A Fire That Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  “Tyler!” Tanya cried after her son as he ran without an ounce of fear of getting killed. She felt James, her husband, grab her by her arms as she tried to run after him, he held her back knowing they didn’t stand a chance of stopping him. “Tyler!” she yelled out in a sob as she watched her son cover his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket and entered the building as it sat adorned in flames before them.

  “He’ll be okay,” James vowed as he watched the scene in front of him. He took his wife in his arms as she turned to bury her face in his chest. He just needed to keep faith alive for everyone. He had to believe that this wasn’t his son’s time to die. “He’ll be okay, Tanya. He knows what he’s doing.”

  Tom and Dean felt their rescue mission come to a halt the moment they were confronted with the burning mess before them. The house was consumed with so much in fire there was only one conclusion to this situation – anyone trying to contemplate an exit would not have been able to get through the fire unhurt. They knew that Austin must have been disorientated and confused because otherwise she would have been outside with them or at home none the wiser to any of this.

  Tyler ran to where he and Austin had last argued, dodging the flames that were attracted to him, without a second thought, still fully aware of the stunned bystanders. He was met with an angry red blaze, so hot that he could feel his entire body sweating out in repulsion. He cast his gaze around the room trying to find her, hoping that she would be standing in a corner waiting for her rescue, but she wasn’t. He could hear Tom and Dean desperately doing the same but, coming up empty in their search of the other rooms.

  Moving in slightly, he caught a glimpse of her face down on the floor, the flames slowly starting to take over her body, sticking to her side, tarnishing her with soot and orange licks of fire. “I’ve found her!” Tyler managed to yell out and get the brothers attention, “She’s over here!” he continued as he bolted for her and immediately took of his jacket and put it over her to smother the flames that were sticking to her. He gathered her lifeless body in his arms without much thought and turned to go back the way he had come, but just as he took the relevant steps the fire burst up and made him step back unsteadily. He looked over the flames to where Tom and Dean stood as they watched in equal horror and knew that survival was getting increasingly slim.

  Snapping to life the brothers quickly looked for a new way out. They were both dazed by the image of Tyler rescuing Austin, but now it was about them all rescuing her. This was definitely a case of do or die – more for Tyler and their sister rather than themselves, but they were all caught up in this.

  “Go to your right, Tyler, there’s a way out there!” Tom coughed as he watched in revulsion at how deadly this was getting for them.

  “If you’re quick enough you should be fine before the room caves in,” Dean shouted coarsely as he looked to where his brother was guiding Tyler. He looked up at the fire covered ceiling praying it would hold long enough for them to get Austin to the help outside.

  “Go!” Tyler told them, “Get out; I’m right behind you!” Tyler knew that he would make it out of this house with Austin in his arms, not in a body bag. His adrenaline rush had him fighting strong and he refused to lose a moment to find repentance for them both.

  Everyone held their breaths as Dean came out coughing heavily as he finally managed to draw in purer, cleaner air. Likewise, they all saw Tom do the same. They all worried when Tyler and Austin didn’t come out right behind them. Tension rose at that moment and Tanya’s hysteria escalated for her son’s welfare. She took a glimpse at Jane who stood alone looking almost catatonic to the situation bestowed upon them all, her other two children nowhere in sight right now.

  Then Tyler ran out in a heroic way, Austin hung limply in his arms, eyes closed, body blackened. He had one aim for her now, which was to get Austin as far from the house before he contemplated putting her down and then work on getting his lungs to clear. He didn’t care for himself much right now; he was so consumed with making sure his plight wasn’t to bring her out dead.

  “Lay her down here,” Sienna shouted as her and Daniel came running back from their parents’ house. They had gone to get a blanket to lay out on the yard out of the way of the fire. She watched Tyler run towards them, Austin still not moving. Her heart thudded hard against her chest. She didn’t want to lose her sister but, the fear was encroaching upon her like wildfire.

  “I don’t know if she’s breathing,” Tyler said as he had her in his arms, her body completely lifeless, her skin dirtied from the soot, from the smoke, her clothes partially burnt and melted to her skin.

  Tom fell down onto the cool grass next to his sister, still coughing and began to feel her neck for a pulse. He almost caved when he felt the blood rushing through her jugular and the pump of her heart was felt under his finger tips.

  “She’s breathing,” he told Tyler calmly to ease the man’s mind. He didn’t need much more than that right now. “Someone get a cool, moist towel now!” Tom called out making his medical knowledge apparent, he hated he had to use it for his sister, but he was glad he knew what to do in this situation.

  “Tom-” Tyler began as he thought to remove the clothes to clean the burns. He wanted to do anything to help Austin the best they could instead of just waiting on the paramedics. He needed to feel like he was still saving her because right now he felt useless after his feat of carrying her out.

  “You don’t douse burns like this with water, you don’t remove the clothes, and you don’t touch them. You cover them with a moist cloth to help eliminate infection and you keep checking the person’s pulse and breathing,” he rambled off at the men around him. He was falling into doctor mode to save his sanity. “Right now she’s got a pulse, it’s not great, but it’s not terrible. We just need an ambulance to get here now.” Tom was shutting down reality and focusing on what he could and that was his work. If he stepped away from the situation enough he could handle it, otherwise he wouldn’t be any help to his sister. She deserved saviors, and she needed them.

