A Fire That Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  “What?!” Tom bellowed in shocked aggression. “What the fuck?”

  “I got called a murderer and I have suspicion it’s to do with Natasha,” she admitted and saw the confusion, “She’s not pregnant anymore, Tom, and she blamed me.”

  All of a sudden they heard yelling and the front door opened and her other brothers and sister came into the room quickly followed by their mother.

  “You three leave here now. We can deal with this another day.” Jane said as she followed them in. She was in no mood to focus on the new accusations around town, but that changed when she looked into the room. “It seems the news spread fast,” she said and pointed to the window.

  “Yeah, literally ten minutes before Austin got back from the store that she got thrown out of,” Tom told them and watched as none of them tried to console their sister. “What have you heard?” he asked them as he put two and two together.

  “She pushed Natasha and she lost Tyler’s baby,” Dean said and gave Austin visual daggers as he looked at her. All the progress they had made to fix their relationship seemed to just disintegrate within seconds. “I knew you were jealous, but jeez, Aust...”

  “I didn’t do this!” Austin defended shakily, but remained in her seat, unable to trust her legs to hold her up.

  Jane shook her head, she couldn’t do this anymore. She hated to be the woman who had the unruly daughter, the girl the town had come to hate within hours. Jane didn’t want to have a connection to Austin anymore. “You’re nothing but a letdown,” Jane told her daughter and left the house in utter repulsion at the mere sight of Austin. She had too many thoughts and conflicts battling away within her that she couldn’t stay.

  That was it, Austin wasn’t letting her mother fall for a lie, so she followed, literally chasing her down the road as she hastily went to her own house. “I didn’t do it!” Austin almost yelled back in defense trying to get her mother to see sense and believe her. “She’s lying!”

  Jane put her hands up to make Austin shut up. “I never and I mean never, Austin, want you to come near this house again,” Jane told her daughter and she tried to react disgustedly at the sight of her daughter’s immediate tears. “You aren’t the daughter I brought up, you’re a stranger and I don’t know you. I will not be associated with a person that will willingly take away another person’s happiness.”

  “Mom,” Austin let out in a half sob as the realization dawned on her. “Don’t do this. Please.” Austin stepped towards her mother; she couldn’t let her mother disown her. She couldn’t handle there being no hope between them.

  Jane reacted immediately, pushing Austin away from the house across the porch, Austin lost her balance and flew backwards, hitting the pathway with brute force. Austin lay winded for a moment as she watched her mother tower over her at the top of the small stair case to the porch.

  Within minutes, Nicolas rushed past and went straight to Austin’s aid. He hated seeing his daughter hurt at any extent, but at the hands of her own mother? Now that was beyond anything he had seen before. He had heard the rumors, seen the display put on by Natasha, and as convincing as it was, there was no way he was falling for it. He just couldn’t.

  “Nicolas leave her be,” Jane said and stepped away and went toward the front door.

  “Jane,” Nicolas argued back to stop her. He just watched as his wife turned back and he was filled with utter disappointment. He never thought he would feel like that towards the woman he had formed a perfect life with in Point Arena.

  Austin, now having some bearings back began to move, “It’s fine.” She told her dad and smiled painfully at him. “Go to mom.”

  “What about you, Aussie?” he asked as he helped her stand up gingerly. “You’re hurt.” He noted her bleeding elbow and gasp of initial pain as she got up.

  “Nothing a bit of time won’t heal,” Austin told her dad softly and refrained from crying, but it was getting harder and harder. “Just please believe that I didn’t do a thing. I would never do that.” Austin now sobbed at her father. She would never bring pain like that on Natasha. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do that to her.”

  “She’s going to say that,” Jane cut in fiercely. “Now leave Austin before I call the police and get you arrested for trespassing. I don’t want to see you around here.”

  Feeling fear hit every cell in her being, she left without another word. If the police got called that meant seeing Tyler or Natasha’s father, and if they had fallen for the newest lie in Natasha’s twisted game, they weren’t going to go easy on her. Not only that but, having her own mother threaten her with the help of the police, Austin couldn’t stand it. Her mother saw her as a monster and standing here arguing wasn’t going to change a damn thing.

  It pained Nicolas greatly to see his daughter walk away, her persona more broken than he had ever seen. Turning to his wife, he felt angered at the play of events he had walked out on. “I know you’re holding a grudge, but you surely can’t really think that Austin did something to Natasha?” he bit hard at Jane, his tone deep and shaking with his pure anger. “How can you be so, so heartless?!”

  “I don’t know what to think anymore,” Jane said as she broke down into tears as the realization hit her about what she had just put her daughter through. She was shaking as everything came to weigh heavily on her shoulders. She felt weak all of a sudden and she felt that the one little string her daughter had worked the past couple of months to build was now officially cut. She had pushed Austin in more ways than one. That last insult was more than a physical gesture. She knew Austin wouldn’t be back.

  “Do you honestly think Austin is capable of that?” Nicolas asked as he steadied his wife’s shaking hands. He watched her look at him and shake her head in response. “So why did you disown her like her?”

