Page 84 of Burn With Me

“So then, what happened?”

“I just couldn’t shake it and didn’t sleep, so I knew when he got up from bed and got dressed. I asked him where he was going, and he glared at me and told me to go back to sleep. He said he’d planned to meet up with a friend at a party. Honestly, he couldn’t have said anything that would’ve set off fireworks or alarms faster. My brother didn’t have friends, and he hated parties. Most were terrified of him or were sadly grossed out about his scar and wouldn’t even go near him. That pissed me off so fucking much. They had no idea what he’d endured to have that scar. How he’d saved me over-and-over again.”

As if sensing I needed it, Vi let go of my hand and began rubbing the tight muscles in the back of my neck. I took a deep breath, the nervousness I always felt in the pit of my stomach thinking about that night churned now, and I had to work to push it down.

“I laid there for a little while longer, but it became too much. The panic was so intense that I leaped from the bed. I just knew I had to find him and took off on my bike to hunt him down. I checked all our usual spots, and nothing. But then I saw a glow in the distance, with smoke rising into the air like a signal and—”

I stopped and stared over at Vi, my lighthouse in a storm.

“Derek had gone too far—I peddled along the path through this small forest and dropped my bike just before running through the trees. This house was on fire that was not far from where we were staying. And I just knew it was him. My gut screamed that it was him.” Vi’s hand stopped massaging the back of my neck.

“Did you say you biked through a forest to a house fire?” Vi said, her eyes wide.

“Yeah, it was fully engulfed. A couple of girls about my age were screaming outside of the house, and my stomach dropped. There was nothing I could do but stare at the fire. I needed to find my brother and stop him before he did anything else and took off. There was no telling what he’d do next or where he would go, but I had to try.”

I ran my hand through my hair as the memories flooded back, and the words continued to tumble from my mouth. “I biked to my parent’s house like my instincts guided me and pushed me to go as fast as possible.”

My eyes found Vi’s, and they were a mix of shock and a dark pain that mirrored my own. “It was like he’d finally gotten brave enough to do what he really wanted.”

I so badly wanted to pull the truck over to the side of the road and pull Vi into my lap so I could hold her.

“What…what happened next,” she asked softly.

I shook my head as the image of my father’s bloody body flooded my mind. I didn’t love my father any more than Derek did, but the gore of his crushed skull had turned my stomach then just as the thought of it did now.

“The front door was open, and my father was sitting in his usual chair, but there was a crowbar at his feet. There was so much blood, and I couldn’t recognize his face anymore. It…it was bad. I was too scared to look more than a glance at what Derek had done, and my fear wouldn’t let me get any closer to the man who had been more monster than father to see if he had a pulse. I knew I had to try and stop Derek from doing anything else. I veered around my father’s body and stared at the television screen that was smashed and covered in blood. If there was any more noise, I didn’t hear it until the shrill scream of my mother ripped through the house. My mother had screamed many times at the hands of my father, but this was different.”

I shivered. and Vi grabbed my hand, giving it a kiss.

“The scent of burning flesh was instant, and I sprinted the final feet to the door. I was screaming for him to stop. Derek heard me coming, and as I ran into the room, he hauled me up over his shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes. My mother was tied to the bed, her arms above her head. She was screaming as she burned. I have no idea what he used on her, but it burned hot and fast. That was the last image of my mother I had before Derek ran from the house with me yelling and flopping around.”

A tear trickled down my cheek.

“I couldn’t let him kill people, Vi. I loved my brother with my whole heart. So burning random garbage was one thing, but burning people was another.”

“So you turned him in?” she said, her voice sounding shocked.

I looked over at her. I couldn’t tell if she liked that I turned my brother in or not. Her face was twisted up in an expression I didn’t understand.

“Yeah, it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. He was my brother, my protector, and we were close, but….”

“Is that why you decided to become a firefighter?” She pulled our linked hands to her chest like she was needing something to hang on to.

“Yeah, I ended up in foster care. The Giltberts we’d been staying with, were considered to be too elderly to care for me, which was bullshit. They’d been taking care of Derek and me just fine, but that didn’t stop the social worker from taking me away from them and putting me in a new home. There was another friend of theirs that had tried to take me in, but she was of the same age and her husband was already passed on, so that was how I ended up at Monica’s house. As it turned out, that was how I met my mom, who wanted to take me in permanently. Luckily, I landed with an amazing family. They made sure I got an education, and I owe who I am today to them.”

Vi suddenly burst out in tears. The sobs were so raw and painful that I could feel her pain from the other side of the truck.

“Vi, what is it? What’s wrong?”

I looked over at her as she held my hand like she was terrified to let go. She was scaring me, I didn’t know what I’d said to set her off like this, but I quickly flicked on the signal, pulled the truck into one of the many beach entrances, and parked. Undoing my seatbelt, I tossed the center console up and slid over to pull her shaking body into my own.

“Hey, what’s going on, Vi?” I rubbed her back as she wrapped her arms around me and hung on as she cried like there was an endless supply of tears.

“Did…did the house sit on a golf course,” she finally asked.

“Yes. Why?”

Vi pulled back, her eyes searching my face. She cupped my cheeks before leaning in and giving my lips a soft kiss.