Burning Down the House
It seemed like we waited forever for Kevin and Max to come back to our suite. In that time both Howie and AJ joined Brian and I around the table. We were all twiddling thumbs and nervously tapping our fingers.
“It’s probably nothing.”
I looked over at Howie, “Seriously dude? It’s something and whatever it is, it’s not good.”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“Yeah we do. It’s not like Kevin went over to Max’s to ask him if he wanted to hug a puppy. Something bad happened. Oh God, this waiting is killing me!” I got up and moved to the door and was about to open it when Max and Kevin walked through. “It’s about time! What the hell happened, Kevin?”
Why was it sometimes he seemed so much bigger than I was and other times we were about the same height? This was one of those times that I felt like he was towering above me. He glanced over at Max to get the okay to tell me what happened. When Max nodded he then looked down and me and placed a hand on my shoulder, “There’s been a fire buddy.”
“Fire?” I could barely speak. Flashbacks of that night came at me all at once. The flames, the smoke, and my mother lying dead on the floor were all I saw when I looked up at Kevin.
“The police called my mom to let her know. The Bed and Breakfast went up in flames this morning.”
“What?” I didn’t believe any of this. “How?”
“The fire police don’t have any answers yet. They are investigating the cause.”
“Was anyone hurt?” I thought about the possibility of a skeleton crew at the house. Sometimes even when we were away, my father would hire a few people to maintain the house and make it seem like someone was there.
“They don’t think anyone was inside.”
I looked over at Max, “This has to do with me, doesn’t it?”
“There’s no real way of knowing until I do some poking around, but my guess is yes.”
Kevin and Brian both shot Max a look. I knew what they were thinking because I had the same thought. Which was, could you please learn how to lie to this child? Hasn’t he been through enough?
As if to add fuel to that fire, he continued, “Now that he has found the Bed and Breakfast you can never go back there Nick, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t understand why this is all happening to me.” I found myself sitting down. I don’t even remember walking towards a chair. Maybe I was guided by Brian who was sitting next to me. Everything was just turning into one big blur.
“What do we do now?” I heard someone ask Max. I wasn’t even really paying attention to who it was. The only thoughts in my head were memories of my childhood spent in the only place I ever really called home. Like helping my mom and dad paint the rooms with colors that I chose. Humming along as my mom and some of the hired cooks would make breakfast in the mornings. Playing in the backyard on the tire swing that my dad hung just for me, those were all just memories now.
“All of my things, my whole life was in that house.”
I felt Brian’s arm around me once again. “Things we can replace, they’re just things.”
I started crying, “Yeah, but they were my things. I don’t even know who I am anymore. That was the only thing I had left of me and now it’s gone.”
I was getting Brian’s shoulder all wet as he hugged me close to him. There was more talking and probably an answer to my question, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. Those people, whoever they were succeeded in breaking my spirit. I just wanted to go find them and let them kill me. This was all too much.
I felt myself going back there again, back to the first house. That fire when I was a kid. It was so intense. I really thought I was going to die. Flames were everywhere. The heat made me feel like my skin was going to boil right off. My mother lying dead on the floor as I tried to wake her up and then walking in to the hallway. I was picturing it all over again, but this time I was wide awake.
The hallway was so smoky I could barely see my hands in front of my face. I was trying to shield my eyes from the fire. The heat was burning my eyes. I was crying. I was so scared. I didn’t know where my dad was. There was only that one bad man who was with my mother.
They had been arguing about something. He scared me. She always told me to go to the bathroom when he came over and he came over a lot. I was young but I hated this man. There was something really bad about him. He was in the hallway with me. I couldn’t make out his face because of all the smoke, but I knew it was him because of his voice.
“Come here little Andrew, I’ll help you!” He said. He had an accent.
That’s when I walked back into my bedroom. I chose to go back into the fire instead of be helped by this man.
“Get back here you little brat!” He came to the door and started banging on it. Banging really loudly and I just went over to my mom and tried to wake her again...
“Tomorrow, I have it all worked out.” I looked up to the sound of Max’s voice.
“Okay.”
“Remember what I said.” He was talking to Kevin and then he glanced over at me.
“It’ll be okay,” He smiled at me and then left.
I had no clue what he was talking about. After he walked out the door, Kevin came and sat on the other side of me and he called Howie and AJ over as well. “We need to do exactly what Max said.”
“And what was that?” I asked. Wow, I didn’t even sound like me. My voice was barely there.
“Weren’t you paying attention?” Kevin asked in his ‘I’m about to lecture you’ voice. When he saw the lost look on my face, his demeanor changed, “We’ll just take care of it. Why don’t you go lay down for a bit, little man? You look like you can use some sleep. I’m sure Brian won’t mind keeping you company.”
“Huh?” Yeah, I was out of it. They all looked at each other nervously. I was worrying them now.
“Come on Frack, let’s go inside.” Brian pulled me off of the chair and led me to his room. “Are you okay Nick?” He asked once we were all alone. “You can talk to me if you need to.”
