Envelope Challenge

Chapter 21 - Chaos Ensues

I had to. I've gotten into a writing frenzy and reached my 32nd chapter and 81,000 words. I'll admit I'm a little shaky on the ending, but I know that I'm close to it. I just seriously felt the need to get this out there for you guys and your feedback.

If you didn't read chapter 20, go back and do it. It is the actual chapter (sorry for conning you earlier) but you WILL be lost without it. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, thanks for reading and ignore that comment.

Enjoy!

After a few seconds of their silent standing, Polly straightened and lifted her head, a confused look crossing her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked after a second.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, looking around the entire room when she couldn't find whatever it was.

He stopped. The only thing he could hear was the air conditioner gently whirring in the background, but nothing of concern. When he told her that with a shake of his head, her eyes widened and she looked over to where he heard the air conditioner coming from. She pulled his arms from her waist and walked over to it.

"We don't have an air conditioner," she whispered. It took a second for him to process what she said.

"Get out, now!" he exclaimed and dragged her out of the kitchen. They were at the door to the complex, about to flee the building, when Poly gasped and whirled around. Without a word, she flew back into the building and up the stairs. "Polly, stop!" He growled a litany of curses as he chased up the stairs after her.

He finally managed to catch her when she reached the landing before the fifth flight of stairs. Pulling her arm back with his iron grip, she whirled around to face him with a dangerous glare in her eyes.

"Let go of me right now!" she growled.

"What happened?" he demanded instead of complying.

"My mom's up there!" she yelled at him and successfully managed to wrench her arm from him, continued her plight to their apartment.

"You're such an idiot!" he called after her, but soon he was running beside her up the stairs. Her legs ached as they climbed the last five floors and her breath flew out of her mouth in labored pants, but that only led her to push harder, to push further up the stairs. The tenth floor came into view as they rounded the last corner.

Before she could run up those last thirteen steps to the landing, a loud whoosh reverberated through the hallway. Polly's hair flew backwards and she barely managed to grab onto the railing before her body fell down the stairs. Nathaniel grasped for the bar as well, but only got a finger wrapped around before a second gust came, flinging him down the stairs. He landed with a sharp whack of his head on the hard concrete. His vision blackened for a second and that one second was enough for everything to change.

Above him, a giant fireball outlined Polly's inert form. Flames engulfed the area her apartment door used to be, along with the rest of the hallway. Above her, the sprinkler tried feebly to quell the flames, plastering her hair to her head and soaking into her clothes. She didn't move an inch through everything that happened and he could only imagine the emotion on her face. He wanted nothing more than to go up to her, dragging her down the stairs and away from the danger the flames posed, but his body refused to fight against the pain that tore through his limbs.

After what felt like hours of writhing pain, he scraped himself up off the ground and pulled himself up the stairs to try to get to Polly. Just as he was close enough to touch her hair by stretching another inch, she spoke the word that chilled his spine.

"Mother."

Without another thought, she stepped towards the flames, preparing to burn if it meant she could save her mother. Clenching his eyes against the pain, he lunged at her, protecting her head with his arms as they fell to the ground. His arms screamed as they connected sharply with the cement stairs and his knee threatened a break when it rammed against the corner, but he kept his grip on her as she writhed against him, screaming louder as the flames continued to rage. "Mother! Mother! Mother!"