A Fire That Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  “I thought if you saw things were going wrong you’d see it as bad omens and cancel renovating it, but you didn’t. You still went back there. I didn’t mean for it to burn down with her in it, but it just happened like that, and it wasn’t supposed to! This all just happened.” Natasha could feel her mentality slipping. She knew no one would believe her when she said she didn’t mean for the house to catch on fire. That was the God’s honest truth here.

  Tyler wasn’t buying it at all. He was enraged, in pain, and after blood now. “But that wasn’t just my house. Austin’s family was working on it too. It wasn’t just mine and Austin’s to take away! You could’ve killed all of us. You nearly killed Austin!” Tyler near enough bellowed at her.

  “But that house meant more than I did in your life. Like Austin always did and I hated it like I hate her!” Natasha snapped at him. “I have never felt more replaced than I did learning she was back! I saw the way you became, how all you wanted was to see her. She came back and everything changed.”

  Tyler was almost seeing red as he listened to her ever word carefully. “Austin had every right to come back to this town. This is her home and six years shouldn’t matter. She had to almost die to get her own mother to love her again. That’s on you too, Natasha. How is that fair?”

  And just like that, Natasha lost the victim act and reacted how Tyler had hoped. “She deserved it! She ran, why should she be the one to get easy absolution when she was the one that ran away without an explanation?!”

  Tyler’s surroundings came back to him all of a sudden and he looked around at everyone as they stood watching. Point Arena residents were once again rendered silent by an outbreak of hysteria, but this time no one was near death. They were out to gather the newest town gossip and Tyler decided to give them what they were looking for. “I hope you all heard what really went down. So you can all finally gossip and hate the right person. You all made Austin feel like a monster, not serving her, speaking about her behind her back and all on hearsay! I thought this town was better than this, but you just proved we are nothing but hypocritical assholes!” he saw everyone begin to look guilty, but the images of Austin in the hospital didn’t relinquish forgiveness for him. “I’m as bad, if not worse, but I’ve lost more than anybody and all because of one woman. So you can have her. Natasha Truman is a liar and an arsonist. Hell she’s a fucking murderer too and someone that deserves everything that is coming to her.” He looked at Natasha as she stood crying and Tyler couldn’t feel any sympathy for her. “You now have a foolproof and legit reason to gossip now!”

  “I can’t believe you would do that to me,” Natasha sobbed at him, covering her face in embarrassment. “We were supposed to be married and happy now if it wasn’t for Austin.”

  “Thank fuck for Austin,” Tyler cut into her sentence happily and he felt absolute triumph as he saw the cop car turning up outside. Tyler acted on his ever emotion, “Natasha Truman, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Austin Pearson and the assault of Austin Pearson in 2006. You are also under arrest for property damage and arson. You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say will b-”

  “Tyler,” Natasha interrupted as she began to sob, “I won’t survive in jail and you know that!”

  “You should have thought about that before you decided to sabotage that house and push a pregnant woman. Your actions always have a way of coming back to bite you in the ass.” Tyler told her with no remorse as he allowed the officers from his precinct to come over to the pair and take Natasha away.

  He just watched as a part of his life devastatingly and very publicly ended. However, Tyler felt free for the first time in years as he watched the police car leave and jumped in his own car.

  ***

  Tyler had driven like a bat out of hell to make it to the police station, he had alerted Robert, Natasha’s father, to their newest convict that needed processing. Apparently, seeing Natasha wasn’t what he had expected.

  “I am not locking my daughter up,” Natasha’s father argued as Tyler walked in with Natasha in cuffs. “That’s practically barbaric.”

  “Well it’s a good thing I’m locking her up then isn’t it?” Tyler asked back rhetorically. As he went to book her, Robert stepped in to stop him. He cowered as Tyler gave him a fierce look of warning. “I wouldn’t dare if I were you.” Tyler replied with a tone so low it screamed danger. “If you prevent the course of justice I will have your badge so quick you won’t know what’s hit you.”