  “Be-Because,” Jane paused as she finally admitted this fate, “Because she disowned us a long time ago.” It was then she fully broke and all Nicolas could do was wrap his arms around Jane and hold her tight. “She disowned me, Nicolas. My baby girl left me. I can’t forgive that.”

  Nicolas knew his wife had taken Austin’s absence to heart, but he never realized how hard she had allowed it to set.

  ***

  Walking back quickly, Austin felt pleased that the streets were empty and she was able to get to Tom’s quickly and uninterrupted. She didn’t want to see the looks of hatred that she had been getting. She didn’t want to see people that were her friends sneer at her and she did not want to see Tyler.

  She looked around to make sure the house was definitely empty, satisfied it was she knew she could pack and be gone before Tom got back – if she was fast. So she ran up the stairs and to her bedroom.

  Austin grabbed her suitcases and began to fill it with her clothes. She threw everything in carelessly and as the clothes lay haphazardly in the suitcase she realized that she could leave and make everyone convinced even more so that she was guilty, or she could stick around and prove Natasha wrong.

  She could run away from the truth or run after it. For once Austin didn’t want to run. As much as she was hurting and feeling alone, it wasn’t enough for her to flee this time around. She loved Tyler and she would make it her last job to prove to him that he was marrying a liar and a cheat. She couldn’t allow him to marry someone that had deceived him for so long and cheated him out of so many truths.

  She would make Tyler see sense, maybe then she would leave with a clear mind, a clear conscious, and a clear idea of her future.

  Maybe – maybe not.

  Chapter Sixteen

  N

  atasha knew she couldn’t do much more than she had. She had laid her mind games to rest for a bit to exact the miscarriage story, and so far she was grateful for being such a good liar. She had Tyler signed off from work with compassionate leave and her family and Tyler’s were all there for the grieving mother-to-be. Even Austin’s mother had given condolences and even spent a moment to speak about how she was completely done with her daug
hter. Natasha had to withhold from smiling at how everything was now falling into place.

  There was just one person that didn’t seem to be reacting to all of this – Austin. She had made no signs of leaving town and Natasha knew she wouldn’t be done until she saw the back of Austin as she left this place once and for all.

  After claiming she needed fresh air, Natasha took off towards Tyler and Austin’s little creation. Right now she was going to sabotage the house and take away the one thing that kept Tyler and Austin bound together. She knew if there was no house then there was no need for the pair to be together at any time. He barely spoke about her now, didn’t even make it seem like he wanted to go to her. No, Tyler was void of anything now when it came to Austin, Natasha knew she had won, but she wanted to secure this for good. She peeled away a bit more of the wallpaper to the dining room, cracked a window to create a new draft, left paint drops on the newly varnished flooring and then kicked the rest of the can over. She loosened the faucets so they dripped, she smashed several of the windows, turned the heating up, took down curtains and just because she could, she made a few dents in the walls. She did petty and damaging things. Anything to reverse the effort that was complete already in the house and it was working as Tyler became more and more frustrated with the house.

  Walking into what would obviously be the master bedroom; she looked around and saw the work that still had to be done. She was more or less tallying up ways in which she could end this little hobby of Tyler and Austin’s once and for all, and right now she had a long list of ways to stop that.

  Natasha knew she could begin losing Tyler from her life. The presence of Austin could well suck him back in and she knew it was do or die now. Even though he was looking after her during this difficult time, Natasha could feel the distance gathering between her and Tyler. He might not show any cares for Austin and what was going on with her, but that didn’t mean he was doting on her. He was just there. If there was one thing Natasha knew about herself, it was that she was a sore loser and by sore, she meant she never lost to anyone and never to Austin.

  Today was not going to start that.

  She knew that Tyler had now fallen for her lies, she knew it wouldn’t be hard to finally push him over the edge and watch as Austin’s hopes for repentance with Tyler – and to add to the enjoyment her family - were finally dashed. The wheels were already sent in motion, the final result was vastly coming towards them all and by the end of it, Austin Pearson would be public enemy number one in this town.

  Now she had to go and fix the last little bit of her plan publicly.

  Mission ‘Get Austin out of town’ was very nearly complete – and if it wasn’t, well she had to fix that.

  Chapter Seventeen

  WHEN the Pearson siblings thought of how their life would pan out, this was not what any of them had thought it would be like. Here they were reunited with their sister, closer with their father, and almost forgotten by their mother. They had watched their mother battle with her emotions and her restraint. They had seen her almost cave to accept Austin back, and now they had seen her cut all ties and all because of Natasha Truman.

  They knew they could follow the status quo and agree with the town, that because one person had said it, then it had most certainly happened. Except hearing their sister deny the claims with such strength they knew they couldn’t turn their backs and let her have everyone against her - especially with Tom so adamant to stick with her claims. At the end of the day, it was Austin’s words against Natasha’s. It was a shame that the majority of the town had already condemned Austin.

  Tom had listened to the gossip and the stories as they morphed from one thing to another. He fought back claims that his sister was an evil monster who should leave town before she did any more damage and he hit back at people who were ignorant to what was really going on when he had seen it quite clearly enough.