I wanted to, but I was still in my room, trapped with my dead mother while the guy with the accent continued to bang on the door. “I must have locked it, but how?”
“What are you talking about?”
I ignored Brian and tried to picture what I did when I closed the door. “The chair that was by the desk, I used that to jam the door but it didn’t work.” He pushed his way into the room. The chair fell to the floor and I let out a small scream.
“Come out come out wherever you are Andrew…I know you’re in here somewhere.” He was standing by my mom. His boot was on top of my pig, so he kicked it out of the way. It went sailing under my bed.
The man was coughing as smoke was really beginning to make its way into the room. He stood right next to my mother as he called my name, “Andrew, do you want to burn up? Come out and let me get you out of here.” He tried sounding sincere but I knew otherwise.
I remember scooting as far back as I could under that desk. I was all the way against the back. I put my fist in my mouth to avoid letting him hear me cry. That’s when he bent down and…
“Saw me.”
“Saw you? Who saw you? Nick, you’re scaring me.”
He bent down on all fours to get a closer look and when he saw how scared I was, he smiled at me. “Gotcha!” he moved his hand in and pulled me out from under the desk by my foot.
“I tried to get away but I was too small. He had a grip on my ankle.”
I saw Brian move to the door and heard him call for his cousin to come in right away. Something was wrong with me. It was so weird. I felt like I was in some kind of trance. It was like watching a movie unfold. In one corner of the screen there was Brian and reality but in most of the screen there was my nightmare, alive and in person.
I kept kicking at him, but he just laughed. He pulled me past my mother and then picked me up in his arms and walked to the door. I bit his shoulder and he let out a yelp, dropping me to the floor. I hit my head on the ground and went to sleep.
“He probably thought I was dead.”
“I don’t know, he’s been just kind of saying random things like that.”
“Nick?” Kevin’s voice was in my ear but all I saw was myself, laying on the floor in my bedroom only about three feet away from my dead mother. The flames were really shooting up all around us.
“I felt the heat of the fire.”
He was shaking me now, by both shoulders, “Nick! Snap out of it! Can you hear me?”
I looked right at him, but I didn’t see Kevin. It was Max who was trying to wake me up. “Andrew, can you hear me?” He asked as he swept me up in his arms.
I placed my head on his shoulder and looked down at my mother one final time as we ran into the hallway.
“Mommy.”
Don’t look at her Andrew. We have to get out of here. Keep your eyes closed, it’ll be all right.”
We ran to the stairs and carefully made our way down. I was yelling out to my mother the entire time, but she wasn’t answering. I knew she wouldn’t because…
“She was dead.”
“Come on buddy…look at me.”
And I did, “She was dead and I couldn’t help her Kevin.”
He still had my shoulders in his arms as he was pretty much mid shake when my movie ended.
“Are you okay?” He asked silently.
I nodded at him. That’s when I saw just over his shoulder, Howie, Brian and AJ all looking freaked out by what just happened. I don’t blame them, I would be feeling the same way.
“I remembered the fire. The only reason I’m alive is because he thought I was dead. He dropped me and I hit my head. I probably was unconscious.”
“Are you talking about the people who are after you now?” AJ asked.
I nodded at him. “I remembered.” I paused for a few seconds, trying once again to come back to reality. “They must like fire.” I added.
“Do you know who it is then, the person who is responsible for all of this?”
I shook my head, “No, all I know is that he had an accent. I don’t know where he was from but it was definitely not here. Maybe he was Russian; it sounded like that type of an accent.”
“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
“I’m not sure. I couldn’t get a good picture of him in my mind.”
“Maybe we should call Max?” Howie asked.
“Don’t bother. He was there for this. He’s the one that saved me from the house.”
“He did?”
I nodded again. “Where did he go anyway?”
AJ answered this time, “He was going to try to find out what happened to the house. We need to stay right here until he tells us otherwise.”
“So, he went to Florida?”
“No, the storm has all the airports closed. He said he had a connection down there that would look into it. He just had to make some calls from a safer location just in case he was being traced.”
“He mentioned a plan, what plan?”
“How we’re going to get away without upsetting management or our families.”
I looked over at Brian, “Is that even possible?”
He shrugged back at me. “If anyone can make it work, I think Max would be that person. We just have to play along with whatever is being said.”
I was beginning to think he was right about that.
“Well, I know this all puts a damper on things, but it is still Christmas for a few more hours, why don’t we just go back into the living room, watch a movie and try to get our minds off things. What do you say Nicky?”
I smiled at Howie, “Yeah, okay. So, when is Max coming back? I mean did he actually leave the hotel?” My mind was way beyond Christmas. I needed to figure out who this man was and how to get to him before he hurt anyone else, in particularly my friends.
“He said he’d be back some point tomorrow and we shouldn’t do anything at all while he was gone. We aren’t even supposed to answer the phone.”
I nodded, knowing what I needed to do. I knew where the answers to all my questions were.
Max’s room.
