Hell's Hilltop

by J. A. Dennam

  His attempts to scramble onto shore were dampened by the sludge and silt sucking at his legs. Before he could manage it, something familiar caught his eye.

  Through a main floor window of the house, a small orange flicker emerged. It grew until more and more of the house’s interior was illuminated against a beautiful lightshow of dancing flames.

  Ty’s eyes widened, and suddenly all confusion was gone. The pain in his skull became secondary as he finally hoisted himself over the seawall. When he stood, a wave of vertigo caused him to stumble and he went down again over a bevy of sharp rocks. Wet clothes and shoes were now crusted with earth, cloying to his skin like weighted sandpaper.

  “Rena!” he shouted. But, of course, there was no answer. He briefly searched the ground for his phone, but it was nowhere in sight, most likely in the water. The best he could hope for was that Austin noticed the flames and would call the fire department.

  The basement was still lit since he and Derek had left the light on. When he made it to the door, he fell against it and tried the knob, but it was locked.

  Please don’t let Rena be inside.

  Ty looked through the glass. No sign of her. He headed around front.

  The glow through the upper floor windows was brighter now, like a beacon calling to anyone on the opposite shore who might be looking. Prepared to burst through windows if he had to, Ty entered the yard in full-bore mode, only to stop dead in his tracks.

  The oar with his name on it lay on the porch. Smoke curled out of the open front door, billowed as it caught the draft upward and over the rooftop. Interior flames offered the necessary backlight to outline Rena’s shape as she backed out into the night with a wooden chair in her arms.

  Once outside, she turned around and proceeded to carry her load off the small porch and further away from the house. Slight wisps of smoke even trailed after her, but she didn’t so much as cough.

  Her shapely outfit was torn in a few places, pale skin smudged with soot. Glossy black hair reflected orange as it fluttered with the warm draft. She stopped by the road, turned to face the flames and lowered the chair to the ground. Then she calmly sat down, folded her hands in her lap… and watched.

  Ty’s heart clenched in his chest, reminding him to breathe. Throughout his six years as a fireman, he’d never seen anything like it. She was a vision, fascinating to watch in all her crazy, fucked up glory. It was clear Rena was still operating under Rafferty’s drug, in her own little world, sitting in a quaint ladder-backed chair by the road, a silent spectator as the house she set fire to burned to the ground.

  That ingrained instinct to fight the flames was notably absent and Ty simply watched from his position on the sidelines. He understood, now, what drove her. He hated that tiny house and everything it embodied just as passionately as she. Wanted this to happen just as much. Maybe… just maybe it would heal a little part of that damaged place inside her.

  Let it burn.

  Noises from the woods grew louder, signaling the rest of the crew had finally made it out of the cave. Isak stumbled on past, breath ragged and thin as he held his chest with a look of despair. “What did you do?” he choked, anger building in his eyes… until he caught sight of Rena.

  Just like that, the man’s weathered face melted into sadness. Awkward with grief, he lowered himself down to the grass and watched his house burn with silent penance.

  That telltale wail rose up from the hills, signaling the far off approach of first responders. Ty broke from his stupor, realizing their time was running out.

  As he began to walk toward Rena, a small hand grabbed his arm.

  “Let me.”

  The voice was familiar, but never had he heard it used in such a soft, compassionate way. His eyes narrowed on the woman beside him, instantly suspicious of her motives. “Crystal….” But when she turned her ice-blue gaze on him, he knew she was in a good place. “Okay, then. We’ll go together.”

  “I’ll go get the car,” Austin mumbled, and took off in that direction.

  Mac hesitated, watching the scene with the same fascination that had them all locked up. “Yeah,” he said, finally. “I’ll pull mine around, too.” And he disappeared beyond the glow of the flames.

  As Derek watched the house burn, it appeared he was also putting the last two years of his life to bed. It was a symbolic moment for all those who remained.

