He opened his eyes as the clear sound of another explosion cut through the air. Sitting up from his hunched over position in the leather armchair, he turned his head to look out the window wall on his left, giving him a clear view of Neo Syncreta. Typhon pinched the bridge of his nose as he watched the smoke stream from one of the city's most prized landmarks. The elevator door to the luxurious lounge suite opened with a ding, he didn't need to look to know who it was.
"Deici, you really overdid it." he said still pinching his nose and shaking his head. "Did you really need to incinerate the entire fiftieth floor?"
"The specifications for this job required that it look like a terrorist attack, terrorists blow shit up!" Deici strutted out of the elevator, ignoring the lone man. He was in no mood for his nagging today. This was one of the most delightful jobs he'd ever done, not because of the room full of men left dead in his wake, no he'd killed plenty of people, it came with the job. It was the collateral damage that this job needed, no demanded. It made his blood dance. He needed a drink.
"What do think of my eyes?" the blonde said, removing his suit jacket and placing it over an armchair, before sitting down across from Typhon.
"What?" what kind of random a-
"What do you think of them, how would you describe them?" Deici didn't look at his colleague, opting to fix one of his now uneven gloves, before resting his face on one of his hands, lazily looking out the window at the city below, and the smoking building a few blocks away.
It was official, any semblance of normalcy had gone with those explosions. "Why is that-"
"Someone said they were cold as ice once, would you agree with them?" he asked again, narrowing his eyes slightly, a smile creeping onto his face. Deici looked over at his money-driven companion and sighed, "The client said he wanted the building to crumble, didn't he?" his smile widening.
"I don't think he meant that literally Deici!" Typhon said raising his voice.
"Then he shouldn't have put it in the request."
Ignoring Typhon's unease, Deici continued "Besides, I did trigger the fire alarm beforehand, gave everyone a fighting chance." he finished, still looking out the window.
"And blowing up the underground boilers?" Typhon narrowed his eyes as Deici took an even more relaxed demeanor, crossing his legs, and leaning forward with hands under his chin, still looking out the window.
A dark gleam shone in his eyes, something wicked lurked behind those silver eyes. His mischievous smile grew wider. "I wanted to keep things interesting." Deici turned to face his still colleague, "Now, what do you think of my eyes?"
Typhon looked incredulously at him, mortified by his answer, even if he should have expected it. 'You really are sick.', seeing his colleague looked serious about his question, he swallowed his retort and pretended to scrutinize Deici's eyes for a moment, squinting while leaning forward, even tilting his head to look from different angles, satisfied, finally said one word "Hideous."
.....
The staircase was flooded as the dislodged mass of people came rushing down, pushing and shoving, even throwing those too slow or too weak back up the narrow stairway. Ayla stayed ahead of the crowd to avoid being trampled, jumping steps and leaping over the railing if she was sure she could land on her feet, with only the fastest catching up or passing her. She was far from big, and knew being thrown to ground in this tight, congested space might end with her staying there.
The smell of smoke was becoming stronger the longer she descended, it stung her eyes and tickled her nose becoming almost unbearable when she reached the fifth floor. Deciding to take a chance, she quickly ducked in the fifth-floor stairwell entrance, only to be almost knocked down and left to the unforgiving feet of people too scared to give a damn. She practically fell through the door in her effort to keep her feet under her.
Rummaging through the handbag she had managed to hold on to, she quickly took out her wet wipes and tried to clean some of sweat and soot from her eyes and nose, before finally picking out her blue cotton handkerchief and tying it over the bridge of her nose so it hung over her mouth, it wasn't much but it would help somewhat.
Ayla re-entered the stairwell, smoke even thicker than before making it harder to see now, as fire started to spread to the first floor, but that wouldn't stop her. Now on the tail end of the large crowd, she descended into what looked like the first level of hell. Her salvation or destruction was close, just a few flights away, she'd be out of this hell soon, one way or the other. Despite her reservations she excitedly leaped over the railing to the second-floor landing, just as another explosion erupted.
The few boilers left finally succumbed to the heat. Ayla missed the landing.
She rolled as she hit first floor landing, pain rippling through her left side. The air felt like it had been sucked from her lungs and she seemed to have forgotten to take a new breath. She winced and rolled onto her back the taste on smoky air entering her longs more exhilarating than it should ever be. Tears of joy ran down her cheeks as she realized nothing seemed to be broken, she was bruised but otherwise the tumble hadn't done as much damage as it could have. The joy didn't last long however as she saw that the entire first floor was starting to cave, the explosion from the underground boilers had split the entire foundation, causing the first floor to buckle in on itself as smoke and flames seeped through the cracks. Ayla quickly picked herself off the ground, ignoring a shooting pain as she did, the narrow stairwell floor had started to shift and crumble, some of the first-floor steps had already stated to fall. She dashed through the stairwell door, narrowly avoiding part of the ceiling which now blocked the doorway.
The lobby was disheveled, the air filled with smoke from small fires erupting from giant holes in the marble flooring plunging the room in a red hue, the one dominating desk was abandoned, the papers scattered on the floor. She whimpered, limping towards the exit only the adrenaline pumping through her veins kept her moving. Salvation, it was right there, out those front doors. She could hear the ambulance and police sirens outside and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
The smile died on her lips as a piercing scream made her freeze where she stood.
It came from the stairway; she looked back and what she saw horrified her. Hands. Multiple hands. All reaching through, pushing, trying to dislodge the debris blocking the doorway, the scared wails and cries for help from those trapped, now echoing in her ears. She couldn't leave them there to die. She turned around and ran back to the doorway trying to help by pulling the rubble out enough for people to squeeze through, when floor in the stairway finally caved. Dust and debris flew up, causing Ayla to fall back and shield her eyes.
It was too quiet.
She looked back towards the doorway, hoping to see it unblocked.
She froze. The doorway was gone! Only fiery chasm remained. The screams had fallen silent.