I watch in shock as Mrs. Broughton’s dissolved body floated away. The rain fell harder now and a gust of wind tore off the front of the building so that I was completely exposed. But I did not feel it. The horror had frozen me where I stood.

The thunder crashed again with a kindred sound to my heart–the rending of the veil before which all earthly things had disappeared and before which, for one brief moment, I too was hidden.

The next moment I saw the light of a lamp approaching. It came from a window high above my head. The light flitted across my face and I could see the man who carried it pause and stare at me in astonishment. That moment of distraction had allowed a fresh gust of wind to tear off more fragments from the front of the building, and I only just managed to save myself by plunging through what remained and darted, indistinctly, down a narrow gully.

I groped along it for some time, my clothes and hair in complete disorder. My head was bleeding profusely from the fall. My eyes were tormented with the smart of them by the sudden change from bright to dark, now and then a flash of lightning would assist in revealing the Chaos around me.

I reached the foot at last and dragging myself up the stony bank at its side, I gained the street. It was fortunate for me that a carriage was passing by, otherwise, I should certainly have lain there until morning.

As it was, a woman gave me a shawl to cover myself with and got me into her vehicle. She drove me to my brother's building a few blocks away. I had a key to let myself in and I found him in bed but still able to comprehend what had happened.

I told him of the strange things which had been happening and how the end of the building I had come from was hanging over the street. We were both in a state of shock.

“The woman who drove you here?"

"Yes,” I replied.

"Do you know her name?"

"No, sorry,” I answered. “She and her brother were the only two people at the building who knew me and where you lived. They were the only witnesses besides myself."

My brother jumped up, scrambled out of bed, and ran down the stairs. By this time even his building was swaying crazily from side to side. He rushed out and struggling through the maddened crowd, made his way to the building next door, where his wife was staying. The moment he appeared below her window she fell fainting into his arms. My brother had barely time to reassure her before, with a crash that shook the whole street, the entire building came thundering down in a vast mass of ruin and intense flame.

A few others who were in the neighborhood had time to escape. My brother, his wife, and myself were caught beneath an enormous mass of debris and in the intense heat of the flames which now raged unchecked through the building, struggled for our lives until we were both stunned by a blow on the head from a piece of timber. I was immediately rendered unconscious.

– – –

When I recovered I found myself lying in a stifling mass of debris. Shockingly still alive. I was entirely naked and heard the shrieks of my brother’s wife incessantly. A large beam had fallen across my breast, pinning me to the ground. My first impulse was to remove it from me. But to do so would have been instantly fatal.

So for hours, I lay with my cheek pressed to the earth, listening to the appalling crackling and growing roar of the flames, and feeling the heat penetrate every pore. The last thing I remember was a human hand, almost bare, stretching out from amid the smoke and fire and clasping mine.

Then I slept.

– – –

When I awoke it was a dark night, but still some embers shouldered here and there upon the rubbish. My first movement was to rise. A loud shriek rang out close to me–a shriek that made my blood run cold. I sprang up and saw a white figure crouching in the embers.

"The Other!" I exclaimed.

It seemed as if it must be The Other, yet my first movement was to raise him from my seat by clenching my hands upon his throat. His eyes shot wildfire at mine, and his struggles amused me. They became feeble, however, at my touch, and he sank powerless beneath my grasp.

"You are not the Other!" I said, releasing him and stepping back. "You are but a miserable wretch like myself–a wretched outcast from society like myself–a living corpse from whom all the warmth and animation have departed!"

He shrank away from me, and cowered in a corner, with his face to the wall. I approached him– reaching out my hand as I drew near. He shrank even farther back.

"You are not he indeed!"

He said faintly, "I thought that I had killed you–thought that I had crushed your wolfish heart."

"You have not killed me, nor shall you kill me," I rejoined. "But you have done enough to break my spirit and sunder my life. You may wipe away the blood from your own brow; it is not for you to stain any more than is necessary that of another."

He shook his head mournfully and replied, "You have not yet broken my spirit, nor shall you do so. Confide in me–and I will help you to achieve the terrible end that you desire."

"The devil!" I exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. "I would rather be buried alive than trust myself with such a monster as thou art."

"I do not deserve that name," he said sadly. "In the abstract, I am not a monster, but I was once. I am now only what you see–a cripple and a beggar. There are no horrors in my nature except those which it has itself created. A few years more and I shall be dead. You can not devise any hideousness in store for me then–it is not yet created. You are rich, young, intelligent–you can easily afford to be generous. To you my story is a curiosity; to me, it is all that remains of a ruined career. Your interest in it will soon pass away; mine never will.”

“Alas!” I said, with a bitter smile. “You speak truly.”

– – –

I was not conscious of passing any time at all until a violent shock caused me to spring up. My first glance was at my brother’s wife. She lay a few feet from me in a scarcely breathing state, but somehow still alive. The noble feeling which prompted me to move heaven and earth that she might not die before my eyes, alone can explain the superhuman energy which I exerted in dragging her out of the burning building.

Then followed hours of suffering from thirst and exhaustion, when at last I was drawn from my refuge by some persons who had heard my cries. I was taken to the hospital and restored, but my brother’s once beautiful wife expired as a consequence of the injuries that she received and I was overtaken with grief and rage, and despair.

I swore that I would take revenge on the fiends who had destroyed her, and in my madness, I actually entered into arrangements for wreaking it.

– – –

A few days afterward a garrulous old woman, whom I met at the hospital, told me that revenge had been seen at a certain place in the city with one of these accursed Fire-Fiends. Could it–? Could it be Tonya?

– – –

I rushed to the place indicated but found no traces of her.

– – –

I then learned that Tonya had fled to some distant part of the country. From that day I ceased to care for even my own life, and have remained in this condition ever since.