Flames and Secrets
1141 Words
The smoke came fast.
It pushed through the vents, dark and thick. Every breath burned. Alarms wailed like banshees across the East Wing. The compound—normally so silent, so cold—now pulsed with panic.
I ran with Ella down a narrow service hallway, boots thudding against concrete, the air heavy with sirens and fear.
"Where’s the fire coming from?" I coughed.
"The chemical storage!" she yelled back. "Someone set it intentionally—it's not an accident!"
Of course it wasn’t.
This wasn’t just sabotage.
It was a message.
And someone wanted me gone.
We turned a sharp corner—then slammed into a wall of flames.
A pipe had burst. Fire raged across the corridor, licking at the ceiling like it was hungry. The emergency shutters were halfway closed, stuck.
“Back!” Ella shouted.
Too late.
Another explosion behind us.
The hallway sealed with a crash of metal.
We were trapped.
I grabbed Ella’s arm and pulled her toward a reinforced side door. I’d seen it on the layout Raffael showed me days ago—a containment vault. Small. Sealed. Safe from combustion.
Barely.
We stumbled inside just as the fire rolled toward us. I slammed the door shut and locked it manually. The lights flickered.
Then total darkness.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears.
Ella collapsed against the wall, coughing.
I slid down beside her, gasping for air, even as the vents began to hum—emergency filtration.
A second later, the door creaked.
Someone was opening it from the outside.
"Get back!" I shouted.
But the door didn’t explode.
It opened slowly.
And in stepped Raffael, covered in ash and smoke, eyes wild.
"You two okay?" His voice was hoarse.
I stared at him, shocked. "How did you get here?"
“I followed the system reroute. Most exits are sealed. This was the only pocket with oxygen left.”
He didn’t wait for us to answer. He slammed the door shut again and sealed it from inside.
Now we were three.
Trapped.
Waiting.
---
We stayed in silence for a long while. Breathing. Thinking.
The faint hiss of the air system was the only sound.
Finally, Ella whispered, “Someone did this on purpose.”
Raffael nodded slowly. “They weren’t trying to destroy the compound. They were trying to kill someone.”
Me.
I knew it. And so did he.
His eyes met mine.
“You were the target.”
I swallowed. “How sure are you?”
“There were remote detonators wired to the lab's lower pipework. Only one person has that kind of access.”
“Who?”
He hesitated. “Dominic.”
Ella gasped. “No—he wouldn’t.”
But Raffael’s face stayed cold.
“He would. If someone paid him enough. Or promised more power.”
The betrayal twisted something deep in me. I’d hated Dominic since day one, but I never thought he’d risk burning the whole place down just to take me out.
“Why now?” I asked. “Why not wait until after I finished the serum?”
“Because you’re not building the real serum,” Raffael said quietly.
I stiffened.
“You knew?” I asked.
He didn’t look surprised.
“I knew the formula you gave was too clean. Too controlled. You’re good, Naira. But you’re not a liar.”
“So why let me continue?” I challenged. “Why not stop me?”
“Because part of me hoped you were right. That you’d find a way to build something useful without destroying people.”
That admission stunned me.
I looked away, suddenly unsure how to respond. It wasn’t an apology. But it also wasn’t the cold calculation I’d expected.
Raffael Elano was full of lines I couldn’t read.
Just then, the ventilation system groaned and shut down.
The lights flickered again.
Ella stood, nervous. “That’s not supposed to happen.”
Raffael moved fast. He opened a back panel and studied the wiring.
“It’s a fail-safe breach. Someone’s overriding main power.”
From outside.
“Meaning someone knows we’re in here,” I said quietly.
“And they don’t want us getting out,” he finished.
Ella backed toward the wall. “Then what do we do?”
I stood, pulling my coat tighter.
“We outsmart them.”
---
We found an emergency access hatch behind a storage unit.
Raffael used a crowbar from a locked box in the corner to wedge it open. The passage inside was tight, barely wide enough for one person at a time, lined with steel and service wires.
“I’ll go first,” he said.
“No,” I said. “I will.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because you don’t know where it leads. I do. You showed me the blueprint.”
His mouth twitched—half a smile. “Fine. But if something happens, shout.”
I crawled into the shaft.
The metal was cold. My fingers burned as they scraped the walls. Behind me, I heard Ella muttering a prayer.
Halfway through, I paused.
There was light up ahead—red and flashing.
I moved closer, slowly.
Then I saw it.
A motion sensor rigged to a trip wire.
And beyond it—a second charge.
Clever.
If we’d moved too fast, it would’ve triggered.
“Trap,” I called out. “Someone rigged the escape route.”
Raffael’s voice was calm. “Can you disarm it?”
I hesitated.
“Yes,” I said. “But I need five minutes.”
I pulled out a metal pen from my coat—the kind I used to measure viscosity in the lab. The tip was narrow enough to slip beneath the wire loop.
Carefully, breath by breath, I began to unhook the trigger.
Ella stayed completely silent behind me.
And Raffael?
He didn’t say a word.
He just waited.
Like he trusted me.
Five minutes later, the light blinked off.
And the charge dropped harmlessly to the floor.
“Clear,” I whispered.
We moved again.
And emerged in the lower hall.
---
The compound was half-evacuated.
Guards barked orders. Dominic was gone—disappeared before the smoke even reached the control room.
Raffael issued immediate orders.
The East Wing was sealed. Search units deployed. And security was given one command:
“Find him.”
But I didn’t stay to watch.
I went straight to the lab.
Everything was still intact, surprisingly. My work. My samples.
And the secret vial I’d hidden.
Still safe.
I pocketed it.
Then paused.
Because something new sat on my desk.
A note.
Written in sharp, clean handwriting.
“You’re not the only one who remembers the fire.”
No name.
No signature.
Just that sentence.
And a sense of dread that wrapped around my spine like a snake.
- Writer
