The Othello Club by J.D. Pennington

Author:J.D. Pennington [Pennington, J.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2025-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

58

SIMONE

4 May

Simone awakes, choking and sweating like she has a fever, until her eyes blink open to a wall of fire. The bedroom ceiling is a grill pan of flame, filling the room with searing heat and smoke. Lukas, she panics, then remembers he’s staying at Mehmet’s parents. She flails her hand out to wake Mehmet, but his side of the bed is empty, realising he’s still out. Simone fumbles for her phone, knocking it from the nightstand, clattering to the floor, lost in the fog. She crawls out of bed, bare feet scorching on the smouldering rug. Her eyes streaming, coughing on the toxic fumes, she crouches through the smoke towards the door. As she grasps the brass handle, pain sears her palm, hot metal cauterising flesh.

Hysterical, mortal fear grips her. With every ragged breath, fumes pour into her mouth and nostrils, filling her lungs. Consciousness deserting her, she lumbers towards the window, tumbling over the bed, rolling, falling, winded on the hot-plate floorboards. Animalistic survival instinct surging, Simone lurches to her feet, clattering into the sash window, fingers groping for the latch, tugging and hammering at it. The room is hotter than an oven now, her skin blistering, hair melting as she grapples with the stubborn latch. With the last of her strength, she yanks at the unyielding sash window, sealed with decades of paint layers. Finally, it relents, sucking oxygen into the vacuum. As she inhales a lungful of air so does the backdraft, exploding the room into the inferno. Simone with it.

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