It was Faith. This girl had fallen on top of Faith, her torso and various debris shielding Faith and blocking her from immediate view. Ignoring a wave of dizziness, I shoved away at more debris, scorching my hands. I had to get her out. I glanced at the other girl. I needed to get them both out of here… but how?
Please let Faith be okay. Please let them both be okay. A glance at the first girl’s trapped legs told me I needed to get Faith out first… not that I had ever really considered otherwise. I yanked Faith free, scooped her into my arms, and stumbled for the door as fast as I could. The room felt like it had expanded; every step was an effort. I couldn’t breathe, could barely see anymore. My vision swam.
No! I wouldn’t, couldn’t, give up. One step, then another. She was a deadweight in my arms, and I tried not to contemplate what that could mean. Another step, almost there.
I stumbled and almost fell. A few more steps and we were at the swinging door. I rushed through it and crashed into the wall on the other side, coughing. Had to keep going. Down the hall, then a left turn, toward the loading docks and fresh air.
I turned the corner and my vision dimmed. My ears sounded like they were underwater, quieting the screaming fire alarms. Several shadowy shapes ran toward me just as my knees buckled and I dropped to the floor.
“Another girl… dressing room… south wall,” was all I could gasp out. I didn’t recognize my own voice.
Everything went dark.
Chapter Sixteen
“This one’s coming around.”
Something cold pressed against my face. A sharp hissing sound filled the air. An oxygen mask… with some sort of funny bag attached to the bottom. I tried to sit up, but the mask pressed harder. The man holding it in place smiled at me.
“Easy, buddy. You’re gonna be just fine. You were only out for about a minute.” He was clean shaven with dark brown hair. He wore a black jacket with the words Firefighter EMT on it.
“Faith!” My voice was garbled and distorted.
“What?”
“Faith!”
“Are you asking about the girl you were carrying?”
I tried to nod, but again found myself impeded by the mask.
He shook his head and pointed to a nearby ambulance, where they were strapping Faith to a stretcher. “Over there, they’re about to take her to the hospital.”
“She’s alive?” I had no idea how anyone was supposed to understand me with this thing on. I might as well have been speaking some other language.
Luckily, the guy seemed fluent in mask-language. “She’s stable for the moment.”
I snatched the mask away. “I have to go with her.” I forced myself to sit up.
“No, you have to sit here and keep this mask on.” I glared at him as he pushed it back onto my face.
“Don’t look at me like that. We have two ambulances present, a couple more on the way. Your friend is going in that one, and firefighters have gone after the girl you said was still trapped inside. She gets the other. You’ll be sent soon enough. You need to be monitored for a few hours.”
I jerked the mask away again. “I want to be sent to wherever she’s going.”
“You keep that mask on. I’ll personally make sure of it. Deal?”
I nodded.
He eyed me for a moment, then wandered off. I took stock of my situation. I was sitting on some sort of padded mat on the ground alongside a fire truck. My jacket and tie had been removed. People milled all around in a chaotic mess. Police officers tried to organize the crowd and take statements.
A lone firefighter emerged through the loading dock door, carrying the young woman I had seen inside. EMTs rushed over and took her. One grabbed her wrist and squeezed, then shook his head. They quickly strapped her to a stretcher that had been lowered to the ground and began chest compressions. I looked away, unable to watch anymore.
“You’re the one who ran in there?” The voice startled me. I had been so intently watching the paramedics I hadn’t noticed the officer approach. I nodded. “I’m Detective Bentley. Your name?”
“Alexander Phoenix.” He cocked his head and frowned. I started to lower the mask to answer again.
“Don’t even think about it!” Looked like my friend the paramedic had returned. I sighed and nodded apologetically to the detective.
“I need to ask him some questions,” Bentley argued.
“That’s fine. Ask away. But he needs to leave his mask on.” He turned to me. “Not kidding, man. We had a deal.”
“He can’t understand me,” I said.
The detective laughed. “I can understand you just fine. I was just trying to figure out where I’d heard your name before.”
“Oh. I’m a gymnast. Olympian.”
“I don’t think that’s it. I don’t watch gymnastics. Anyway, Mr. Phoenix, can you tell me what happened?”
“I was here to watch my girlfriend perform in the show. Noticed smoke. Alarms and sprinklers went off. I went looking for her. The woman over there told me the fire started on the next floor and the ceiling collapsed in the dressing room. I went inside and found her and another girl. Tried to get them out.”
“I’d say you did a good job getting them out,” the paramedic interjected.
“Just one.”
“You told the firefighters where the other one was. You may have saved her life. Don’t beat yourself up.” He looked over to where the other group of paramedics loaded her into the ambulance. I remembered the look on the EMT’s face when he shook his head right before they started doing chest compressions, and I doubted that.
“Had you seen anything suspicious?” Bentley asked.
“No, I didn’t see a–”
I froze. I looked around the dock in all directions. No sign of Jacob anywhere.
“Faith, you didn’t tell me Jacob was coming! Come in, come in!”
“Um… he’s not. He hates musicals”
She wouldn’t have been so shocked had he really worked there.
“You’ll both be sorry!”
