — scouting.

It can’t be far now, she kept thinking. Bonnie and I both saw the brightness — we both did. Just then, like a lantern put into a window, Elena saw it again.

It’s big, that’s the problem. I keep thinking we should reach it because I have the wrong idea of what size it is in my mind. The closer we get, the bigger it gets.

And that’s good for us. We’ll need a lot of Power. But we need to get there soon, or it could be all the Power in the universe and it won’t matter. We’ll be too late.

Shinichi had indicated that they would be too late — but Shinichi had been born a liar. Still, surely just beyond that low branch was…

Oh, dear God, she thought. It’s a star ball.

Then Meredith saw something that was not smoke or fire. Just a glimpse of a door frame — and a tiny breath of cool air. With this hope to sustain her, she scuttled straight for the door to the backyard, dragging Isobel behind her.

As she passed the threshold, she felt blessedly cold water somehow showering down onto her body. When she pulled Isobel into the spray, the younger girl made the first voluntary sound she had during the entire journey: a wordless sob of thanks.

Matt’s hands were helping her along, were taking away the burden of Isobel.

Meredith got up to her feet and staggered in a circle, then dropped to her knees.

Her hair was on fire! She was just recalling her childhood rehearsal of stop, drop, and roll, when she felt the cold water turned on it. The hose water went up and down her body and she turned around, basking in the feeling of coolness, until she heard Matt’s voice say, “The flames are out. You’re good now.”

“Thank you, Matt. Thank you.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Hey, you were the one who had to go all the way to the bedrooms and back.

Getting Mrs. Saitou out was pretty easy — there was the kitchen sink full of water, so as soon as I cut her free from the kitchen chair we just got all wet and dashed outside.”

Meredith smiled and looked around quickly. Isobel had become her responsibility now. To her relief, she saw that the girl was being hugged by her mother.

And all it had taken was the nonsense choice between a thing — however precious it was — and a life. Meredith gazed at the mother and daughter and was glad. She could have another stave made. But nothing could replace Isobel.

“Isobel said to give this to you,” Matt was saying.

Meredith turned toward him, the fiery light making the world crazy, and for one moment didn’t believe her eyes. Matt was holding the fighting stave out to her.

“She must have dragged it with her free hand — oh, Matt, and she was almost dead before we started…”

Matt said, “She’s stubborn. Like someone else I know.”

Meredith wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but she knew one thing. “We’d all better get to the front yard. I doubt the volunteer fire department is going to come. Besides — Theo—”