Page 8 of Burn With Me

“I will, and I will come out, just not tonight. Okay?” I hated that Beck made valid points, but the thought of stopping my investigation made my stomach churn.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” We hugged one another tight, and then, with a jingle of keys and the click of a door, I was left alone.

Maybe I was acting old and stuffy, but I didn’t have the energy to plaster a fake smile on my face tonight. I’d been down that road a few times, and it always ended up the same. Me sitting with people that didn’t understand who I was as they laughed and talked about things that didn’t interest me in the slightest.

It was like I was there, but I wasn’t seen.

I’d have a few drinks, a bite to eat, and have some guy hit on me that didn’t hold my interest. Other people loved that shit. Heck, Beck lived off of it. However, the spark that had glowed so brightly within me before my parents died had been snuffed out on the day of the fire. Now, there was nothing left but a charred lump of coal in its place.

Grabbing another beer, I picked up my folder and sat it down on the dining room table before dishing up some of the delicious-smelling dinner that Beck had made. First order of the night, I needed to get out of this female version of a monkey suit and go over my parents’ file again. It never hurt to go through the paperwork and pictures once more. There had to be something I was missing, something that I could find and use to have the case reopened. There just had to be.

* * *

“No, Dad! Mom!” The heat singed my eyebrows as I tried to get closer to the bright flames. Movement caught my eye, and I spotted a boy by the tree line. He was laughing, the sound sending a shiver down my spine. Him. This was all his fault. I took off running as he sprinted away into the dark forest.

“Stop. I know it was you. You killed my parents!”

The leaves under my feet crunched from the dry weather, my breathing loud as I ran after the boy that killed my family. Smoke snaked around my feet, and I looked down to see where it was coming from when the trees lining the path burst into flames. I screamed and covered my eyes as the heat was instantly unbearable.

Coughing and choking on the black smoke, I sank to my knees, the sound of laughter drifting further into the distance.

* * *

I woke with a start and stared into the eyes of my cat.

“Creepy, Heathrow,” I said to my cat. His nose was almost touching mine.

Man, my head hurt. I lifted it off the dining room table and winced as I peeled a yellow sticky paper off my face. Note to self, don’t fall asleep like that again. Who was I kidding? I would do it again, not that my body appreciated it.

I slowly stood, stretching, and then froze. I sniffed the air and looked around for the source of the smoke. I walked through the apartment on high alert, sniffing and looking at every receptacle and touching every wall. Beck still wasn’t home, and as I glanced at the time, that said it was two in the morning. The worrier in me had every worst-case scenario going through my mind. What if she got in a car accident? Or, what if someone she met wasn’t a nice person and slipped something in her drink? Or what if…

“Okay stop the spiral,” I ordered myself. “She’s a big girl. She can go out and have fun on a Friday,” I said as I continued my search.

Passing the kitchen for a second time, I did a double-take of the window. The blinds were drawn, but there was a soft glow outside that had nothing to do with the string of little decorative lights on the sitting area of our fire escape.

Running to the window, I yanked hard on the little string. The metal slats slapped together as they flew up, and I gasped as I stared at the apartment across the alley.

Sarah, who I’d gotten to know a little since moving in, was trying to pull open the window in her kitchen. Fear, the same fear that had been in my father’s eyes, was in hers as the bright flickering light of a fire burned behind her. I could just make out her screaming as her hands pounded on the window. It didn’t look like her daughter Kim was home, or if she was…no I couldn’t think about that.

This was not happening again.

Not wasting another second, I yanked open my window and stepped out onto the metal fire escape, and the rough metal bit into my socked feet. Looking down through the grating, I briefly considered going down the escape and then trying to climb up theirs, but my fear of heights had the world spinning.

No. You can do this.

Climbing over the edge of the creaking railing, I swallowed hard as I stared down at the alley below. There was not much that I was afraid of other than heights and spiders, and for most, this wouldn’t be high, but for me, it felt like I was miles from the pavement below. We were only four stories up, but that was still far enough to kill me and also more than enough to make my muscles quake with fear.

“Get a chair and break the window,” I yelled at Sarah.

She ran across the kitchen that was slowly filling with flames that were now beginning to lick along the walls inside the open kitchen archway. I could see her go to the small kitchen set and look around. I couldn’t wait any longer.

“You can do this.” Rocking back and forth to get momentum, I counted down in my head. One, two, three, and I leaped with all I had on three, winced, and swore as I slammed into the metal railing that groaned with my sudden weight. My ribs, knee, and socked feet collided painfully, bringing tears to my eyes. Thank god there were only like five feet between the two fire escape platforms. Any further and I would’ve fallen for sure.

“Hey, Lady. Are you freaking crazy?” a man yelled. I glanced down to see a firefighter staring up at me. I didn’t bother to answer. Gripping the railing, I hopped over onto the metal landing and ignored the pain radiating up from my feet.

“The chairs are gone,” Sarah screamed, a hysterical look on her face.

“Move.” I waved, and she darted to the side of the window.