Chapter 7 - The Final CountdownA low, subterranean rumble shook the foundations of the mansion. Beneath their feet, the gas lines hissed like trapped serpents, feeding hungry tongues of blue-and-orange fire that began licking up the wooden walls of the pantry.
"Mom!" Lily screamed, looking back toward the service stairs just as Elena burst through the smoke, her face blackened with soot and blood streaming down her forehead.
"Get away from them, you psychotic bitch!" Elena roared, not hesitating for a single second. She charged straight at Vanessa like a freight train, tackling the smaller woman hard into the kitchen island.
The detonator flew from Vanessa’s hand, skidding across the polished granite floor and disappearing beneath a blazing wall of fire near the stove.
"You stupid, stubborn cow!" Vanessa shrieked, scratching and clawing with her manicured nails, pinning Elena to the floor. She wrapped her hands around Elena’s throat, squeezing with every ounce of her remaining strength. "Die! Just stay dead this time!"
Noah grabbed a heavy cast-iron skillet from the counter. With a primal roar he didn't know he had inside him, he brought it down with all his might against the back of Vanessa’s head.
With a dull thud, Vanessa’s eyes rolled back, her grip loosening as she collapsed unconscious onto the burning tile floor.
"Mom! Get up!" Noah coughed, pulling Elena up by her arms while Lily tugged frantically at her other side. The air was turning toxic; the heat was becoming unbearable as flames consumed the cabinetry above them.
"The courtyard door!" Elena gasped, gasping for oxygen. "The override code—it's your father's birthday! Enter it on the keypad!"
Noah sprinted through the smoke to the digital keypad beside the shuttered glass doors. His fingers, blackened and trembling, punched in the numbers: 0-4-1-2.
BEEP. ERROR.
"No, no, no!" Noah cried out, sweat stinging his eyes. "Think! What else?!"
"My birthday!" Elena shouted through a fit of coughs. "0-9-2-5!"
Noah slammed the digits into the panel.
BEEP. GREEN LIGHT.
With a pneumatic groan, the heavy iron shutter jerked upward, revealing the rain-slicked lawn, flashing police cruisers, and a dozen armed tactical officers shouting orders through megaphones.
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"Over here! Get out!" Noah yelled, shoving Lily through the opening into the cool, fresh night air, followed closely by Elena.
As Noah dived out behind them into the grass, a deafening explosion ripped through the center of the mansion. A massive fireball billowed into the night sky, shattering every window in the east wing and sending a shockwave that flattened the surrounding trees.