  Ty was loath to end it. Wanted to watch until the place was nothing but a smoking pile of black and silver ash, but it was a dangerous, unpredictable place to be. As the fire popped and crackled beside them, Ty and Crystal approached Rena together. He leaned over, whispered, “She’s the dangerous one, now. Remember that.”

  But Crystal blew off his concern and bent down in front of her sister without fear. She gathered Rena’s hands in her own and squeezed. “Hey.”

  Rena’s attention remained on the house.

  “I hear you went to our special place without me.”

  That seemed to work. Rena’s smile appeared and she looked down at her sister. Two pairs of blue eyes, different in clarity and shade, gazed at each other as if they shared a secret.

  Ty used his body to shield the women from the growing heat. “We need to move back,” he ordered. “If there’s an explosion, you could—”

  A short, deafening boom accompanied the searing impact of heat and debris. Ty flew forward, his back taking the brunt force.

  His world became a tin can of ambient noise that slowly cleared with a whoosh.

  Then all was silent.

  “I think he’s coming around.”

  A hand tapped his face. It wasn’t a soft, gentle touch, but something entirely unpleasant. Ty groaned, coughed. With the cognizance of a sloth, his senses returned in agonizing chunks of awareness.

  Sirens screamed close by, grating painfully against his eardrums. He was being dragged through thick brush. His shoulders ached, his back even more. Something wasn’t right with one of his legs, but none of it compared to his biggest pain of all.

  “Rena,” he croaked then coughed again.

  “She’s fine, buddy, relax.”

  He had just enough time to register Derek’s voice before he blacked out again.

  _____

  “He’s not gonna like it.”

  “It’s the only way, Crystal. Without it, he’ll be recovering for weeks, maybe months.”

  “So what?”

  A blunt flash of searing pain brought Ty fully awake. He was flat on his belly with a thin pillow beneath his head.

  Derek’s voice. “They’ll know he was in an explosion. Questions will be asked, connections will be made…. He could lose his job from the injuries if they don’t heal right. This way, he’ll be back on his feet in a day or two and he can claim he had the flu.”

  Ty’s interest peaked enough to warrant a look-see. He opened his eyes, squinted against the lamplight pointed at his face.

  Something was lifted from his body. Sensations assaulted him all at once, some questionable, most of them not good. Pain. Numbness. Cold. He moved his leg and was rewarded with shattering pain. “Mother… fucker!”

  “Whoa.” Crystal again. He felt her hands on him, holding him down, soothing. “I believe he’s with us now.”

  “Can we lose the light?” Ty’s own voice sounded like sandpaper against wood grain.

  As soon as the lamp was switched off, he blinked, raised his head and looked around. Cave walls reflected blue incandescence all around him. Isak’s lab. “What the hell happened?”

  Crystal appeared in his line of vision. She looked different. Fresh. Wholesome. A noticeable lack of makeup and anger did wonders for her face. “You saved two women from a world of hurt,” she answered softly. Full lips came down, flattened against his temple. “I knew I liked you, Ty Ferguson. And not just because you have a spectacular ass.”

  Funny. “Is that why you kicked me in the balls the other day?” he said drunkenly.

  Her hand moved to his hair and she gave hi
m a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, well… I was being kind of a bitch.”

  At least she admitted it. “What’s your sister’s excuse?”

  “Don’t answer that,” Derek broke in from the foot of the cot. “Rena’s in the next room and we just saw what happens when she overhears something unsavory.”

  Ty craned his neck, looked down until the man came into focus. Other things came into focus as well, like his tattered clothes and the blood and matter splattered across the exposed parts of his body. As usual, when faced with something catastrophic, he instantly calmed. “Oh, look. Shrapnel.”

  A twisted sliver of metal jutted from his lower back, another from just above his knee. A smaller variety of pieces were collected on the sheet beside him.

  Derek worked on the next one. “I’m almost done. Frost will handle the bigger pieces.”

  The recall was a bit fuzzy. “You’re gonna have to,” Ty paused as another piece was ripped from his flesh, “fill in some blanks, man.”

