When the screaming started, Mand hurled herself over the lamp to Val. As she did so, her toe kicked the top of the glass flue, knocking it over and breaking open the bottom. Flaming liquid quickly spread onto the floor, catching some wooden boxes used to store merchandise.
The whirring stopped.
Mand pulled Val away from the flames towards the ladder.
"What was that?" The male voice demanded.
More footsteps, a second set moved around to the near side of the upstairs counter, "We know you're hiding them," the female voice said calmly. "If you don't want my brother here to finish the job, then just tell us where they are. We will let you go. I promise."
The girls could hear the shopkeeper whimpering.
The flames continued to spread in front of their eyes. Boxes, linens, and every other sort of knickknack that had been stored down here started to go up in flames. Smoke began to fill the room. Mand had to do everything she could to keep from coughing.
"Tell us now!" The man shouted.
The whirring started up again.
"Noooo!" the shopkeeper cried. Then silence.
"There's no point in continuing brother," the woman's voice said. "She's passed out." A pause "They're here somewhere, start looking."
More footsteps then, and the sound of things crashing onto the floor. The store above was being torn apart.
"Where's this smoke coming from?" the male voice asked.
Mand tied a handkerchief around her mouth and motioned for Val to do the same. She looked around, desperate for some sort of escape route. The room was solid brickwork, the only way out was up. The fire and smoke continued to creep even closer.
"Fire!" A unknown voice suddenly shouted. This one sounded like it was coming from the street.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" more voices. "Somebody call the Fire Brigade!"
"Blasted!" the woman's voice said. "We have to get out of here."
"What about her?" the Male said. "And the other two?"
"Leave them. If we get arrested now, it's all over!"
The footsteps pounded towards the door to the street, then paused.
"To make sure no-one follows us," said the woman's voice.
A low thrum could be heard, followed by a tremendous groan.
"We have to go, now!" the woman said.
The shop's bell tingled and then a thunderous crash. The sisters could see the floor above shake.
They waited a few breathless moments as the fire crept ever closer. It had now gone up the support structure of the basement and was now licking at the ceiling. The only noise now was the shouts of "Fire!" and the murmer of a crowd of onlookers outside.
Mand motioned for Val to climb, and then followed suit. Val reached the top of the ladder and tried to push open the trap door. It only moved an inch before clumping back down. "There's something on top!" Val said, fear creeping into her voice. "I can't move it."
"Let me try!" Mand shouted. Awkwardly they backed down the ladder and exchanged positions. Mand climbed to the top and gave a shove, Again the trapdoor only opened about an inch. Something was blocking it from one side.
"No!" Mand's inner voice shouted. "I won't die like mother did!"
Smoke completely filled the basement now. Mand could barely see Val a few feet below her on the ladder.
Desperate, she felt around the edges of the trap door. There! She found what she was looking for!
Concentrating, she held her fingertips to the hinges of the door and mentally forced the screws out of the wood.
She pushed up, and then slid the trapdoor to the side. She quickly pulled her self up onto the shop floor above. She then reached down and helped Mand up. Smoke now boiled up from the hole in the floor, the basement room now completely ablaze.
Things in the shop weren't that much better. The multitude of items that had lined the shelves of the store now lay strewn about on the floor. A huge pile of debris blocked passage to the door to the street.
The shopkeeper lay slumped over with her back against the counter. Mand was relieved to see her chest rise and fall, the woman was still alive.
"Help me!" Mand said, lifting the right arm of the woman so it sat around her shoulder. "Take the other side."
Val did so and the two sisters now stood with the unconscious woman slumped over between them.
"Now what?" asked Val.
Mand looked around and spotted the window she had peered through earlier. "Hold on!"
The shop itself had quickly filled with smoke. Mand reached out with her mind and "felt" the various bits of metal that lined the shop floor. She finally rested on a particular object that felt like it had the right weight and heft.
Lifting her free hand, the object floated in the air a moment, before shooting out and bursting through the window to the outside. The sudden explosion of glass took the crowd outside by surprise, causing a few shocked screams and gasps. "There's still people inside!"
"Come on!" Mand shouted, and the two made their way towards the shop's window. Figures appeared at the window's edge. With axhandles, the figures cleared away the excess bits of glass that remained. Members of the fire brigade.
Once they reached the window, hands reached out and lifted the unconscious woman away. Then both sisters were helped out of the now fire engulfed building.
The crowd clapped as the two emerged to the cobblestone street. Soot covered and coughing, Mand and Val each had a blanket draped over their shoulders and they were escorted away from the building and the crowd. A woman in a fire brigade uniform instructed them to sit on a nearby bench and wait for her to return.
The two sat in silence, watching as the brigade hooked up hoses to a large tank that sat upon the back of the carriage. Two members worked a pump and the hose was directed by the brigade to spray water on the burning building.
"They said that there wasn't anyone else in the building," the woman in the uniform said returning with a glass of water for each of them. "Please tell me there was nobody else beside you."
"Who said?" Mand asked, ignoring the woman's question.
"A man and a woman."
Mand looked at the crowd. "Where did they go?"
The woman looked around, frowning. "Damn it! I told them to stay put until we had a chance to ask them some questions."
The woman moved to turn back to the crowd. "Stay here and DON'T move."
The brigade member returned to the crowd of onlookers, clearly searching for the two that disappeared.
"We should go," Mand said.
Val raised an eyebrow, "You sure? They're going to want to ask us some questions..."
Mand looked over the scene. All eyes were on the building.
"Somebody was after us, if they find out we're still alive, there will be trouble."
Minutes later the fire brigade member returned to two empty blankets on a bench. "Don't tell me I lost ALL of them!"