Harlowe’s Curse – Chapter 6

NORMA

I’ve been misled by movies. I thought people coughed a little when inside a room on fire, but that they could still move and save the day and stuff.

This is incapacitating.

The fire only takes up eighth of the tent—for now—but I already can’t breathe, can’t scream, can’t even keep my eyes open long enough to figure out where the hell I’m supposed to go. I stumble to my knees and put my hands on the girl’s arm, ready to haul her toward the exit curtain and throw us against it until it finally lets us out.

I’m coughing my lungs raw, wiping the tears at my scalding eyes. It feels like ashes are cloaking my eyeballs and my mouth. It hurts ten times more than that time our porch gave and I fell through the broken wood, breaking my ankle when I landed on a pointy rock below.

I grab the girl’s arm and start dragging her, but just then she wakes up and looks at me.

I need to close my eyes for a few seconds to protect them from the scorching heat, and when I open them again half of the tent is burning, the high metal frame of the structure is groaning, and the girl looking at me is Harlowe.

Long black curls and bright blue eyes, confused and terrified.

I want to say something, to ask where she came from or what happened to the other girl, but the smoke still makes it impossible to talk. I just help her up and point to the exit, which fortunately hasn’t been touched by the flames yet. Harlowe makes a run for it, but just as I feared, she can’t get out.

She’s thrown back, body flailing through the violent flames and landing on the other side of the tent.

“Lowe,” I cry, voice ripping.

I run to help her up. She wobbles in my arms, but her features sharpen into determination. I’m covered in sweat and stains of ash darker than my skin, and I’m starting to think we may actually die in this tent, a thought that’s even louder than the growling flames.

But Harlowe doesn’t seem affected by the fire as much as I am. She’s not coughing, or blinking tears, or even sweating. Her skin is just as rosy as ever. We hear screams from outside the tent and look up just as the roof collapses. Harlowe grabs my hand and yanks me along with her as she jumps over the burning coffee table and leaps through an actual ring of fire. At the same time, the ceiling collapses and the structure disintegrates.

We hit the sand and roll through pebbles, my body bruised and boiling. Catching my breath, I crawl away from the fire behind us to lie on the fresh grass, coughing out the rest of the smoke in my lungs.

People are approaching and offering us water bottles, saying the fire department is on its way. I wipe the soot on my face and turn to look at Harlowe to make sure she’s okay.

And I can’t believe it.

She’s running away.

I stand up and race after her. “Harlowe, wait!”

She runs through the gathered crowd, heading for the back of the fair, towards the fence and the forest behind it.

“Harlowe!”

I’m not as fast as her. I keep stumbling and apologizing to the people I bump against. Then we’re on a long stretch of grass that leads to the forest and it’s just us two running under the moon. But she’s still way ahead of me. When I reach the fence, she’s already on the other side. She glances back at me and our eyes lock through the wire mesh.

I swallow, my throat dry and painful. “Where the hell are you going? We need to find Jaden.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” she bursts out, slamming her hands against the fence at the last word. The wire rattles, and I step back.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Just leave me alone, okay?”

“No way. Something seriously sketchy just happened and I think you’re in shock, or maybe I am, I don’t know, but Harlowe—”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Why?” I yell back.

“Because I’m not her!” She steps away from the fence, fat tears glinting on her cheeks. She looks at her arms, down at her body, then touches her long curls, frowning so much her thick eyebrows almost meet in the middle.

“I don’t know who the hell Harlowe is but it’s not me, okay?” she says. “So just let me go.”

She wipes her tears, turns around, and disappears through the night.

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