Ashes to Ashes - Chapter Twenty-Five

The girls had gone to bed earlier than usual after the past week of late nights and lots of time spent with their new grandparents. Evan had taken a book to bed, but only managed a few pages before her mind started to chase down various rabbit trails. Thoughts about her current cases and where she saw her future were tangling and twisting in her mind. She finally gave up, and got out of bed and went to the kitchen. A glass of wine might help quiet her mind enough for sleep, or so she hoped. She curled up on the couch with the wine and her phone to play solitaire and shut her brain down.

A shiver ran through her and Evan pulled a throw blanket over her legs. Her usual summer sleep attire of shorts and a tank top were no match for the air conditioning. All of the windows were closed with the AC on, so she didn’t hear anything until there was a crash in her bedroom and a whoosh sound that had her on her feet. She saw the flames had already engulfed half of her room, so she shut the door just as the smoke alarm went off.

“Harper! Hayden! Fire!” Evan yelled as she threw open their doors and pulled them from their beds. They stumbled towards the front of the house and Evan slowed as she saw the flames crawling up the side walls. “We need to hurry,” she told them. “Get out through the front door and don’t stop until you’re on the sidewalk.”

Smoke swirled and thickened as they stumbled through the front door and out into the yard.