"Who the hell are you?" Adeline sat frozen on the couch, a bottle of wine clutched to her chest as she struggled with a broken cork on top. "You can't just barge in here, haven't you ever heard of kno-" her eyes widen in horror as recognition hit, her lips forming a profound, 'Oh.' She placed the bottle on the table, brushing bits of broken cork off her lap as stood. "You must be who Vincent spoke of. Of course, come in, com-“<br/><br/>Screams echoed from through the hallway, a jumble of ‘fire’ ‘get out’ ‘get water!’.<br/><br/>“What the—,” Adeline walked briskly out, her heels clacking on the concrete and she slipped past him to peer down the hall. What she saw made her heart stutter. “Oh dear god. Oh dear GOD!”<br/><br/>She flung back into the room, her face white and hands shaking. She grabbed her purse off the coat rack and haphazardly shoved in all the make up off her vanity. Flustered, she fumbled to pick up what she had dropped and stuffed it back in. The bag couldn’t close, but it would do. The poignant smell of smoke was already slipping down the hall as those dusty red curtains went up in a burning inferno. Her chair clattered to the ground as she pushed past it. A knee-length coat was dawned, hanging off her awkwardly as she plopped on a faux fur hat and set back out for the hallway. She grabbed his wrist along the way, her face white in shock. She refused to look towards her left, where the twitching body of the mayor’s son laid burning, unrecognizable. Her stomach was churning. She tried to not think, simply not think as she ran them towards the back entrance and bursted through the loading doors. Fresh winter air kissed her face, crisp and almost painful after the lungfuls of smoke. She coughed, water leaking from her eyes as she turned and patted his chest down to reassure herself this stranger wasn’t on fire too.<br/><br/>“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice raw.