Overwhelmed

The shrieking siren of the fire truck makes Johnny's escape even more hallucinatory.

The fire stairs are easily located by the boy, who, with agility and speed above normal (thanks to the intensive martial arts training he has been doing since he was twelve), goes down them to the first floor. Luckily, he manages to get to a place not yet affected by fire, in the back of the building.

Part of him knew that it had been wrong, very wrong, to leave his girlfriend behind. Actually, "wrong" was an understatement. That was unforgivable. But even now, with regret latent in every inch of his skin, Johnny couldn't swallow his pride.

As he walked around the building, listening to the pandemonium taking over the whole block, the young man wondered if Emanuele would even look him in the face when all this was over.

Joshua was a tall, strong and brave man. If he were a character from a children's book, he would probably be like Hercules or Superman. Anyone could see that, including the girl. All t