The blare of the alarm slashed through a gray haze. Jan clawed her way up from the shreds of sleep that entangled her and gulped a breath. Heat seared her throat and lungs.

Coughing, she strained her vision and saw only flames obscured by a shroud of smoke.

Were the drapes on fire? The space heater – why hadn’t they remembered to turn it off at bedtime? That far from the window, it shouldn’t get the curtains hot enough to ignite – must have malfunctioned.

She struggled free of the sheet wrapped around her legs, while her eyes stung and her chest heaved. A shadow groped through the haze, and hands gripped her elbows.

“Larry?”

“Come on, get up.” He tugged at her arms to haul her out of bed.

Jan tried to swing her legs onto the floor, but they didn’t work. Blackness engulfed her.

When consciousness returned, she lay on her back staring up at the night sky. Sky? She was on the ground in the front yard, then. Why couldn’t she feel the damp grass under her? At least the burning in her chest had stopped.

Sirens wailed. Larry knelt beside her, silhouetted by the glow from the house. His fingers grazed her cheek, but she couldn’t feel his touch either. Was she paralyzed or what? She forced herself to sit up and reach for him. Her hand sank into his chest with no sensation at all.

Oh, God, no! She choked out, “What’s happening? Are you dead?”

His eyes widened with something between grief and horror. “No. You are.”

-end-