  “I’ll get them,” Sienna said as she ran towards her parents’ house quickly. There were no words to explain her feelings right now and that scared her. She usually was so spot on with her emotions, it was what made her a fierce character, but not now.

  No one spoke as they waited. Tyler placed his hands on his head in frustration and in doing so it helped his breathing clear. He ignored his parents as he watched the one woman he loved never once open her eyes. “Is she okay?” Tyler suddenly asked as Sienna came back with wet cloths. Tyler was trying to keep hope alive that this was some horrible dream, but even he knew the longer he stared, the less likely it was a nightmare.

  “Tom,” Dean said as he stepped closer to his brother.

  “Tom, talk to us, what are we looking at?” Daniel asked as he watched, he had just looked at their mom who was standing on the sidelines with Tyler’s parents now and realized that although she was crying, she had distanced herself.

  “Tom?” Tyler pressed again nervously.

  “It’s not looking good!” Was all Tom finally shouted as everything got to be too much and the sirens burst into his hearing. He was overwhelmed. He felt his heart rate accelerate and his hands began to shake as he realized that Austin might not last from the shock that her burns would put on her body. He panicked feeling like this was his last sight of her alive.

  Everyone watched as fire fighters began to fight the blaze and as EMTs swarmed around Austin and tended to the three men that had ran into the building – each of which pushed off the attention. They all watched as they assessed Austin and fitted her with IVs, an oxygen mask, tested her responses and prepped her for the journey to the nearest hospital.

  It felt like forever, that everything took on a life of its own. Everyone watched the EMTs work, watched as the fire fighters tried to tame the wild flames that blew from the house and the police officers tried to get people to back away.

  Tyler felt revolted when he l
ooked at either the house or Austin, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Austin once they settled upon her. Nothing else seemed to matter as much as she did and he just sent prayer after prayer up that she would show a sign she was going to be okay.

  Then by some deed given by a higher deity he got his wish. Tyler felt like someone was looking down on them.

  “She’s coming to,” Tom spoke up as the EMTs worked on stabilizing her enough to move her. He hadn’t moved far, he had wanted to stay close and use his medical knowledge to his best advantage right at that moment. “Aussie, we’re here. We’re all here for you,” he spoke to her, hoping she could hear him so that she would have faith. “You’re going to okay. You just have to fight.”

  Opening her eyes, Austin found herself staring up at the starry sky, flashing lights to one side of her peripheral, a flickering orange to her other. She realized that she had made it but, she was unable to keep a hold of this gifted reality. Between the lights and disorientation, nothing else mattered. It was still impossibly hard to breathe and she heard commotion all around her. All the voices were muffled and muddled, all speaking in slow motion as they moved in equal speed. Her agitation only escalated between all of the engulfing stimuli and as she finally heard her name, heard Tom talking to her, she found herself admitting defeat. She gave in and closed her eyes again. Letting all of the colors disappear completely.

  “That’s a good sign right?” Tyler asked as he never tore his eyes off of Austin. He hated that she hadn’t responded to anyone calling her name but, he had to believe that her even coming too was a piece of hope.

  Tom nodded as he found himself pushed aside as the EMTs readied Austin to be moved and he drug Tyler back with him. If he couldn’t be close then no one else could. They looked like one of the crowd now, looking in on the gruesome end of this horror scene.

  As they started to move, Tom went with them. He had been the one that had stuck by Austin’s side through everything since she was back. His brothers and sister might be there for her now, but he was the one that had helped bring her back and he was going to be the one that kept by her side.

  “Someone needs to stay here and find out what the cause is,” Tom said as he stopped following the EMTs for a moment. He felt out of sorts, like he wasn’t a part of this reality completely. “I’ll keep you all up to date.”

  “Tom, we’ll be there as soon as we can,” Dean called out, “One of us will wait on the report and then will be with you. I don’t know about the others but I can’t stay away. I need to be there for her.”

  Sienna went towards Tom, “Keep us updated, Bro until we get there.” She called out as Tom nodded an affirmative and jumped into the ambulance and disappeared as the doors were closed.

  They all watched the ambulance’s lights glare on and the siren come to life as it left in haste. Everyone was just left to look around and watch as the burning building turned into a smoldering one.

  No one spoke, no one moved.

  Point Arena had become truly silent for once. There was no arguing; no whispers and the gossiping stopped for the first time in years.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  NATASHA stood shaking as she watched the chaos that was breaking out. She had watched how her fiancé had ran into a burning building for a woman she had tried to make him hate and she realized that whatever she did it wasn’t going to work.

  Tyler would always bound to Austin in some way regardless of external factors. There would be a part of them that would forever be bound and even she couldn’t stop that. Nothing broke their love. Not even a six year separation or trying to frame Austin as a murderer. Whatever happened, Tyler would always put Austin first and that was final.