“The guard…”
“Which one?”
“His name is Jacob Armistead. He was dressed as a security guard. I think he may have had something to do with it.”
“Why?”
“He doesn’t work here, but acted like he did tonight… and was in the backstage area. He tried to stop me from looking for my girlfriend. She and I only hooked up recently. They, Jacob and Faith, were together. He was outside my house today. Maybe inside, too. Threatened us.”
“Threatened?”
“Nothing specific. Just said ‘we’d be sorry.’”
“I see. Mr. Phoenix, do you have a contact number where you can be reached in case we have further questions?” The detective made some notes and asked me a few final questions, then continued on to the next person.
The crowd slowly dispersed, though several stragglers hung back to see how things played out. I saw no sign of Jacob anywhere.
“Looks like your ride is here.” The paramedic pointed to another pair of ambulances turning the corner. “Ready to go?”
“What will happen?”
“Well, you inhaled a fair bit of smoke. They’ll have you checked out by a pulmonologist and under observation for a few hours to make sure that you haven’t inhaled too much carbon monoxide or other fumes. Assuming everything checks out, you’ll be free to go. If it doesn’t, they’ll keep you there and on oxygen for a few days. You weren’t unconscious long, so I think you’ll be fine. In a couple of days your body should filter out all the toxins and you’ll be good as new.”
“What about Faith?”
“I didn’t get a good look, but she had a good team looking after her. I know she had a pulse, and that’s a good thing.”
“Will they let me stay with her?”
“I’m sure. They won’t update you on her condition, though, unless she wakes up and consents. Only family.” The ambulances pulled up and stopped. The paramedic approached them and started
an animated conversation, then walked over to rejoin me. He unhooked the oxygen tank from the truck and tucked it under his arm. “Come with me.”
Feeling like I was on a leash, I dutifully stood up and followed after him. They directed me onto a stretcher, loaded me up into the ambulance, and we were off.
My mind travelled to thoughts of the burned girl receiving CPR. Had I freed her legs and gotten her out faster, would she have had a better chance? No telling.
Just like the night my sister had died. A single choice, a single moment in time, and lives are irreparably changed. How I’d wished I could have saved my sister that night. I had visited her friend often after the accident, right up until her death. I had seen her waste away. I had felt true helplessness.
Had I been able to repeat things, I would have done so many things differently. For starters, I would have done a better job being there for my sister, would have kept better tabs on her. I would have been a better brother. I would have made sure she was nowhere near a car that night, even if I’d had to sabotage the damned thing myself. But hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
Would I have chosen differently tonight? I considered the outcomes, but no. There was no way I would have carried Faith out of there second. If that meant I had essentially killed the other girl myself, I’d have to live with it. But I was getting ahead of myself. I had no reason to believe she hadn’t made it.
“We’re here.” The ambulance pulled to a stop and the EMT shoved open the door. The driver emerged and together they carried me out on the stretcher.
“I can walk.”
“Just following protocol. You’ll stay there until hospital staff says otherwise.”
The pair wheeled me in through the sliding doors and up to a tall counter. A woman in bright blue scrubs stood up and eyed me.
“Another from the theater fire,” the EMT that had ridden in the back with me said.
“This one’s awake,” she observed.
“Awake and stable. Stats were good on the way here. Blood pressure normal, pulse ox reads ninety-eight. He’s been on one-hundred-percent oxygen for the last twenty minutes. He did lose consciousness inside the building, but fire department paramedics tell me the episode was only around a minute.”
She nodded and consulted her computer. “What’s your name, sir?”
“Alexander Phoenix.”
She nodded and tapped at her keys. “Go ahead and take him to room thirty-three.”
“Wait!” I jerked the mask away from my face. She stopped and looked up at me. “There were two young women brought here before me. One of them a redhead named Faith Richardson. Is she okay?”
“There were women brought here before. No identification on either of them. You family?”
I shook my head. “I rescued Faith from the building. She’s my g–my fiancée.”
A beeping sound from a monitor on the side of the stretcher made the nurse frown. “You need to put your mask back on and calm down. I have no information at this time on either of the women. Room thirty-three, please,” she snapped at the EMTs, who wheeled me down the hall.
The room was barely larger than a cubicle, separated by a clear glass sliding door. As soon as I was unstrapped, I slid off the stretcher and sat up on the emergency room bed.
“Should have gone with wife,” the ambulance driver said.
“Excuse me?”
“She would have been more forthcoming if you’d have said wife. If you’re going to lie, go big or go home.”
“I wasn’t lying.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Of course not. All I know is that ever since the movie While You Were Sleeping, everyone and their brother has tried the fiancée bit. The hospital is a magical place full of sudden engagements. I should have realized yours was real, though. Your call button is here. Press it if you need assistance.”
He unhooked my mask from the oxygen tank and connected it to a panel on the wall and flipped a switch. He picked up the tank, set it on the stretcher, and then both paramedics left.
I examined the claustrophobic’s nightmare I was trapped inside, which took all of thirty seconds. The only furnishings in the room were the bed, a single chair, and a rolling table. Several weird-looking medical instruments were fastened to the wall, but that was it. A small computer monitor sat in a corner, silent and dark.
