You Married My Murderer: She's Wearing My Face

"Someone...please..."

The voice was barely audible over the shrieking fire alarms, but it stopped Valerie dead in her tracks.

She was only three feet from the back exit.

Cool night air slipped through the gap around the door, practically begging her to shove it open and run for her life. Behind her, the facility was coming down in flames. Thick, foul smoke rolled across the ceiling, choking out the lights.

Her throat burned, and blood dripped from a cut on her forehead into her eyes. Every survival instinct she had was screaming: Get out. Run. Save your own neck.

"Please...please...don't leave me in here..."

It was a man's voice, weak and full of fear.

Valerie stared at the exit, then looked back down the burning hallway.

If she walked out now, a man would die alone in the fire.

"Damn it," she muttered.

She turned her back on the door and ran straight into the smoke.

The heat hit her hard. She pulled her torn shirt over her mouth and nose, coughing as she followed the sound of his uneven breathing.

She kicked open the door to the corner office.

The room was a complete wreck.

A major part of the ceiling had collapsed, leaving broken concrete, twisted metal, and shattered glass scattered across the floor. In the middle of it all, a man lay flat on his back, trapped under a large metal rod.

His suit was torn and soaked in blood; the fumes had burned his face, and his eyes were squeezed shut. He struggled to breathe under the weight of the rod, and each breath came out shallow and strained.

"I'm here!" Valerie cried, dropping to her knees among the broken glass. "I hear you!"

The man's head jerked toward her voice, though he kept his eyes shut. "Help me," he gasped. "I can't...breathe..."

"Hold on. I'm getting it off you." Valerie grabbed the rod with both hands.

A scream tore out of her throat.

The metal was boiling hot. It burned into her palms, but she clamped her teeth together and refused to let go. If she let go, he was dead.

"Hold on!" she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She pulled at the rod, but it barely moved. Her arms shook as she tried again, and her burned palms slipped against the hot metal.

With a desperate grunt, she dropped lower, pushed her shoulder and collarbone under it, and shoved with every bit of strength left in her body.

The scorching steel burned through her shirt and into the skin of her collarbone. Her legs trembled, and her vision blurred around the edges.

Come on! MOVE!

With a loud scrape, the rod rolled off his chest and crashed to the floor.

Valerie fell forward onto her blistered hands, gasping for air. "Can you stand?" she coughed. "We have to go right now!"

But the man didn't answer.

His hand shot out blindly through the smoke and grabbed her wrist, gripping so tightly it hurt.

Before she could pull back, he yanked her hard against his chest. His other arm wrapped tight around her shoulders, pulling her in. The man was huge, but he was shaking all over like a terrified child.

"Don't leave me," he begged, his voice cracking right down the middle. "Please...don't let me die in the dark."

Something inside Valerie just broke wide open.

She stopped trying to pull away. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his back and held him tight, leaning close to his ear.

"I'm not leaving you," she told him, her voice trembling but dead serious. "Do you hear me? I'm getting you out of here."

She struggled to pull him to his feet and draped his arm over her shoulders. His legs wobbled beneath him, forcing her to take most of his weight. Pain shot through her burned hands and collarbone, but she tightened her grip around his waist and kept moving.

"Move your feet!" she yelled through the smoke. "Keep going!"

The ceiling groaned above them, raining sparks onto their heads.

Valerie dragged him forward, one painful step at a time, until her bruised shoulder rammed into the emergency exit bar.

The door flew wide.

They tumbled out together, crashing onto the grass. Valerie dropped to her hands and knees, gasping for the cold night air.

Then the ground shook beneath them.

BOOM.

The main chemical storage tank exploded, sending a deafening roar through the night.

A giant wall of fire shot into the sky.

Valerie didn't even think. She threw herself over the man, shielding his head and neck with her body as burning debris rained down around them.

All around them, chunks of burning concrete and sharp metal fragments rained down.

Something big slammed into Valerie's upper back. At the same time, a sharp piece of metal struck her already burned collarbone, sending a fresh wave of pain through her.

A gasp escaped her, but she didn't move. She buried her face against the man's chest, shielding him from the falling debris.

Beneath her, his bloody fingers clutched her shirt, holding on desperately.

In the distance, an ambulance siren wailed. Then Valerie's eyes rolled back, and everything went black.