  Trying to rustle up some power, Robert ignored the other officers in the room and stood his ground, “You do that, and I will make sure you lose your job as well, Tyler. I don’t care who you are to my daughter, I will make sure no one ever touches you.”

  “Go for it,” Tyler dared, not caring about his job. There were other matters here and getting justice served for Austin was one of them. “It’ll be a felony against you if you don’t do this,” Tyler threatened, his tone hard and unwavering. “I will make sure you go down for stopping this.”

  “Tyler,” Natasha sobbed, trying to fight him off of her. The unfamiliarity of being on this side of the law scared her. She had some idea what was going to come from this – disappointment, humiliation, condemnation. This wasn’t a matter of being drunk and disorderly, or stealing from the local grocery store. This was a real matter of life and death.

  “I am going to process you and then you are going in the lock up,” Tyler told her, his tone tiring out on him with exasperation and all he wanted was Natasha locked up and out of his sight.

  “Tyler,” Jeremy, one of the newest cops, stepped in. He had been a friend of his in high school, was also close with Austin during that time and had taken his time to find a career path he wanted. Now he was here, he was going to prove himself. “I’ve got this sorted. You don’t need to worry about this. I’m sure we can handle it.”

  Releasing Natasha, he allowed Jeremy to take over and he looked to Robert, “I don’t want to hear you even so much as interrupted her being booked into the system.” He looked around the office and approached one of the guys that had been there as long as he had, “Hey, Steve, I need you to do me a favor.”

  “Sure, Tyler, what is it?” he asked, frowning a little as he noticing how the stress seemed to be aging Tyler’s appearance. He had been one of the longest running officers and was more than a little friendly with the Armstrong, Pearson and Truman families.

  “I need your help building this case,” Tyler hated requesting a man so known in Point Arena to take on this task, but he trusted Steve and he needed to trust someone that would do what is right. “Everything on the fire at the house the other night needs to be logged along with the confession from Natasha.”

  “Is that all?” he asked doubtful, standing up ready to help out.

  Tyler ran a hand round his neck and sighed, “I need you to pull Austin Pearson’s medical records and get a confession from Natasha about the night that Austin was seen at the local ER for a miscarriage. I’m going to email a list of people that are character witnesses to her confession earlier, but I want this case sealed tight.”

  “I can’t believe what’s happened, Tyler,” Steve commented disappointedly, “But I am ready to get this all straightened out and help however I can.”

  “Thanks,” Tyler said appreciatively and then left so he could check on Natasha getting booked. He was pleased when he saw her complying and her father remaining on the sidelines, clearly calling around for professional aid.

  Looking up, Natasha’s eyes were darkened and filled with tears, “I hate you for doing this to me.”

  Tyler chuckled. He couldn’t believe it had taken so much time and heartbreak for him to see her like this. “Well it’s a good thing that I hate you for what you’ve done,” he saw the words hit her but he was void of emotions towards her. He was completely spent. “I have never been more disappointed and embarrassed of being a part of a family than I am right now. I can’t believe what you’ve become, Ta
sha.”

  “She deserved it,” Natasha snapped at Tyler and saw that was the final straw. She watched him remain silent and just leave her behind, ignoring everyone entirely as he left. Apparently the guilty sang like canaries.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  AUSTIN was giving up at that moment. Kept in the confines of the hospital, dosed up on various medications was finally tiring her out completely. The last five days had just about been unbearable. She had slept through most of it, but today her mind just would not switch off. She kept going over multiple thoughts – Tyler, Natasha, the house, that night she lost it all.

  She had long since forgotten about the sun streaming in, the magazines her sister had brought by, the books her brothers had brought in. Her mind was in a free fall and she dangerously close to slamming into the ground with brute force. Her mind was mess of thoughts and she wished for nothing more than to be free of them right now. That or be free of this life.

  “Knock, knock,” Tyler called out as he tried to break her reverie. “Want a visitor?”

