by C.E. Wilson
Chapter Four
He took his time leaving the house. Anger still flowed through his veins and his hands wouldn’t stop shaking. “That bitch,” he whispered to himself as he took the stairs one at a time. Something was wrong with his balance and he still wasn’t satisfied with what had happened. It still felt as though she had won. She had cheated and defeated him.
“You need to leave,” a tired looking servant said from the foot of the stairs, eyeing him like an unwanted dog.
“Shut the hell up,” he growled, turning aside at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m going to wash my hands.”
“You can wash your hands somewhere else. You’re not welcome here. I heard Devony crying and I’m sure that your uncouth shouting was the cause.”
“Did you not hear me when I told you to shut up?” he said, shoving her against the nearest wall. A few cigarettes and a purple lighter fell from her pocket onto the floor. He picked them up as the woman struggled to catch her breath. “Get out of my face.”
“I’ll call the police!”
“You do that,” he said, tucking the lighter and cigarettes into his jeans pocket. “Just get out of my face.”
She hustled away as he headed into the kitchen. Just as he reached the sink he had a sudden impulse to open the nearby garage door. Looking around, he noticed a few red containers of gasoline. His eyes lit up at the sight. Maybe there would be a way to make her pay. She wasn’t going to win. He picked up two of the cans and stumbled back into the kitchen. He could hear the maid’s panicked voice talking to someone over the phone but he paid her no mind. He uncapped the first can and dumped a trail of gasoline from the kitchen to the hallway. This would teach her a lesson she’d never forget. He opened the second can and trailed it down the hall and out the door.
“Please hurry, he’s crazy!” the maid’s voice drifted out of the open door.
“Leave me alone!” he growled. “She deserves this…” he trailed off, pulling a single cigarette from his pocket and turning it about in his fingers. He had never understood the appeal of smoking. They smelled and tasted terrible.
He heard the sound of a car racing up the street behind him.
“Enough,” he whispered, placing the cigarette in his mouth and lighting it with a grimace. Vaguely, he felt the smoke tickle his lungs as he inhaled. He took the cigarette from his mouth and as he exhaled a stream of smoke, he flicked it towards the door.
The gasoline ignited with a whoosh and within moments it had spread across the first floor. He gazed at the flames as if hypnotized. They flickered and danced through the windows and the haze from the smoke they gave off seemed to match the haziness of his own vision.
“Orion!” a voice gasped out from behind him. He turned his head slightly to see Ellie breathing hard, her hands on her knees.
“That’s my name.”
“Orion, Orion, Orion, where’s Devony…” her eyes widened as she looked up and noticed the smoke. “She isn’t—” she screamed. “What…what’s going on? Did you…” She put her sleeve over her nose and mouth and darted for the open door. Orion caught her by the arm and pulled her to him with terrible strength. “Stop!” she shouted through her struggles. “Let me go!”
“Don’t fight me,” he growled as he held her tight.
“Is she in there?”
“Of course.”
“Then let me go!”
“It’s only a warning,” he said calmly as he held her in his iron grip.
“Are you blind?” Ellie screamed. “You’ll kill her!”
“If that’s God’s will, then it shall be.”
“You nut job!” she screamed, elbowing him in the stomach. He winced but did not release her. “Let me go! Let me go right now! There’s still time! We can still save her!”
“Just relax, Ellie,” Orion purred. A loud scream could be heard from the second floor. “Good,” he whispered. “Can you hear her, Ellie? She’s screaming.”
“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded, still trying to get free. “What’s wrong with everyone? All this violence!”
“There’s more?”
“Some slut set up Micah to get hurt and somehow Roderick was killed.” She felt his arms slacken but she still couldn’t escape.
“Roderick’s dead? What about Micah?”
“He’s hurt, but he’s alive.”
“He should have died in Roderick’s place. Roderick never did me any wrong.”
“Let me go!” Ellie screamed, suddenly kicking backwards and catching him in the groin. Orion let out a pained grunt and released her as Devony’s window opened, smoke pouring out.
“Fire!” she screamed, looking around. “Help! I can’t get out!”
“Dev!” Ellie shouted, skidding to a halt at the front door. The air in the house was so hot that it singed her hair. “Devony! Are you alright?”
“I can’t get out!” she shouted down as Orion clamped a hand over Ellie’s shoulder and pulled her away from the doorway. “Orion! Help me!”
