The Kissing Game by Aidan Chambers

Author:Aidan Chambers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amulet Books
Published: 2011-02-18T05:00:00+00:00

By the time Martin reached the tower, smoke was billowing from every window and crevice.

Instinctively bending almost double, he ran inside.

The force of the air being sucked in through the doorway pressed against his bare back like a firm hand pushing him on.

At once he found himself engulfed in blinding, choking fumes, could hear the roar of flames from across the room, could feel their blistering heat on his skin.

But still from above came the girl’s panic-stricken cries.

Without thought or care, he threw himself to the left and onto the stairs. He pounded up them, stumbling, coughing. Hardly able to see for smoke, he kept his left hand pressed against the wall for fear of veering to the edge of the stairs and falling into the furnace on the floor below, from where flames were already leaping high enough to lick the exposed floorboards of the room above. He held his right arm against his face, trying to protect it from the scorching blaze.

On the second floor flames were already eating at the boards. The dry wood was crackling; small explosions were sending showers of sparks cascading across the room. And, mingled with the suffocating fumes, the stench of burning flesh was so strong that Martin retched as he staggered on hands and feet now up the second flight of stairs. By the time he reached the trapdoor to the roof he was choking for breath, his smoke-filled eyes were streaming with tears and all down his right side he felt as if his skin were being peeled from him like paint being stripped by a blowtorch.

The tower had become one giant, roaring chimney.

Martin hauled himself up into the air, gulping for breath. Once on the roof he clung for a moment to the parapet, unable to move till he recovered his strength. But he knew there was no time to spare.

Through tear-blurred eyes and the fog of smoke swirling about him, he looked round for the girl and saw her only an arm’s length away still waving and crying desperately in the direction of the road.

‘Here!’ he tried to shout. ‘I’m here!’

But the words clogged in his parched throat.

So he reached out to take her by the shoulders and turn her to him.

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