The Geis: Awakening Part 17

He grabbed the door handle and jumped back, holding his hand. Taking off his jacket, he wrapped it around the handle. The door opened and flames shot into the air around Josh, sending a wave of heat that touched my skin like a sunburn. The fireball retreated, and smoke spilled out of the doorway. Josh staggered back from the heat and stumbled off the porch steps, choking on the smoke. I knelt next to him on the gra.s.s. Turning his hand over, I winced when I saw a red welt that stretched across his palm.

Scrambling to my feet, I ran to the kitchen door on the side of the house. Flames danced behind the window, and I swallowed a scream. The panic streaming through me couldn't just be mine. I could feel Zoey in the blood pumping through my veins. She was terrified.

"You can't go in there." Josh took out his cellphone with his uninjured hand. I got as close to the door as I dared while Josh told the dispatch my address.

"Zoey!" I yelled into the flames, frantic with fear. "Zoey, where are you?"

"Maybe she got outside." Josh cradled his hand to his chest, pulled me around back, and pointed me to the side of the house. I ran to the row of lilac bushes that Zoey and her friends pretended were fairy forts. If Zoey had come out of the house, the bushes would be the perfect place for her to hide. Branches whipped at my face and clothes. I brushed them aside and called for Zoey. A dark form huddled at the base of one of the giant bushes. I ran for the shadowed figure, only to find a pile of dead leaves, not a scared little girl. A strangled sob tore from my throat. Zoey didn't come out. She was still inside. I fought my way out of the bushes.

Josh came around the side of the house. He shook his head. "The back door is blocked."

A splintering crack split the air. I turned to the house as part of the roof collapsed. Where my parents' bedroom used to be, a hole gaped like an open wound. Dirt and dust joined the smoke as the flames rose higher.

My mind went numb. I didn't notice that Josh had come to stand by me, didn't register the siren wail of the fire truck, and didn't feel it when Josh wrapped his arms around me to shield me from the sight of my house burning to the ground. I looked over Josh's shoulder, thinking only of my sister inside that fiery inferno.

I wanted to scream and run after Zoey, but I couldn't even get through the front door.

"There's nothing you can do." Josh spoke in my ear.

I sank into him, my body limp and weak. Hot tears ran down my face, blurring my view of the fire that was s.n.a.t.c.hing my sister away from me.

Josh pushed me away and took his shirt off. Before I could ask what he was doing, he ran over to Mr. Hansen's hose. The corded muscles in his back tightened as he leaned over. He soaked the shirt and dropped it on the ground as he put his jacket back on over his bare torso. I realized that he was preparing to go inside.

"Josh-wait," I pleaded.

Then Rourke was there. He came from behind me, running with his unmistakable limp. He threw down his cane and s.n.a.t.c.hed up Josh's wet t-shirt without looking at either of us. He ran up the porch steps, holding the cloth over his mouth and nose. We stared in disbelief as Rourke disappeared, swallowed up in the smoke that poured from what was left of my front door.

"Rourke!" I yelled. He couldn't go into the house. It was suicide.

Josh took my hand and we faced the house.

Fire engulfed the kitchen-Mom's kitchen, where she made candied popcorn and her triple-chocolate fudge. I thought of my bedroom. My books, my journal, the Raggedy Ann doll-all of them lost in the flames. And Zoey. I refused to complete the thought.

A flurry of activity swarmed around us. Two firefighters pulled a hose from the truck, and another, dressed in protective gear, went in through the front door. Next to us, a man with a fire department insignia on his shirtsleeve asked me if I wanted to sit down.

"I'm Chief Carson," the firefighter said. "Do you know if there is anyone inside?"

Josh told him that Rourke had gone in after Zoey, but my eyes never left the front door.

Rourke didn't come out. The minutes ticked by, and my jaw ached from clenching it. Josh held on to my hand, and I squeezed it like it was a lifeline. I berated myself for leaving Zoey home alone. I couldn't bear it if something happened to her. Was it even possible for anyone to endure the heat and smoke for that long?