  Derek inspected the object in the tweezers. “Rena went pyro. Bad news is you took the heat. Good news is you saved the women.”

  An eyebrow went up. “Sounds familiar.”

  “We brought you here so you wouldn’t be found,” Crystal contributed, squeezing his hand. “There’s a fire crew dousing the flames above ground as we speak. You have to admit, it wouldn’t bode well for you to be stuck in a hospital while police bombard you with questions.”

  She was right about that. “So… everyone’s down here?”

  “Austin and Mac moved the vehicles,” Derek answered, going for a small splinter of wood. “They’ll be back when they have a clear window. Frost gave Rena a sedative to ride out the rest of her high.”

  The name put a frown on his face. “I wouldn’t trust that prick with anything.”

  Derek paused in his work. “I get it, but I think we’re all on the same page, now.”

  The ventilation system kicked on and Crystal raised her voice a notch. “Rafferty was Isak’s only vice. Now that’s he’s gone, Isak is… free. I can see it in his eyes.” She pressed her forehead against their clasped hands. “I still can’t believe they were related. I feel so sorry for him.”

  It was strange, watching Crystal act with such warmth. This was the same woman who’d always communicated with her lightning-fast, balled up little fists. At this point, Ty would love to be able to relax his guard with her, but it was something he couldn’t trust yet. “You’re being awfully nice,” he mumbled with a cautious edge. “I must be worse off than I thought.”

  “Nah,” Derek muttered, searching for more pieces. “We’ll have you fixed up in no time.”

  “How ‘bout in time for work tomorrow?” It was a joke followed by a sluggish quirk of the mouth.

  Derek inhaled, put the tweezers down and moved to kneel beside Crystal. They both gave Ty a look that instantly cleared the fatigue from his brain.

  “You’ll heal, Ty,” Derek said with an air of practicality. “You weren’t burned too bad because you were wet and had a nice layer of muck on your clothes. But those larger fragments will cause some problems. Your back is torn up and there’s a big piece in your leg that’s lodged in the bone.”

  “’Kay.”

  “Other than that, we don’t think anything’s broken, but there’s a shit-ton of tissue and nerve damage that may not heal well if you go to a hospital. Since I brought you into this, I feel kind of responsible, so… I may have taken a few liberties you won’t like.”

  Ty sensed the need to brace himself. “You’re never this chatty, Derek, just spit it out.”

  Crystal again, with a gentle nature that scared the hell out of him. “We gave you something to speed up the healing process.”

  Dread washed through him in one hardening wave. “The hell you say.”

  Derek quickly added, “You shouldn’t be on it long enough to develop an addiction.”

  “Tell me you didn’t put that shit in my body!”

  “Frost took a dose after he was stabbed,” Crystal said, “and he’s already on the mend. It’s the only way you can get back to work with no questions asked.”

  But to be given a drug that Derek fought so hard to be rid of…. Ty lay there feeling incredibly helpless. At the mercy of others. It was something completely foreign to him, looking through the eyes of the wounded. “This is bullshit.”

  Derek lifted his T-shirt high, revealing the scars from injuries both old and new. “Nobody knows what you’re going through better than I do, pal. You’re lucky it’s not worse. At least you’ll be back on your feet in a few days.”

  Ty registered that this was coming from a man who’d been told he’d never walk again, but he refused to play along. Instead, looked again at the gore covering his body. “That’s impossible.”

  Lowering his shirt, Derek leaned in closer. “No. It isn’t. That’s what Nexifen does. When IGP took me from that intensive care unit, I was facing life in a wheelchair. I would have never fully recovered with traditional medicine. This stuff?” He swept a hand to indicate Ty’s wounds. “This is nothing! Three days tops to get you through the worst. Pain won’t even be much of a problem and, as long as you stay covered up, you’ll be able to operate like normal while the cosmetic stuff heals.” He spoke slowly, hammering home each word. “No one will know.”