  Giving him a bright smile, Austin nodded and pushed herself up a little, but admitted defeat promptly after. “Trying to impress a girl?” she asked as she eyed the bouquet of flowers in his hands.

  “Oh, well they’re your favorites,” Tyler told her and then halted, shaking his head. “Were, they were your favorites. You’ve probably changed your mind by now.”

  Austin smiled at his back tracking, “Gerberas, sunflowers, forget-me-not’s,” She started and looked at the flowers in front of her. “Baby’s breaths,” she let her gaze raise to meet his and gave him a small reassuring smile. She hated how nervous he appeared to be.

  “Your favorites haven’t changed,” he told her and she laughed a little. “I shoulda guessed. You really haven’t changed at all.”

  Giving a little smile she shrugged, “So what brings you back here? I haven’t seen you around in the last couple of days.”

  “I’ve been busy,” he told her and sat down on the end of her bed. “I know your mom and dad will be back in a moment, but I wanted to tell you myself that Natasha’s now in custody,” Tyler leaned back into the footboard of the bed feeling wiped out from all of the emotions that trickled through his system. “She admitted it all and I booked her.”

  “Your own fiancée?” Austin question dubiously.

  “Ex,” Tyler corrected with a shrug. “She got what she deserved after lying for so long.”

  Austin felt bad immediately, “Tyler,” she began, “I really didn’t intend for this to happen when I called Tom to ask him if I could come back.”

  Tyler smiled to repress the unhappy feeling in him, “If you hadn’t, I would’ve married a liar.”

  “But you wouldn’t have known that,” Austin countered his response.

  “Ah, but your brother would have,” Tyler told Austin knowingly. “I would have been a fool in his eyes, if not everybody else’s.”

  “I never wanted you to feel like a fool,” Austin told him honestly as she sat up a little more. “That was never my intention.”

  “I know,” he told her with a smile, “Things just turn out this way sometimes.”

  Nodding, Austin gulped deeply, “Everything happens for a reason.”

  “Is that what you’ve told yourself for the past six years?” Tyler asked her with a raised brow. “Is there a reason why I neglected you like I did, or why I allowed Natasha have such a huge role in controlling the outcome of our relationship? Or, fuck, how she managed to kill our baby and you ran as a reason? How about why she had to lie to me and make me believe that she was pregnant?”

  “How do you know she wasn’t actually pregnant?” Austin asked, not sure if she wanted to believe fully that Natasha had faked it all.

  “Well between your brother pointing out the medical records and Natasha screaming it at me in the middle of the street I think it’s safe to draw those conclusions,” Tyler told her with sarcasm in his tone.

  “I’m gonna kill him,” Austin grumbled as she looked up to the ceiling.

  “Kill who?” Tyler asked, and he watched her look at him as though to say she wasn’t going to tell. “C’mon, Aust, kill who?”

  “Tom,” she told him and sighed. “The night Natasha slapped me in the diner and you moved the wedding date forward, he decided he could very well get the hospital records from here and prove her to be a liar and I told him not to.”

  Tyler frowned, “Why would you do that?”

  “Because you moving that date forward proved to everyone who you really loved,” Austin looked down at her hands as the tears came and fell. “I didn’t see there being a point anymore.”

  “I was lashing out,” Tyler admitted shamefully. “I was grieving and angry and trying to save face, but in the end I did more damage and I can’t stop myself from feeling like I’m losing you again.”

  Austin laughed a little, “Sad thing is, Tyler, you won’t ever lose me.” She looked at him with sad eyes and bit her lip before talking. “I drowned myself in work to fill the void in me. That’s why I became so successful, because I didn’t want free time in my life when all I could think about was you and the baby we had made. I couldn’t stop thinking about my family here and all of the things I had given up,” she dropped her gaze once more and could feel the tingle of tears in her eyes as they crept up. “I didn’t mean to run away so cowardly, but I really thought you wanted her, and when I came back and saw you together with her, it cemented that feeling.”

