Chap­ter 72 of If These Wings Could Fly esca­lates the ten­sion as Leighton and his moth­er find them­selves trapped in a night­mar­ish sit­u­a­tion, strug­gling to find a way out of their burn­ing home. Leighton’s moth­er urgent­ly insists that he escape, even as the chaos inten­si­fies around them, with Leighton’s friend hold­ing a gun in an increas­ing­ly unsta­ble envi­ron­ment. Amidst this, Leighton faces an unset­tling real­iza­tion: his keys are miss­ing, and with escape routes nar­row­ing, their only option is to climb up towards the girls trapped above. This real­iza­tion forces him to act quick­ly, know­ing that the dan­ger is clos­ing in from all sides and the time to make deci­sions is run­ning out. The weight of the sit­u­a­tion sinks in as Leighton is thrust into a life-or-death sce­nario, one that will force him to face his fears head-on while try­ing to keep his fam­i­ly safe.

As Leighton strug­gles up the stairs, his body grows heav­ier with each move­ment, exhaus­tion over­tak­ing him. The smell of smoke quick­ly tran­si­tions into a harsh visu­al real­i­ty as it pours from his room, a stark reminder of the dan­ger that threat­ens not only his life but the lives of those he loves. In this moment, Leighton under­stands that the fire is no accident—it was the result of a lantern that was knocked over, set­ting the cur­tains aflame and now threat­en­ing to con­sume every­thing in its path. This real­iza­tion only deep­ens the dis­tress, as the imme­di­ate dan­ger is com­pound­ed by the thought that his belong­ings may be destroyed, but more cru­cial­ly, the girls are trapped inside a locked armoire. Their muf­fled screams inten­si­fy Leighton’s des­per­a­tion, urg­ing him to act swift­ly, know­ing that every sec­ond mat­ters.

The ten­sion builds even fur­ther as Leighton recalls the key that Joe had once left, a key he had long since believed lost. A flick­er of hope sur­faces as Leighton fran­ti­cal­ly search­es, guid­ed by the mem­o­ries of Joe’s kind­ness, until he final­ly finds the key. With it, he unlocks the armoire, free­ing the girls, whose faces are filled with ter­ror and tears, their fear pal­pa­ble as they step into the chaos. But the dan­ger is far from over; a loud slam against the bed­room door sig­nals that they are not yet safe. Pan­ic surges again as Leighton real­izes they are trapped, with no way to escape unless they act quick­ly. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, they make a split-sec­ond deci­sion to flee, rac­ing toward the win­dow and step­ping onto the roof in a last-ditch effort to sur­vive the infer­no threat­en­ing their home.

Out­side, how­ev­er, they are con­front­ed by yet anoth­er peril—an omi­nous fig­ure emerges from the smoke, adding to the ris­ing ten­sion of the sit­u­a­tion. The figure’s pres­ence rais­es ques­tions about the true threat that lurks in the shad­ows, as Leighton and his fam­i­ly now face not only the blaze con­sum­ing their home but a new dan­ger from with­in the smoke. As they ascend to the high­est point of their home, the smoke thick­ens, mak­ing it hard­er to breathe and height­en­ing the sense of dan­ger. The crows, swarm­ing the area in a chaot­ic fren­zy, pre­vent the dark fig­ure from escap­ing, cre­at­ing a sense of fore­bod­ing as the fam­i­ly remains on the roof, trapped between the fiery chaos below and the grow­ing storm above. Despite the loom­ing threat, Leighton’s gaze shifts, notic­ing the calm­ness of his fam­i­ly. Their col­lec­tive focus on the crows sug­gests a strange sense of uni­ty, even as the sit­u­a­tion seems increas­ing­ly hope­less. In this moment, the pos­si­bil­i­ty of hope emerges, not from escap­ing the fire, but from find­ing strength in one anoth­er amidst the over­whelm­ing dark­ness.

The chap­ter reach­es a poignant moment as Leighton watch­es his family’s calm resolve in the face of per­il, offer­ing a stark con­trast to the vio­lence and chaos sur­round­ing them. While the dan­gers are far from over, there is a sub­tle sug­ges­tion that even in the most hope­less sit­u­a­tions, there may be a flick­er of hope. The chap­ter encap­su­lates the com­plex emo­tions of fear, urgency, and the qui­et strength that can arise in times of cri­sis, hint­ing at the pos­si­bil­i­ty that sur­vival doesn’t always come from the phys­i­cal escape but from the inner strength one finds when fac­ing insur­mount­able odds. The sto­ry unfolds not just as a bat­tle for sur­vival against exter­nal forces but as an explo­ration of the human spir­it and its capac­i­ty to endure even the dark­est moments. The sense of impend­ing doom is coun­ter­bal­anced by the calm deter­mi­na­tion of the fam­i­ly, hint­ing that even in the face of cat­a­stro­phe, there is room for courage and uni­ty.