A shout went up from behind us, and I strained to see through the doorway. The firefighter burst through the flames. He struggled with his oxygen mask, and a police officer ran to his a.s.sistance. I shuddered when I saw his empty arms.

A police officer put a blanket around my shoulders, and I realized that I had been shivering. I recognized him as Officer Ba.s.sett, the policeman who had been at Mrs. Saddlebury's house. "Hang in there, little lady," he said before darting off again.

I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that Rourke would find Zoey. A fresh breeze blew the smoke away from my face. I opened my eyes.

A form filled the frame, surrounded by swirling smoke. Rourke staggered down the steps with a limp Zoey curled in his arms. Her face was completely covered with Josh's shirt. The numbness shattered and I tried to run forward, but strong arms held me back.

Soot stained Zoey's skin and clothes black. Paramedics pulled the shirt from her face as she lay, unmoving, on the cold ground. It didn't look like she was breathing. How could this have happened? I screamed and tried to run to her again, tears pouring down my face, but those arms held me fast.

A cough momentarily stopped the commotion. Zoey's chest rose and fell again as she tried to cough the smoke out of her lungs. When the medics saw that she was breathing, they began moving even faster, one fastening an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth while the other began to check her for other injuries. Something lumpy bulged underneath Zoey's shirt, and she brought out a smashed, but intact, pink dog. I laughed. Hot tears still streaked down my face, and I wanted to hug both Zoey and the stupid stuffed animal.

Finally, they laid her on a stretcher, and I was allowed to go to her. She whimpered and held up her arm. A swath of red spiraled from her wrist to her elbow. I stood next to her and stroked her face while the paramedics strapped her in.

A paramedic treated Josh's hand and checked me over for injuries. Rourke was bent over with his hands on his knees. His breathing was labored, and I watched as he drew in an impossibly long, drawn-out breath.

"I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't looking at it," Officer Ba.s.sett was saying as he threw another blanket over Rourke's shoulders. "Chief, come check this out."

Chief Carson ended his conversation with Mr. Hansen and walked over to us. He held Rourke's arm up for a better look, then took in Rourke's smoldering jeans and shoes. "Well I'll be," he said. "You dumb lucky son of a-"

"Look at his clothes." Officer Ba.s.sett held up what was left of Rourke's sleeve.

Rourke's clothing was nearly burned right off of him, but his skin and hair weren't even singed. I couldn't believe that he could be exposed to that kind of heat and not get burned. He saw me looking at him and straightened, meeting my gaze.

Thank you, I signed, my message carrying through the crowd of paramedics.

Rourke looked me in the eye. You're welcome, he signed, cupping the word in his hand.

I didn't know if I was allowed to go in the ambulance with Zoey, but I climbed in before anyone could tell me otherwise.

"I was so scared, 'Kayla." Her voice was small and raspy, and I leaned over her to hear her, stroking her hair with my fingers. My hand caught on something solid. I turned Zoey's head. My aquamarine comb was threaded in her hair. I pulled it out and turned it over in my hand. Relief at having Zoey safe ran over me like a chill. I laced the comb back through my hair.

"I know, Squit. I was scared, too. Everything's going to be fine now." I looked out the back of the ambulance at the sh.e.l.l of our house. The fire was mostly out now, and the firefighters were still hosing it down. A lump formed in my throat as the reality of everything hit me. My house had burned to the ground, and my sister had almost been taken away from me forever. Thank goodness Mom had the baby with her. The thought of Benji in the burning house gave me chills.

"Did the ziti catch on fire?" I asked Zoey.

"No, I turned it off like you told me."

Her answer caught me by surprise. "Then how did the fire start?"

"I don't know. I turned off the stove and then played a computer game while I was waiting for you."

"You were in the living room when the fire started?"

"I didn't know there was a fire. Lizard told me to hide, and when the lady came I hid under the bed."

"What lady?"

"The lady with white hair. I hid before she saw me."