  “Believe me, Aus, every year on your birthday, on the day you ran, on our anniversary, I hid myself away in the gym so no one could see me or speak to me. I’ve always been the man that lost everything and that stigma never left and I’m glad it didn’t.”

  “Why?” Austin asked as she finally looked up enough to study his features. “Why would you be glad for something like that?”

  Tyler smiled at her, “Because everyone still knew who I was still in love with.”

  Austin dropped her gaze down to her lap, “That still shocks me,” she replied in a quiet tone.

  “Why does it?” Tyler asked her incredulously, “We were the ‘it’ couple.”

  Austin wiped the tears away as she tried to calm down, “I wished to God I never ran, I wished I had never chosen to leave you, Tyler. I was selfish an-and-”

  “And hurting,” Tyler finished for her. “You had every right to run because I was the one that made you feel so lonely, and I helped allow Natasha to spread her lies and make you think that things were more than they were. I was never attracted to her, never. It was purely platonic.”

  “Wasn’t really though, was it?” Austin asked him suspiciously.

  “She was the nearest thing to latch onto after you left. I kept her at arm’s length just hoping you would come home and when you never did, I knew I couldn’t just sit around. I couldn’t find you because you didn’t want to be found, and that also meant you were never coming home. I gave in too easy. Looking back, I moved on for all the wrong reasons. If I loved her as much as I thought I wouldn’t be here.”

  Austin didn’t have anything to say. She just let the last six years creep over her and consume her. She remembered how she wished she had Tyler to sweep away the pain; how she wished he would just hold her through the night. She wanted to hear his voice, feel his love, and now she had it, it was getting to be an addiction that she was craving. An addiction she didn’t want to fall for again.

  “What’s on that pretty little mind?” Tyler asked her as moments later she remained just as quiet. “It’s dangerous when you get quiet.”

  Smiling a little, she looked at him, and as she spoke dropped her sight down to her hands again, as though it was an instinctual comfort spot. “I just realized something,” Austin started and picked at the tape around her IV. “I mean, right at this moment that is. I just realized something really important to me.”

  “What’s that?” Tyler asked her as he moved to get comfortable.

  “If that ni
ght had been it,” she shrugged a little, “At least I would have told you the truth at long last. Even if you hadn’t believed me, I would’ve finally have gotten that off of my chest.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t die because it finally hit me that I had so many regrets, as I watched Tom and Dean run into the house I just had to follow. I had to save you to make sure you really got out,” He looked at her as his own emotions began to take over. He was still so upset and full of regret, so full of confusion and love. “I ran from the house before the fire broke out because everything made sense. I knew you weren’t sick or a monster, Austin, but where my head was a week ago, is not where my head is right now.”

  “Where is your head now?” Austin asked almost fearfully.

  “With you,” Tyler replied with a small smile as he felt a presence at the door. He turned to look and smiled as he saw a nurse standing there.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” she said as she stepped in a little. “Austin, I just thought I’d come and give you a heads up that your dressings need changing,” Nurse Alice spoke from the door way, “How’s the pain?”

  “Bearable,” Austin replied and she saw Alice pull a face, “It’s killing.”

  “You should know not to lie to me,” Alice scolded her sternly and smiled. “I’ll go sort out your meds and then we’ll get you changed and comfortable.”

  “You’re so hard headed. I don’t think I have ever met a more stubborn woman than you, well apart from your mother,” Tyler teased her as he realized again Austin was still the same Austin that she had always been.

  “Old habits die hard,” Austin replied truthfully.

  “Right,” Tyler huffed as he looked around uncomfortably. “I’ll leave you to it then,” Tyler told her and got up and gave her a kiss on her forehead. He felt like he had no right to be here longer than he was. “Your family will be here soon, but once the bandages are changed you should get some sleep, you look exhausted.”

  Austin watched as Tyler went to leave and she felt lonely instantly. “Tyler?” she called out to him quietly. She thought it had been inaudible, but Tyler paused to turn to her. “Can you stay a little while?” she asked him and then looked down at her hands nervously. “Please?”