The slight hissing of the mask was the only sound that broke the silence. With no distractions, my mind wandered again to Faith. I hoped she was going to be okay. I would never forgive myself for not finding her faster if she wasn’t. I wondered what time it was. I reached for my pocket to pull my phone out, but was startled by the stinging pain on the palms of my hands. I’d forgotten that I’d burned them in all the excitement. Rough callouses covered my palms and fingers from years of gymnastics. I should be thankful for them; they were the reason the blistering wasn’t worse.
I swiped the screen to unlock my phone and sent a quick text to Sam letting him know where I was.
Predictably, the phone rang less than a minute later. I hit the speaker option.
“Phoenix.”
“The fuck are you doing in the hospital?”
“Good to hear from you, too, Sam.”
“Don’t give me that shit. What happened?”
“Fire at the theater.”
“You were stuck in a fire?”
“Not exactly. I ran into the burning room to try to help rescue, um, people.”
“Jesus. You okay?”
“They keep telling me to keep the oxygen mask on, and my hands are a bit blistered, but I’m okay.”
“You know, Xander, if you didn’t want to compete anymore, all you had to do was say so.”
“Very funny, asshole. Listen, Faith’s here somewhere, too. I don’t know if she’s–”
“Why am I not surprised she was involved somehow?”
“Fuck, man. Stop that. I don’t even know if she’s alive right now. There was another girl trapped in there too, I… I don’t know if she made it, either.”
Sam’s voice became muffled as he covered the phone to talk to whomever was in the room with him. “Sit tight. We’re on our way.”
The line went dead. We? Oh, right. Friday night poker. I glanced at the time. Only a little after eight o’clock. The night had dragged on forever. I put the mask down and stood up, stretching. I stuck my phone in my pocket and headed for the door to poke my head out.
“Get back in there and put your mask back on. I’ll be with you in a minute,” a passing nurse in blue scrubs snapped. She disappeared into another room, pushing a cart in front of her.
God damn it. I was fine. I didn’t need the mask. What I needed was to find Faith. I stepped into the hallway and followed the nurse to the other room, standing just on the outside of the sliding glass door. I crossed my arms and glowered at her.
Noticing me, the nurse hurried out. “There a problem?”
“I’d say so. Everyone keeps telling me to put the fucking mask on, but no one wants to give me any answers.”
“Come on.” She led the way back to my room. “What questions do you need answered?”
“Where is my fiancée? I want to see her.” The woman looked genuinely confused, so I continued. “Long red hair, green eyes. She was brought here before me. Her name is Faith Richardson.”
She shook her head, still looking confused or unsure.
“Look,” I continued. “I know she’s here. I pulled her out of the burning building myself. I feel I have a right to know where she is and to see her. Please, don’t you understand? I love her. You let me see her, and I’ll put the mask on and behave.”
The woman looked sad. Without a word, she turned and shut the sliding glass door to my room. “I know who she is. The whole hospital heard about the fire and what you did. It was very brave of you to rescue her. She’s not on this floor. Listen to me, you can see her later, but you have to stay here for observation for a little while. She’s in the hyperbaric chamber for the n
ext couple of hours, anyway. You can’t get to her. Cooperate and let us do our jobs and keep an eye on you. I’ll find out what room she is in and tell you when you’re done here.”
“Do you know anything about the other girl? The one with dark hair and burns everywhere? Her legs were trapped when the ceiling collapsed.”
“Were you family?” Her voice and expression cooled instantly. Her body language told me she didn’t want to discuss this.
I shook my head, opting for honesty. “I don’t even know her name. She was with Faith in the room. I carried Faith out but collapsed. I told the firefighters she was in there before I blacked out. So much smoke…”
“I couldn’t say, sir. Let me take your vitals. You’ll need to put the mask back on. Someone will be in to take blood work in a little while.”
The nurse pulled her cart into the room, placed a clip on my finger, then wrapped a cuff around my arm to take my blood pressure. After she’d left me alone to my own thoughts again, mask in place, I realized she had asked me if I was family… past tense. I wondered if the girl had even been alive when I’d found her in the room. Did I ever have a chance to save her? Despite my earlier thoughts about knowing I had made the right choice in getting Faith out first, I still felt remorseful. I laid back against the pillow and closed my eyes, resigned to do as I was told and wait for Sam and the doctor. Then I’d find Faith if I had to search every room of this hospital.
Chapter Seventeen
The dim room soothed my frazzled nerves.
Faith’s hair spread artfully across her pillow as she slept. I knew I should sleep, too, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.
I’d barely left Faith’s side for an entire week. She’d had three therapy sessions in the hyperbaric chamber. They’d finally removed her oxygen mask after her final treatment, and I had hopes they would release her soon.
The press had camped out in the hospital parking lot. The one time I’d risked going out there was when the Emergency Room had discharged me. They had insisted on taking me outside in a wheelchair, despite my insistence that I wasn’t going anywhere. Apparently, that was their policy.
Deeper In You (The Phoenix Series Book 2) Page 11
