"For six years, nobody believed my mother was innocent after she received a death sentence for my father's murder. But everything shattered when my little brother leaned over and whispered something to me, with a mere five minutes left before her execution.

"NO!" I screamed, struggling against the floor as the dark spots in my vision threatened to swallow me whole.

The masked man pulled a small plastic canister of industrial accelerant from his duffel bag, splashing the clear, chemical-smelling liquid across the living room rugs, the sofa, and the hallway leading directly to Ethan’s bedroom.

"Maya! MAYA!" Ethan’s terrified screams echoed from beneath his bed.

"Ethan!" I choked out, pushing myself up onto my hands and knees despite the blinding agony in my skull.

Victor turned toward the broken front door, holding his broken wrist, gesturing for his hired men to follow him. "Let's go. We have twenty minutes to clean out Locker 8B before Delgado gets to the river."

The masked man struck a road flare, dropping the sputtering, white-hot flame onto the soaked rug.

WHOOSH!

A wall of bright orange fire erupted instantly, swallowing the hallway in a roaring inferno of thick, suffocating black smoke.

The front door slammed shut behind Victor and his men.

"Ethan!" I coughed violently, the acrid black smoke filling my lungs, burning my eyes until I could barely see.

I crawled on my belly beneath the rising cloud of toxic heat, dragging myself inch by inch toward Ethan's room. The flames were licking at the doorframe, turning the wood into charred, sparking embers.

"Mommy! Maya!" Ethan sobbed from under the bed.

I reached the threshold of his room, kicking through a burning piece of drywall. I grabbed the edge of his mattress, lifting it up with a surge of motherly, protective adrenaline I didn't know I possessed.

"Grab my neck, Ethan! Hold on!" I yelled.

Ethan scrambled out from under the frame, throwing his arms around my neck, burying his face into the collar of my shirt.

The hallway was completely blocked by a wall of six-foot flames. The front door was impassable.

I looked toward the bedroom window. We were on the second floor, fifteen feet above the concrete alleyway behind the building.

I grabbed an iron desk chair, sprinting across the room, and hurled the heavy metal frame through the glass window. The pane shattered outward in a shower of glittering shards.

Thick smoke poured out of the broken window into the cool morning air.

Below in the alleyway, tires screeched to a halt.

"MAYA! ETHAN!" Detective Delgado’s voice roared from below.

Delgado and three armed police officers stepped out of an unmarked cruiser, drawing their sidearms as they saw the flames pouring from my apartment.

"Delgado!" I screamed through the broken glass, holding Ethan tightly against my chest. "Victor took the key! He’s on his way to 1402 River Road, Storage Locker 8B!"

"Catch them!" Delgado ordered two of his officers, who sprinted back to their cruiser and sped away with sirens wailing.

Delgado looked up at me, throwing his arms out wide. "Maya! Jump! The fire department is five minutes out—you have to jump now!"

I looked down at the concrete fifteen feet below, then at my terrified little brother wrapping his legs around my waist.