Cruel World(96)

“One night when I was twelve, our furnace failed. Earlier that fall my dad had had it inspected, and the guy who signed off on it was a drunk. Turns out he had been drinking that morning and hadn’t checked the emergency shutoff valve. A fire started in our basement, and it had eaten through the floor by the time my dad woke up.”

Alice breathed deeply, steadying herself. Lightning stuttered and lit the inside of the car, turning the tears on her face into jewels.

“Part of the wall in my room collapsed when the floor started to drop into the basement. It fell on my bed and pinned me there. I remember the flames, how they moved like they were alive, like they were looking for me. Then my dad came through the smoke and shoved the wall away and I was free. I don’t remember him carrying me outside. The next thing I knew my mom was holding me near the street and it was snowing and our whole house was engulfed. There were sirens and lights from the fire trucks turning the flakes red and blue. By the time they got there, all they could do was keep it contained to our yard.”

She turned to him, shaking in the darkness, the rain a steady roar around them like a liquid inferno.

“He went back in. He went back in for my little sister, and neither one of them came out.” She wiped at her face and sniffled, reminding him so much of Ty the night before, crying over his lost stick. “My mom didn’t have early onset dementia. She had a total break with reality the night we lost them. She never recognized me again after that.”

“God,” Quinn whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“That’s why I locked up when the fire started the other night. I can’t stand it. Whenever there’s one near me, I feel like I’m being watched. Like it got a taste of me that night and it won’t give up until it’s gotten the rest.”

He searched for something to say, but there was nothing. Sometimes words were the most insubstantial things in the world. Instead, he reached out and found her arm in the dark. She jerked at his touch, but he let his fingers glide down to her wrist, over the dainty bones there, and then slide into her hand. She hesitated for a second and then gripped his palm in her own.

They sat that way for a long time. The endless rain fell around them, their breath beginning to fog the side windows. He could’ve remained there forever. Slowly, she released his hand and finished wiping the last of her tears away.

“I’ve never told anyone that,” she said. “I don’t know why I just told you.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“Why?”

“Because no one should have to carry everything alone.”

Lightning flickered, and he saw the frown knitting her eyebrows together, her gaze locked on him.

“I don’t get you,” she said finally.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Never mind.” She turned in her seat, wincing as she moved her leg, and checked on Ty. “I’m so glad he can sleep. It would be so much harder if he couldn’t.” She settled back into her seat, trying to get comfortable.

He was about to reply when lightning blazed across the sky in a white lance, and Alice gasped, pointing out the windshield.

The dog stood watching the car from the edge of the woods.

Quinn jerked in his seat, ripping the rifle up from where it rested beside him. The last flutterings of light shone in the dog’s eyes and then darkness coated the windows black.

“Holy shit,” Alice said, wiping away the condensation from her window. “What the f*ck is it doing?”

Quinn leaned forward, trying to see the place where the dog stood, but the night was impenetrable.

“I don’t know. It looked like—”

His words slid away as lightning flared again, outlining every branch, tree, and bush.

The dog was gone.





Chapter 21



Sanctuary and Flight



In the morning they left the sunken Studebaker behind to continue rusting in its hidden place.

The overgrown trail the abandoned car sat in led them southwest, its line curving and dipping into a shallow swamp before rising again to a high stand of oaks, all green tipped and still dripping from the storm the night before. The sun rose with the same ferocity as the storm, and the day heated like an oven coming to temperature. Alice tried to walk on her own, and managed to for a while, her hand loosely holding Ty’s, but near mid-day she leaned on the trunk of a tree and shook her head.