Benito blinked hard, fighting the scratching burn that filled his eyes, his throat, his chest. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. He was nothing but the obnoxious screech of the smoke alarm he’d screwed to the ceiling after the third time Gianna’s dad had passed out drunk with a lit cigarette in his hand.
Smoke alarm.
Somewhere in the thick sludge Benito’s mind had become, the words meant something. His heart beat louder.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The cat hit him again, and finally it clicked.
Fire.
Fuck.
Fire!
Benito rolled from the couch, dislodging the cat, and landed on his knees. He hooked the cat under one arm and scrambled forward, barrelling into Gianna’s room. “Get up. There’s a fire. We need to get out.”
Gianna stirred.
Benito shook her, and she bolted upright. “Get up. Hold the cat and wait here. I’ll get Mum.”
He left Gianna, shutting the door behind him and staggered into the hallway. “Mum!Mum!Wake up. We have to leave.”
Rosetta heard him and opened her bedroom door, already fastening her robe around her waist. She coughed into her hand. “Gianna!”
“I got her.” Benito ducked into the bathroom and grabbed two towels. He soaked them and passed one to Rosetta. “Hold this over your mouth and keep your hands on me, okay? Follow me. I don’t know where the fire is, so we’ll have to go slow.”
“It’s not in here?” Rosetta shouted over the smoke alarm.
“No. It’s out there somewhere.”
“Shouldn’t we stay here?”
Images of Grenfell Tower ambushed Benito. He gripped Rosetta’s arms and shook her. “No. There’s cladding on this building. We need to get out.”
Rosetta nodded and hooked her fingers into Benito’s belt loops.
He dashed back to Gianna’s room and wrapped the damp towel around her face. “Hold on to me,” he ordered.
Fear filled her young eyes. Suddenly she was six years old again and waiting on Benito to make everything okay.
He gripped her chin. “Don’t let go. Not for anything.”
There was no time for anything else. He pulled Gianna in front of him and guided her to the front door with Rosetta behind him.
He opened it slowly, bracing for whatever was on the other side.
Carnage greeted them.
Heavy smoke.
Stumbling bodies.
The orange glow of flames somewhere below them.
Panic seized Benito’s heart. The flat was already too smoke-filled for them to survive long, but to get out, they had to pass through thicker smoke and heat. What if it overcame them? What if they passed out before they reached the bottom?
Just go. Get them out. Keep moving till you get there.