Burning Horizon

Burning Horizon; Heaven and Hell

Chapter Sixteen: Heaven and Hell

There were twelve thousand crosses etched into the ceiling. I wondered if anyone else had ever bothered to count them, if anyone else had laid here long enough to be bothered to count them. I hadn't had enough energy to do anything else after the realisation that Jacob had torn me to shreds. I didn't want to believe it yet my mind knew that it was true. Dad had not spoken to me since we'd argued. He had only stepped into the doorway every so often to check if I was okay, always with the same pained expression on his face while we stared at each other in total silence until the memories of his anger spree flittered into my mind. Those made him leave easily. Somewhere inside I knew that I should make an effort to apologise to him but my sadness was so strong that it erased all other needs. Only the need to cry remained.

Another surge of physical pain flooded out from my heart. Why wasn't I suited to the stupid venom? I'd be heeled by now. No more burning, no more contorted limbs or unbelievable boredom. I just wanted to be me again so I could run and shout and play - if Jacob was still here...

A dark shape smacked into the glass of the skylight above me so hard that I jumped out of my skin. Another death craving monster that had been sent to kill me? They'd timed it well enough; I could even dare to say that it was perfect timing - a small slot where the house was empty of every single member of my family. Although that had been my choice, I told them I would be fine and that they could all hunt together. The mollycoddling was starting to get on my nerves, I knew everything they'd done for me had been in their best intentions and I couldn't have wished for anything more but I wasn't a kid! Okay, maybe I was...

Typical, the last thing I was allowed to say to my parents was a lie, that I would be okay. I squeezed my eyes shut, just hoping that this time my killer would not want to suck every last dreg of life out of my body as slowly as possible. There was a scraping noise on the window frame that made me flinch. A set of fingernails on slate was not a noise I enjoyed hearing, much like the squealing of chalk scraping across a blackboard.

"Of course they locked you in." The person chuckled in amusement. That voice triggered an immediate need to run, the owner was fatally dangerous. All my instincts were screaming at me to escape or arm myself with a knife, baseball bat, whatever else was lying around nearby. I could call any one of my family's phones and they'd be back in less than a minute but would that be too late to save me? This voice belonged to the person nearly killed me, and my parents thoroughly hated him but even after everything he'd done ... I didn't. No matter how many times they tried to drill into my head that he was dangerous I still loved him. So I ignored the voices that were now having a fit inside my head and opened one eye.

Jacob was crouched on the roof, both hands locked on the wooden edges of the window. He was pulling at it gently, obviously trying to ease it out of its locked position. My mouth fell open and I felt the corners turned up slightly. Should I be happy that he was here or, should I be afraid? No one had told me exactly why he had turned on me that night - for all I know he could have suddenly been desperately intent on murdering me for some unknown reason. Perhaps as a revenge on my father for all the pain he's inflicted. Perhaps for stealing away my Mom's humanity when I was born? He must be disregarding the fact that if he had not done so, she would be dead and I know that Jacob was truthfully happier that she was still living, even as a vampire, rather than her have dying there and then.

He frowned; the window wasn't budging without a fight. With one staggered breath he fixed his fingers firmly on the frame and then yanked in annoyance, ripping the whole thing out of the roof and shattering the sparkling glass completely. It fell down through the gaping hole onto the wooden floor making a plinking sound that reminded me of the highest ivory notes I played on the piano downstairs.