Chapter 23: Fire of Vengeance

As we left the conference room, a siren pierced the air. Thankfully it was muffled by the closed door. Outside a fire truck was moving down the road, chains on the tires helping it to move faster than what normally would have been safe.

Like Mr. Johnson and the secretary, I stepped outside to watch it pass. Over the tree line, I saw heavy black smoke. My heart fell. It was just about where my house was...

Panic started pumping adrenaline through me. The fire truck slowed down and turned into the break in the snow that Monique's SUV had created.

I reached out to Mandy ... nothing. I didn't feel her. I couldn't hear her. She might have been asleep, but I should have felt calmness from her. There was nothing.

Chloe ... She was there, but sleeping ... Please, oh, please tell me I was wrong!

I turned to Yvonne, she looked back at me and I felt that sensation of everything taking on a slow dragging ... I was speeding up. I held out my hands and she looked down. Just as she started to hold up her hand to mine, I let the keys drop and they fell ... slow...

I turned and left her standing on the snowy steps. I didn't care who saw me. I didn't care what anyone thought. I had to get to the house and a little snow wasn't going to stop me.

I could feel my body pumping, running, moving. The roads were slick, but not enough to make me go sliding past the turn. I got past the bridge, past the slow rise and saw a horrific sight, something no one should ever see.

The house was ablaze. Smoke poured out of broken windows and flames reached for the sky.

The fire truck had just stopped and the volunteer firemen were moving so slow, so very slow.

I was next to the truck. Looking around, I noticed the shovel Ryan had been using to clear the driveway but he was nowhere to be seen. I went around back, no one was there. I circled the house twice more, looking to see if anyone had made it out. Nothing. I was inside and went up the stairs first. The heat of the fire didn't even hit me until I was at the top and looking through the rooms.

My room, Mandy's room, the spare space and bathroom were all clear. However, I found Chloe curled up and asleep on Monique's bed. I went and got her coat, wrapped it and the blanket around her, and carried her back downstairs. Outside, I laid Chloe down a few feet from the truck. Whether it was from the cold or the motions of me carrying her, I didn't stop to find out, but she woke and started sitting up.

Back in I went. The upstairs were clear. Smoke started to get to me, but I couldn't stop until I knew everyone was safe. I had to find my family. I had to.

I didn't know how I missed it before. A great, towering black cloud stood in the middle of the great room. The fire was along the walls and some of the furniture, so this wasn't a billow of smoke I was seeing. Then I felt it. A mind. Something conscious. It was looking at me. It had watched as I had moved through the house looking for my family to get them safe. A voice pierced my mind.

"Your family is no longer yours to worry about, Nautikuus. You should have accepted my gifts. You should have given them the pain that they asked for. You should have punished them for the hardships of your life."

I wanted to throw up shields to keep that ... thing out of my head, but it knew where my family was. I was sure of that. I couldn't hide from it. I had to face it. "Where are they?" I screamed. The fire was roaring all around us. Between the heat, the smoke and the sheer noise, I was having difficulty keeping my focus.

"That is not your concern. Be glad with the knowledge that they shall all be properly paid back for your pain as well as the pain they have caused others."

I remembered the shovel outside. Ryan was missing too. He wasn't a part of the family this thing was referring to. Had this thing taken him, too, or was Ryan in there somewhere, hiding behind the billowing blackness?

"Ryan! Is that you?" I was beginning to shake. If it was Ryan ... if he had been behind this all along...