All the blood drained from my face. Mrs. Saddlebury had been in my home? The thought made my skin crawl, and something else stirred in my memory. When I'd stopped at the second-hand store with Aunt Avril, the owner remembered Mrs. Saddlebury purchasing a bunch of aquamarine. Was it a coincidence that I had found the comb at the spring soon afterward?

"Oww, it hurts. I want Mom." Zoey tried to see where the paramedics had propped her arm.

"I know." I dreaded seeing my parents. What would they say when they found out I'd left Zoey alone? How could I face my parents and tell them the house had caught on fire? Zoey closed her eyes and drifted in and out of sleep as the ambulance siren carved a path for us down Washington Street.

"I waited for him to come," she whispered.

I leaned closer. Surely I had heard her wrong. "What did you say?"

"I knew he would come." Her words were slurred.

I cupped Zoey's face with my hands, forcing her to focus. "Knew who would come, Zoey?"

"Rourke." She smiled, the white of her teeth standing out against her soot-blackened skin. "Lizard told me Rourke would come."

I walked down the main street, away from the police station and away from probing questions and pitying eyes. The streets were quiet in the middle of the morning. I enjoyed the solitude, grateful that Mom had agreed that I could miss school-I didn't have to go back until Monday.

Snow clouds crawled across the tops of the mountains, and the air smelled cold and sharp with the coming of winter. I rubbed my arms for warmth and decided that I liked the pain of the cold on my skin.

I had no coat to wear anyway.

The house was a total loss. Besides the clothes I was wearing, the only things I had left were the dance bag and backpack I had left in Josh's car. The police had already determined that the fire had started in the upstairs hallway-it wasn't accidental. Someone had started the fire.

The shock on Mom and Dad's faces when they'd found out that it was arson stuck like an afterimage in my mind.

"McKayla, Zoey, are you alright?" Mom had run to Zoey's bed, her face drawn and tight, looking even paler in the fluorescent lighting. Zoey had hugged her with her un-bandaged arm. Dad took me in his arms and held me. I wished that I could stay there in his loving embrace, away from the danger that lurked outside of the hospital.

"What happened?"

I dreaded telling them my part in the disaster, but I knew it had to be done. "I left Zoey home alone and ran to Christa's. I was only gone a few minutes, but when I came back, the house was on fire."

To my surprise, Mom reached for my hand, squeezing it in hers.

"You must have been terrified."

Having the support of my parents gave me the courage to tell the rest of the story. I told them how Rourke had come and entered the burning house, how he had searched through the fire until he found Zoey, hiding under the bed. And, even though I didn't want to, I repeated what Zoey had said about Mrs. Saddlebury being in the house while Zoey was alone.

"Zoey, are you sure you saw someone in the house?" Mom stroked Zoey's forehead.

Zoey lay in the big hospital bed, streaks of soot still smearing her little face. "Yes. She was calling my name."

"Did you tell the police?" Dad pulled away from me and paced the floor.

"No, Zoey told me on the way to the hospital."

Dad kneeled on the floor next to Zoey's bed. "Zoey, this is important."

Zoey looked at Dad with wide eyes, and I prayed that she wouldn't start crying again.

"Did you accidentally start a fire? It's ok to tell me-I won't get mad."

Zoey's lower lip jutted out. "I didn't start a fire, Daddy."

Dad left the room, and I saw him talking to Officer Ba.s.sett in the hallway.

Our parents hadn't paid attention to Zoey's claims that the lizard had told her to hide. They'd brushed it off as her overactive imagination. When I'd had the chance, I'd asked Zoey more about the lizard's role in her rescue. What she'd told me confused me even more. Mrs. Saddlebury had found Zoey hiding under the bed, but she hadn't touched her. Zoey said her head had started hurting, and that the lizard had stood between her and the woman. That's when the fire had started.

I came to the end of the sidewalk and took a right turn, toward the mountains. I didn't know what to think. Zoey was notorious for making up stories and even believing in them. I couldn't see how the lizard could have warned Zoey. And how did Rourke know that Zoey was in danger?

