<div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/74/Siren2.jpg)</div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Aline Myobi -</strong> <em>Where'd Morgan hide the damn alarm...</em></span></div><br/>An insistent<em>noise</em>poked through Aline's sweet dreams and commenced to harass her until the bundle of blankets emanated a frustrated groan. Sheets rustled as a hand groped blindly out of the cozy warmth and searched for the snooze button on her alarm. Not finding the evil little machine on her bed stand, the hand withdrew back and the blankets seemed to curl tighter in on itself.<br/><br/>Burrowed in fluffy darkness, her eyes squeezed shut, willing herself back to sleep as she waited for the alarm to stop on its own before it began wailing again in five minutes. Wait...wailing? She didn't remember her alarm sounding quite so...loud before. So...high pitched. In fact, the more she paid attention the more it sounded...wrong. Mind still groggy with sleep, half of her brain was still working to puzzle things out while the other half was dead asleep.<br/><br/>Suddenly, the blankets went flying as she sat bolt upright. Sirens. That's what they were. It wasn't her alarm set at the wrong time again, the building's fire alarms were going off!<br/><br/>Panic immediately grabbed at her, adrenaline chasing away any remnants of sleep as she sprang into action. Tumbling out of the tangle of sheets, her feet shuffled into fuzzy slippers and a robe was hastily pulled on - both habitual actions for whenever she rolled out of bed. She found herself working on autopilot as she went around the room gathering items of importance and stuffing them into the first bag she got her hands on. Clothes...forget them. Camera...where the heck is it?! Identification...hopefully somewhere in the bottom of the bag.<br/><br/>Rushing out of her room, she headed for the stairs to her studio. A part of her mind steeled herself with whispers of doubt,<em>If this is a false alarm, whoever the prick is...</em>. The threat went unfinished as she arrived at the emergency exit stairs next to the elevator. It wasn't until she'd opened the stairwell door that her gut wrenched. Smoke. She could smell it. Faint, but evident in the air.<br/><br/><em>Oh god...</em>Aline had never been one for religion, but if there were any gods out there, she sent up a silent plea as she backtracked to the kitchen for a wet rag. Without it she'd probably faint halfway down from smoke inhalation. Guess those fire safety lessons hadn't been completely useless after all.<em>Stop. Drop. And roll.</em>Like repeating a mantra, the phrase went round and round in her head as she ran down the stairs. Even though it didn't make any sense, she wasn't on fire...yet, her mind clung to it desperately as if it would help keep her calm.<br/><br/>Bag bumping against her hip, slippers trying their best to trip her - and succeeding a few times, her mind screamed<em>The gallery's on fire. MY gallery's on fire!</em>causing a jumbled mess against<em>Stop. Drop. And roll.</em>Round and round, she wasn't even sure what floor she was on anymore. The smoke had grown thicker and were stinging at her eyes causing her to blink tears away. The air was warmer but not warm enough to rid the chilled sensation in her chest.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: right;"><sup>Continued outside (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=85785.0)...</sup></div>