After Declan had disappeared from view, Karin used the backs of seats to navigate her way across the auditorium while she continued to scan the balcony. The closer she moved to the open wound in the ceiling, the hotter she became, and she hoped it was only the effort of breathing that made her sweat.
‘Declan! Where are you?’
When no answer came, Karin wanted to believe it was because her brother was already on his way out, but how could she leave without knowing? What if he was still looking for her? She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Beth hadn’t done something stupid like turn back for her. She didn’t need two people to worry about. Where was Declan?
As she moved along the row, glowing embers rained down and she patted her scalp now and again to make sure her hair wasn’t on fire. She was getting further away from the only viable exit.
‘Declan!’ she cried out again, unsure how much longer she could fight the urge to flee.
‘Help.’
The voice was as much a wheeze as it was a whisper. Karin looked around, unsure if she had imagined the sound above the crackle of fire and the diminishing wail of the alarm. Shadows stretched and contracted above her head, the orange glow inside the smoke cloud twitching like a beating heart. Karin stepped into an aisle strewn with rubble and was horrified to see one of the shadows reaching out to her.
‘Please.’
Karin rushed towards the woman crouched on the floor. Her short cropped hair and her face were layered with dust, and her lips were a violent shade of blue.
‘It’s OK, I’m here,’ said Karin. ‘I’ll get you out.’
‘Not me. The girl. She needs help. Under there.’ She pointed. ‘Go.’
Karin looked to where the woman was pointing and immediately recalled seeing a girl who had refused to move from her seat. If she was under the rubble, she couldn’t have survived. Karin was about to refuse to even look, when the woman gripped her arm with more force than she could spare.
‘She’s alive. Go.’
‘I can’t.’
‘You must.’
Reluctantly, Karin left the stranger and began her search. She felt in her pocket for her phone to use as a torch, only to realise it was in Beth’s bag, but at least she had her keys. The key ring torch was the last of a job lot Declan had given her. They weren’t particularly reliable and when she switched it on, she was relieved to find it worked.
As she climbed the mounds of rubble, Karin was terrified she might be stepping on the girl, but there wasn’t time to clear a path. The rest of the ceiling could come down at any moment, exits could become blocked, the fire could spread. There were no end of reasons why Karin should abandon her quest, but she was too scared to think beyond finding the girl.
It was when she moved a scorched piece of timber that she saw a small hand, but it was too soon to know if this was a cause for celebration or sorrow. Tentatively, she cleared away more debris until she spied the top of a head. She pointed the torch and miraculously, the head tilted up towards her. The girl was alive. Karin wanted to laugh, but it caught in her throat as the head slumped forward again. She heard the thump as the girl’s forehead hit masonry.
‘Please wake up. Oh God, please wake up,’ Karin urged. The child couldn’t die now.
The head moved again. ‘Mum?’
‘It’s OK, I’ll have you out in no time.’
As the girl flitted in and out of consciousness, Karin clawed away at the debris. She didn’t feel the cuts and scratches, or the burning as she pulled away glowing pieces of timber, but she couldn’t keep hold of the torch for long and gave it to the girl to hold. She felt reassured each time the light flickered across her face.
The child was hanging on, but only just, and when Karin pulled her from her tomb, the shock and pain must have been too much for her broken body, and she passed out. Karin retrieved the torch and, as she prepared to lift her casualty, she refused to accept that she didn’t have the strength. Rising unsteadily to her feet, she began the trek back towards the exit. She could see a scattering of survivors rushing towards the same destination and one of them, a short, bald man, stopped to look at her.
‘Help me!’
Once she had handed the girl over, Karin was tempted to follow them out, but there was someone she couldn’t leave behind, and this time, it wasn’t Declan. Telling herself that her brother was sensible enough to have left the theatre by now, she gave the upper tier only a cursory glance as she called out his name one last time. Detecting no movement, she was unaware that she was being observed from above.
Karin retraced her steps back to the woman with blue lips, who was exactly where she had left her. She crouched down to touch her arm, but it was too late. This stranger’s last act had been to send Karin off to save someone else, and she had died alone.
‘I got her out for you,’ Karin whispered as she kissed the top of the woman’s head.
Mourning the loss of a hero she couldn’t name, Karin clamped a hand over her mouth and released a wail, which quickly transformed into a cry of pain. Her hands were burnt and bleeding and some of her fingernails were hanging by a thread.
To match the tears running down her cheeks, Karin could feel drips falling onto her scalp as if the Empress was crying with her. She heard the same hiss of water evaporating as Rex had done, but as she looked up, her gaze came to rest on the balcony. Her brother hadn’t left after all.
‘Declan!’ she cried out with a rush of relief. They were both still in danger, but they had found each other. It was going to be OK.