Page 98 of Burn With Me

Violet

The dream was always the same, but instead of running after a faceless boy, this time, I was chasing Asher through the woods. I yelled his name to stop, but he didn’t seem to hear or see me. I ran faster, waving my arms, trying to get his attention when the forest burst into flames around me. I skidded to a halt and screamed for Asher to stop as he ran straight into the blaze.

I jerked awake and tried to gasp but found my mouth covered with tape. The images still danced like a vivid movie behind my eyes. The hair on the back of my neck stood as the dream gave way to reality. Someone attacked me. No, not someone, Derek. The man that took my parents from me and Asher’s brother, the one we thought was locked up in some prison.

I blinked and stared at the roof of a vehicle as it bounced around. My head hit the floor, and I winced in pain. The sharp pain made it feel like I was being stabbed in the eye. How the hell had he found us? When did he get out? Why the hell was he taking me? I had too many questions. The sound of gravel pinged the underside of the…truck. It was too large to be anything else, and yet it wasn’t a modern style. The area was too tight, and the seats had that old leather smell, not to mention the roof was just painted metal.

This was one of those moments that I’d randomly thought about after watching a true crime show or a horror flick. What do you do when a bad person has you? Do I kick the doors and try to make a lot of sounds, potentially piss Derek off more, but try to get someone’s attention? Or do I play possum and maybe be able to rationalize with him from doing…I had no idea, but considering he needed to abduct me to make it happen said a lot about how this was going to go.

My decision was made for me when the truck slowed down a moment later. I could see trees lining either side, and my pulse went through the roof as the truck was pulled into some sort of garage or shed.

I pressed myself into the floor as hard as I could when Derek’s large arm gripped the back of the seat I was lying behind. He peered at me, those eyes so intense that it felt like I would burst into flames from his stare alone.

“Good, you’re awake. I’m surprised you didn’t scream or kick the shit out of my truck. You seem like the type,” he said and opened his door.

Good was not the word I would’ve used to describe this situation. The slam of his door shook the vehicle, and I tried to swallow down the terror that was clawing at my throat. I had decided I was never going to date, and then when I did, I met the two people who had haunted my dreams for years in different ways. What kind of luck do you call that?

The back door opened, and he looked larger now than he did in the cabin. I tried to ball myself up like that would somehow help. Derek grabbed the ties he had wrapped around my ankles and, with a single jerk, had me out the door and over his shoulder like I weighed nothing.

He carried me out of a large shed, and a couple of things struck me right away, despite the fading daylight. The first was that we were on a farm, and the second was that we were in the middle of nowhere. Even if I could break free, how far would I have to run to find another person before he caught me again?

I closed my eyes as vomit tried to rise. Maybe I’d been the target all along. Maybe my parents died because of me, and like some reaper, he was back to finish the job. Derek dropped me as unceremoniously as he’d picked me up, and I groaned as my tailbone came into contact with the hard dirt floor. My back and head slammed into the hard wooden beam behind me, and once more, my head screamed from the abuse. Derek knelt, and I realized he was somehow tying my already secure hands to the beam.

The smell of animals and mold bombarded my senses as a lone pigeon took flight telling us off for disturbing it as it went. I held still as he gripped the tape covering my mouth between his fingers and gave it a hard pull.

“Ahh,” I yelled with the sting.

We stared at one another, neither of us saying anything for what seemed like forever.

“I see you’ve been looking for me. Did you like my work?” he asked like we were two old friends talking about the weather. I’d been in many different situations over the years with friends, but somehow they had never tied me up in a barn before.

“I know your brother,” I blurted out instead of answering the question I didn’t have an answer to that wouldn’t unravel the situation further.

“Oh, I know. I know everything, and I couldn’t have planned the two of you finding one another any better if I tried,” the way he said that didn’t give me any comfort.

I licked my lips. “Your father did that to you, didn’t he?” I asked, nodding toward the side of his face. “Asher told me all about the abuse. I’m sorry for that, I am, but what happened to you didn’t have anything to do with me. If anything, you hurt me,” I said, the first real threads of anger seeping into my tone.

Derek smiled and traced a finger down the side of his face to follow the line of scared tissue. “I bet he told you his version, the one where he was the hero,” Derek snarled.

“No, he told me he’d be dead if it hadn’t been for you.”

Derek stayed quiet and stared at me. “My father made me, you know. I go by Dragon now, and fire will never hurt me again. It’s my pet. I would thank the man if he weren’t already dead.” He turned his head and showed off the second line stretched toward his ear. They stood out on his handsome face, yet somehow, they suited him and made him look rugged. “He made me strong.”

“He made you into a fucking killer,” I said and then swallowed hard, wishing I’d learned to think before I said shit.

“Depends on how you look at it. I see it as cleansing the world of the shit that is running rampant. You didn’t say, did you like my work? I mean, I’ve kept you busy enough. Watching all of you run all over town as you chased your pathetic tails was amusing,” Derek said, and it hit me.

He wasn’t talking about my parents and what happened years ago. He was the serial arsonist that we’d been hunting all this time.

“The police say they caught the right guy,” Derek scoffed and rolled his eyes at me.

“You didn’t believe for a single second that they had the right guy. The weasel they have in custody is a wannabe copycat, and not a very good one at that. Fucker is trying to claim my actions for his own glory, but that’s fine. He can have it for now.” He shrugged. “It will be more entertaining this way when they realize they have the wrong guy and have to start all over again.”

I didn’t like how he was talking. The way he spoke made it seem like I wasn’t a threat, and if I wasn’t a threat, it meant I was dead. That was the only way I wasn’t going to go straight to the police.

“Meh, your work is good, but I’ve seen better,” I lied, not sure why I was pushing this guy’s buttons. Then again, I had nothing to lose at this point.

Derek smirked, and at another time and place, I would’ve said it was sexy.