We'd spent the night in Aunt Avril's apartment, and the next morning, after Zoey had been released from the hospital, we had gone to the police station and told them everything we'd known. Zoey had told them about Mrs. Saddlebury, and how she had been in the house.

I'd told the police about the times I had seen Mrs. Saddlebury-how she had acted so strangely when I'd first met her, and the times that I had seen her close to Zoey. Aunt Avril hadn't said anything, she'd just listened to our story.

"I should have paid more attention at the feis when she had Zoey with her," Mom had said.

We all wanted a part of the blame. Dad said he should have installed that security system he had been meaning to get. Mom wished that she hadn't left us home alone. And I wondered if things would have turned out differently if I had taken Zoey with me when I'd left the house.

What bothered me most was that someone was willing to hurt, and even kill, my little sister. The wind picked up, and I shivered in the cold. I realized that I had been walking toward the canyon where we'd hiked to the Intermittent Spring. I picked up my pace, wanting to leave the town behind and be in the solitude of the mountains.

When I closed my eyes, the image of Rourke holding Zoey, the flames pouring out of the doorway of my house behind him, filled my mind. He'd come out of nowhere and pulled her from the building. Reason said that he should have been burned, or even killed. But he wasn't.

Gravel crunched behind me, and I jumped. My escape from everyone had left me alone. Suddenly, it didn't seem like a good idea. A car came into view, and I let out a slow breath. Aunt Avril sat behind the wheel, her hair bushy and standing out all over on top of her head.

I went over to the side of the road and watched as she got out of her car. She brought a coat, one I didn't recognize, and draped it over my shoulders. Her own cloak billowed around her like a cape, and she wore her bulky necklace on the outside of it.

"Your mom told me you went for a walk. I hope you don't mind if I join you," Aunt Avril said, motioning to a trail that went straight up the hill behind me. "Are you hiking to the star in this weather?"

I had never hiked to the man-made star on the side of the mountain. It looked out over the valley from the hilltop closest to town. "I didn't know this was the way to the star." I shivered.

The trail was steep, and even though there were patches of snow left from a few weeks ago, the ground was dry. I started up the hill, stumbling once and sc.r.a.ping my knee. It somehow felt satisfying to feel physical pain.

The star was a simple wooden frame filled with white rocks. I don't know what I'd expected-I guess I'd thought that someone had painted a giant star on the mountainside-but the white rocks made sense.

I looked out over Afton. From this vantage point, I could see across the valley to where the hills rolled into more mountains, now obscured by the snow clouds. A road ran from one end of the valley to the other. Houses and square patches of fields dotted the landscape. It reminded me of the little play car mat Mom had already bought for Benji. I wondered if it was lost in the fire.

Aunt Avril found a bare patch of ground and motioned for me to sit down next to her.

"Why would Mrs. Saddlebury light our house on fire?" I said.

Aunt Avril looked at me, her eyes questioning whether or not I wanted her to tell me. My heart pounded, and I flexed my fingers for circulation. I wasn't sure what Aunt Avril would say, but I needed to understand what was happening.

I bit my lip and nodded for Aunt Avril to continue.

"The police won't let me on site to discover what truly happened, but I was able to get close enough to the house to get an idea. The woman known as Mrs. Saddlebury did, indeed, start the fire."

I wrapped my arms around my knees and rocked back and forth. A mixture of relief and dread washed over me.

Aunt Avril stopped talking and c.o.c.ked her head as if she were listening for something. "Quite right, Theron. McKayla dear, what happened to the talisman I gave you?"

I didn't know what she meant at first, but then I remembered the Celtic knot that Mom tried to take to Goodwill. "I don't know for sure. Mom wanted to donate it to charity, but I wouldn't let her. It was probably lost in the fire."

"Hmm. The talisman is a protection against evil spirits."

"Evil spirits, like ghosts?"

"Remember how I told you that Mrs. Saddlebury isn't what she appears to be? I've tracked this creature for over ten years now, but she is always a step ahead of me. In Celtic mythology there is a creature that is very much like this one. I believe that Mrs. Saddlebury is a banshee."