  They witnessed that Tyler falling for the words that left his fiancée’s lips and he was still pretty much caught under the stories she was feeding him. Being pregnant, not being pregnant. The loss being a simple miscarriage, then it wasn’t such a simple miscarriage. Even they could sit and assume that Austin had caused this to happen with the sheer display of grief that Natasha spoke with. They could fall for how truthful Natasha made it that Austin had pushed and bullied Natasha to lose the baby.

  If there was one thing they had hoped for, it was that Austin would slowly embrace Point Arena life and begin to love being back. However, what happened was the exact opposite. They had never seen her oppose a lifestyle, but she stuck it out as not to lose out all over again. Even now with the recent turn of events she seemed to be sticking her heels in and disregarding her better judgment of fleeing.

  While sitting in the local diner, they had never seen Austin more uncomfortable and try to keep the lowest of profiles possible. If she could, she would simply disappear. She had barely left the house recently, not even to go near the house to do renovations and the Pearson siblings thought it would be nice to take their baby sister out to take her mind off everything. The moment they walked into the diner they could tell their idea of a treat had backfired and Austin withdrew into herself more with each new pair of judgmental gazes that fell upon her.

  “You can’t hide away forever,” Sienna pointed out as Austin looked like she was ready to become one with the wall of their booth. They had been here a while and Austin didn’t speak, barely moved and made no interaction. It was too much and Sienna hated it.

  Looking up she sighed, “They all think I did something I didn’t do. That isn’t going to change.” She looked around and everyone got back to their meals and left the idle gossip alone for a moment knowing she had heard them. “Seems the jury has well and truly spoken and there isn’t a damn thing I can say to change that.”

  “You know you’re innocent,” Tom said as he rested his hand on Austin’s. “This will blow over.”

  “When, eh?” she asked him. “When will it? When I leave again? When I admit to doing something I didn’t do?”

  “First, you’re not leaving,” Dean told her forcefully and gave her a stern look. As the oldest brother he felt it was down to him to keep the family together as it was, but right now he felt it was his duty to keep Austin from fleeing all over again. “You leave and you are guilty.”

  “What is the point of living here when I’m not even able to go shopping because they don’t serve murderers?” she asked and then sat up and pointed to the waitresses, “They’ve avoided our table more than five times even though we’ve made it obvious that we are ready to order. I didn’t expect this to be a walk in the park, me coming home, but I had at least hoped I would feel like I belonged somewhere again. There’s nowhere for me to call home now. Don’t you see that? I ruined my chances of that leaving and now this, this isn’t going make it better. Everyone hates me and mom-” she paused and dropped her head, unable to finish her sentence. She sniffled as she felt Sienna’s arm come around her body and she snapped out of it. “This isn’t home anymore. I know that now.”

  “Hey,” Daniel started, “This is always your home, Aus. That is final. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, this is your home regardless.”

  “It doesn’t feel like home,” Austin muttered, trying to rid the tears that were waiting for their newest debut.

  “You know it’s not the truth, Aus, and if you keep faith that this is where you’re supposed to be you can get through this and everything will work out okay,” Sienna told Austin confidently and looked over at the bar. “Right I’m going to go and grab a waitress. If they won’t come to us, I might as well drag the bitches over here myself.”

  Before she could get out of the booth, she saw two girls about to go past so she waited for them, but they were both whispering too loudly and not walking quick enough. “I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public if I had done that to another woman.” one of the girls said behind her hand, her eyes on Austin.

  “I know right
? Some people are just so heartless,” the other girl said in agreement. “My mom said she can go down for murder for it.”

  “Good,” the other showed her agreement.

  Austin looked at her brothers and sister harder as she tried to not lose it; her eyes were watering with hurt, her throat burning with the encroaching onslaught. She was ready to admit defeat to everything and disappear for a lifetime and not just six years. “Can we leave now?” Austin asked them quietly, “Please?” She was desperate now.

  “I guess we better go,” Daniel said as he was beginning to feel just as uncomfortable now and respected his sister’s wishes. He didn’t want to keep his sister here when it was just destroying her more than ever.

  Sienna, however, was seething and wanted to wait for the girls to come back out so she could slam them for their idle gossiping, but Dean was pressing for her to get up and allow Austin to get out of the booth.

  “There she is!” Natasha shouted as she headed into the diner and charged towards Austin as she stood ready to flee. Within moments Austin went from looking up in confusion to hearing the resounding sound of a slap as it rang out against her cheek.

  Immediately, Austin lifted her hand up and cupped her face as heat spread across it and the tingle of the slap remained. She looked in horror at the woman as she stood almost hyperventilating with anger at her and Austin knew this day, this life, was about to get worse.

  “Natasha!” Tyler shouted as he followed his fiancée into the diner and immediately saw what she had done. He couldn’t even look at Austin anymore but, he wouldn’t condone her being publically attacked. “Stop this now!”

  “No!” Natasha bellowed back and turned to face Austin once more, “I’ll make sure you pay for everything you have coming to you! You killed my baby! You’re a murderer, Austin and I will make sure no good comes to you. You need to pay! Don’t expect freedom for long.”