The Flames

Chapter Fourteen

"What, cat got your tongue?" he asked me. I stared stubbornly past him toward the door he came in. "Nothing? No questions?"

"Who are you?" I choked out. My throat was dry.

He grinned. "Now that's more like it. The answer? I'm the one who almost killed you."

The deli fire, I thought, but said instead, "Why did you knock me out and leave me in the truck, but bring my family inside?"

"Because, Cole, they are leaving..." he tilted his head back and forth, "...mm, relatively unharmed. Plus it was so much fun to watch you stumble around in the dark, blind as a bat."

I opened my mouth, but what exactly was going to come out is anyone's guess. He put his blood-caked finger up to my lips, leaned in close, and said, "No more questions. We've got lots to do." He untied me and left the room, locking the door before I could escape. The light shut off as soon as he was out.

Later that day, someone opened the door just wide enough to throw a filthy blanket into the room. The person said nothing, and all I could see of the person was their hand. It looked like an older man. You can tell a lot about a person by their hands.

I don't know how long I was in there. It could have been days, for all I knew, because it was impossible to have any sense of time in that dank windowless room. They gave me water through the narrow slit in the door when it was chained. I slept on that ratty blanket when I could sleep, but mostly I just stared at the door.

The door opened. The light pouring in blinded me, but once I could see, I noticed it was all the way open, not just pulled against the chain. My first reaction was to run. But when I tried to stand, pain shot through my body. My back and limbs were aflame, my head pounded, and my stomach was hollow with a deep ache. How long ago did I last eat? I groaned and fell to the floor. I heard the clicking of heels walking around me. I felt a prick in my arm and the darkness threatened to overtake me. This time, I let it.

When I awoke again, I was in another room, larger than my cell. It was dimly lit by oil lamps in each corner of the room. I took a good look around. The walls were covered in a dripping red substance.

Worse were the faces that surrounded me; eight people, including Luke, Uncle Rich, and Jayse. They all looked to be in good enough health, aside from being bound at the hands and feet, and the fact that all their faces were covered in tears and grime. And they were all staring at me. Uncle Rich's and Luke's faces wore expressions of a mixture of sadness and hopelessness. I looked at Jayse. There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

With a bit of maneuvering, I got my legs under me. I couldn't get to my feet no matter how hard I tried, but I managed to half scoot, half crawl over to Luke. I had him get my lighter out of my pocket, which must've been pretty tricky. With a bit more effort, he was able to burn the ropes on my hands enough so that they were weakened, and I wrestled with the rope until it snapped and my hands came apart.

I got to work untying Luke's hands, then we undid our feet and went to help others get untied. Just then, the heavy door burst open. The same man who had threatened me at the beginning ran toward me and, screaming nonsense threats at me, rebound my limbs, then Luke's. I cursed loudly.