“He’s the one who did this!” Ellie screamed.
“You…you set my house on fire?” Devony choked out as she coughed.
“You’ll have to jump,” Ellie said.
“I can’t!”
“You have to!”
“I’m too scared. I’m going to try and go through the back. I have time.”
“You can’t! Don’t leave the window, Dev!” Ellie shouted. “Jump!”
“I can’t!”
“You have to try!”
“I’m going down the back stairs,” she choked out and disappeared from the window.
“No!” Ellie screamed, collapsing in Orion’s arms. Orion continued to drag her further away from the house. “Let me go! I have to call the fire department!”
“No.”
“Yes!” she wailed. “She might still be alive.”
“She made her choice.”
“You monster!” she roared, flailing in his grasp.
“She betrayed me. I have not touched her! This is a warning to her!”
“A warning that’s going to kill her! Can’t you understand what you’ve done?”
“She made her choice.”
“Stop saying that! She’s probably dead now! You killed her!”
“She chose not to jump just as she chose not to be faithful to me. Ask Archer.”
Ellie stopped fighting for a moment, the fire still crackling heavily in her ears. She turned and looked up at him with a fresh terror in her eyes. “Archer? What does he have to do with this?”
“He’s the only one who didn’t laugh about it behind my back. He told me everything.”
“Everything?”
“He told me about Devony’s infidelity with a man who I considered a friend.”
“Archer told you that?”
“Yes.”
“Archer told you that Devony was cheating on you?”
“Yes…with that manwhore, Micah. If Devony could have kept her legs closed, this house wouldn’t be burning to the ground.”
“Archer was the one who told you about Devony?”
“Yes, dammit. I said that already.”
“He’s the one who put all these ideas in your head about Dev cheating?”
“My accent is not that hard to understand,” Orion said, squeezing her ribs. “Are you deaf, blind, or stupid? I told you that it was Archer!”
She gasped for air, feeling a panic attack beginning in her chest. Archer. He was the one. He must have been feeding Orion’s paranoia for weeks. She felt her lunch gurgling in her stomach, rising in her throat. Still in Orion’s arms, she began retching into the grass. He released her and she fell to the ground. She immediately pulled out her phone and sent the message ‘fire at devs’ to the first number that came up. “Archer was the one who told you?”
Orion stood over her as he surveyed the blazing house. “I told you that.”
“Archer lied to you.”
“Archer cared enough to tell me the truth.”
“He LIED to you!” she shouted, tears streaming from her eyes. “He lied to you and you believed him!”
“Watch your mouth,” Orion warned. “Archer wouldn’t lie to me.”
“He did,” she said as Orion knelt down. His hand reached out and took her by the throat. “What?” she gasped out. “You’re going to kill me now?”
“Perhaps I will.”
“Do whatever you want, monster. I never liked you in the first place. I just never had the balls to tell Devony that and now I wish I had!”
“Shut your mouth!” Orion said, squeezing her neck.
She tried to spit at him but it dribbled down her chin. “You’re so stupid,” she croaked. “You’re so stupid Orion, for believing him. If you want to choke me, go ahead and just do it, but there are witnesses now.”
“Who?” he asked, releasing her neck. Several cars were coming up the street.
Orion left Ellie in the middle of the yard and walked close to the inferno. As the first car screeched to a halt in front of the house, Mason leapt out from the back. “There really is a fire here,” he said as he ran onto the lawn towards Ellie. Archer and Gavin followed.
“She’s dead!” Ellie wailed.
“Who’s dead?”
“Devony!”
“Devony’s in there!?” Mason yelled and turned towards the flames. Archer grabbed him by the arm.
“Stop now,” he warned. “The fire will kill you too.”
“I can’t believe you had the nerve to show up,” Ellie said to Archer as she stood. “Do you see what you’ve done?”
“I just got here,” Archer replied.
“You did this!” Ellie said, pointing a finger at Archer.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You told Orion that Devony was cheating on him! He told me! Did you really tell him that? Archer, please. Tell me you didn’t do that.” Everyone turned to look at Archer as he meticulously thought over the question. The house blazed on behind them but time seemed to stand still as Archer looked at the ground and pondered. “Archer?” Ellie asked. “Did you?”
He shrugged and looked up at her with his piercing gray eyes. “I told him what I thought.”