  Ty’s tattered clothes fell away as he rolled sideways. The pain of doing so made his anger even more palpable and his modesty irrelevant. “So, you’re willing to sacrifice my health in order to cover your ass.”

  A flash of angst darkened Derek’s gaze. “Hey, my ass is still technically buried in the family plot, remember?”

  “He’s covering your ass, Ty,” Crystal said in a soothing tone. “You have to see that.”

  But he didn’t want to see it. Anarchy had ruled his days since first receiving that mysterious phone call from a long dead friend. He’d given all he had in order to help Derek, only to be continually screwed over for his efforts. “You should have cleared it with me first,” he ground out. “I deserved a choice!”

  The calm of Derek’s voice belied the message behind it. “You did plenty of thinking for me the other day, as I recall.”

  Ty’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “So this is payback?”

  With a muffled curse, Derek straightened to a stand. “I don’t roll that way. Not anymore. Life is too goddamned short.” With that, he threw the bloody towel down on the cot and stalked over to the sink. Water hissed out of the tap.

  Crystal folded her arms and jerked her head in Derek’s direction. “You see how easily he just did that?”

  “Did what?” Ty growled darkly.

  “Stormed across the lab without falling over.”

  “So?”

  “He was shot in the chest two days ago, you ass,” she fired back. “So get over yourself and consider the possibility he’s right.” She leaned forward and her attitude instantly softened. “Tell me, Ty. Are you really a fireman or do you just wear the clothes?”

  He reared back a little. “Jesus, not you, too.”

  “Do you love your job?”

  “What the hell do you think?”

  “Then don’t jeopardize it.” A pert tilt to her chin challenged him to argue further. “Just saying.”

  Isak Frost came out from behind a black curtain and pulled it closed behind him. The man had changed his clothes and looked to be in minimal pain. Far from the pitifully wounded creature Ty had treated only hours ago.

  “Just those two pieces left,” Derek told Isak as they passed each other. “And, hey… Ty’s a big man. Loves pain, if you know what I mean.”

  Ty rolled back onto his stomach and pouted over the pillow. “Fuck you, Bennett.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Crystal

  After Crystal left Ty passed out on the cot, the aftershocks of his tortured moans still vibrated through her brain like a tuning fork. She’d felt his pain, suffered with him as each jagged piece of shrapnel was removed from deep wit
hin flesh and bone.

  Those wounds would hurt for a while, but she’d make sure he took his daily dose of Nexifen since she didn’t believe he’d do it on his own. Knowing first hand how scary it was to take a questionable drug, Crystal sympathized with the man on a personal level.

  And she was finally standing in the very lab where Nexifen was produced. Isak’s lab, buried deep beneath a house she used to play in as a child. The truth that Isak was their basement chemist and had been in bed with IGP all along was still so hard to swallow. She loved the man like family, couldn’t bring herself to accept it until it was too late. But the proof had been on Sophie’s computer, something Crystal was able to hack into before her big showdown with four ghosts and a dose of poison.

  The things you don’t know about people….

  Perhaps the fact Isak was also responsible for the cure that had finally quieted the world around her earned the man some sort of redemption. It was the one thing about Nexifen she hated most, the inability to turn down the volume. The journey had been long and torturous as the poison worked its magic against the enhancement drug in her system. Not knowing how long it would take to die was the worst. Stripped of the ability to move or communicate and unable to blink the dry from her vision.

  If it weren’t for Mac’s continued care and the comfort of his presence, she would have gone insane. It was something she’d told him when she was finally able to:

  It started with a tingle. Minutes later, Crystal began to feel the weight of Mac’s arm draped over her middle, then the warmth of his big body along her back. She knew how it worked. People sometimes rebounded just before death finally claimed them. So, could that be what this was? Regardless, things were changing… and she prepared herself for the end.

  Her eyelids cracked open. The subdued light of Melanie’s crammed little bedroom had changed with the setting sun. A sun she was slowly going down with.