  Slowly she began to back away, maneuvering through the crowds, making the burning shell of the house become more and more distant. Then, when the crowd was in front of her she turned and began to run, fleeing the scene. She ran away from the heat, from the noise, from the fears and she ran because she knew she had caused everything that most of the town had come to a standstill to watch.

  It was all her fault. She was the resident monster, not Austin.

  Without knocking, she ran into the house she had grown up in and ran to find her mother. Finding her in the kitchen she spoke without thought, she didn’t hesitate because she just needed to unburden her insanity and wrong doing onto someone. “I did it,” Natasha sobbed to her mother, her head falling in shame.

  Diane stopped cooking and turned to face her daughter, worried for what was going on. “Did what, Darling?” Diane asked as she watched her daughter grab a hold of the kitchen counter to steady herself completely. “Natasha, what is it?”

  Natasha looked at her mother and gulped. She could still see Austin’s lifeless form, Tyler’s devastated expression, and everyone looking on scared at the predicament Austin was now in. “I turned a heater up this morning before Tyler and Austin got there and I put a cloth over it. I knew they were done with that room, Tyler said so himself an-and, oh God,” Natasha sobbed as she realized the extent of her actions and her rambling became a constant lull of sobs and guilt riddled cries.

  Feeling lost, all of Natasha’s faults came at her with high velocity and she felt grief stricken that her high school jealousy had led her to this. That she had allowed jealousy to transcend into insanity. She had made everyone believe that Austin was the murderer in town when in actual fact she was. She was the monster for blaming Austin for things that had happened, for taking away Austin’s chance at happiness years before and now she was the monster that sabotaged the house enough for it to catch on fire, trapping Austin within in the process.

  “I wasn’t even pregnant!” Natasha sobbed loudly and looked at her mother. “I was jealous of Austin and it just happened and now look what I’ve done mom. I’m going to go to jail for this and I-I ca-can’t! I burnt the house down with Austin in it, Mom, but I can’t go to jail for it!”

  “Natasha, you listen to me right at this moment,” Diane said as she thought fast. She wasn’t letting her daughter go down when she obviously hadn’t told anyone else just yet. She was going to nip this in the bud before she got a chance to let it get out of hand. Her job in life was to protect her daughter and now was the time to do so properly.

  Mother’s prerogative clouded her sane judgment.

  “Mom,” Natasha sniffed knowing she had to tell the truth. Only the guilty run, right?

  “You tell no one of this. Not Tyler, not your father, no one,” Diane said as shook her daughter a little. She watched as Natasha began to break down again and she shook her again. “Repeat it, Tasha” Her mother said as her hands gripped her arms tighter to make her daughter comprehend that her actions had much larger repercussions than she had calculated.

  “I tell no one,” Natasha mumbled her words as the tears fell fresh again.

  Natasha now knew she had two secrets to take to the grave with her.

  And if Austin didn’t make it, then some would go to the grave sooner than she thought possible.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  THE Pearson siblings didn’t stop for no one once their feet touched base with the hospital. They ran towards where their brother had said he was, all with bated breath. They were fuelled by their sister’s current state of health and by the cause of the house fire. All of them knew this was dire and the cause of the house fire could still take her life from them all.

  “There he is,” Sienna almost shouted as she saw her brother sitting with his head in his hands.

  Rushing to their brother, he obviously felt their presence as he looked up, tired and conflicted with thoughts of what his sister was going through. He was quick to jump to his feet before them, “I don’t know anything.”

  “Nothing?” Sienna questioned, making a quick glance around to see if she could guess where Austin was in this maze of a hospital.

  He shook his head, “She was unstable and they wouldn’t let me help once I got to the hospital. I know nothing.” He put his
hands onto his head, opening his chest cavity to let out the frustrated breath into the air around him. His chest was still uncomfortable from the smoke inhalation, but with Austin’s life hanging on such a fine line, he couldn’t care less.

  “You got burnt?” Daniel asked as he saw the white bandage on his brother’s arm.

  “It’s nothing,” he said, deflecting their concern from him immediately. “One of the nurses I knew cleaned it and dressed it.” He let his arms drop, “Any news on the fire?”

  That one question seemed to suck even more air out of the room.

  “They found the cause,” Dean spoke taking it upon himself to be the big brother for them all, to be the strong leader. “Someone covered one of the heaters that was drying the wallpaper in the main bedroom. It caught fire and spread from there.”

  Tom, with a furrowed brow and look of confusion, “Someone covered one of the heaters?” he saw them nod, “What the fuck?”

  “More like who the fuck?” Daniel muttered with a tone of fury.

  “I have an idea already,” Tom bit into the mental image of his culprit and she was the wicked bitch of Point Arena. If he was right and Natasha had even an inkling of thought to do this, he would personally kill her.

  “We can’t get angry now. Austin needs us to keep a level head and not get distracted,” Dean calmed the situation instantly, not ready to let them get into a heated argument in the middle of a hospital. “There is still an ongoing investigation and as soon as the fire chief knows more, I will know, we all will.”

  “Fine,” Tom attempted to defuse his mood. “What do we do about mom now?”

  Sienna, near tears, looked to Tom, “Mom won’t listen and she just locked herself in the house. She won’t listen to any one of us, Tom.”