Chapter Two
A Heart on Fire
I back away from the pallets, tears streaming down my face, my heart shattering and joining the shards of glass crunching beneath my feet as I jog back in the direction of the bonfire.
Branches and prickly bushes slice my face and arms, tearing at my flesh as I work my way toward the flames in the distance.
When I stumble into the open, I drop to my hands and knees, sobbing.
The two girls who were previously fighting spot me from the other side of the flames and make their approach, no doubt coming to console me and find out why I’m distraught. They make it within a few feet of me when someone yells, “Cops.”
Everyone scatters in different directions, some knowing where they are going, while others do not.
Luckily for me, I paid attention to the curved tree I passed on my way here.
I hustle to the opening and jog behind several others until we reach the far side of the pond.
We fork off, some heading around the right side of the pond, while others head around the left. I went left.
In the distance, I see someone leaning against my car. Once I get a little closer, I realize it’s Maureen. She’s holding one hand on her chest, panting heavily, and her nearly empty bottle of booze in the other.
I want to hurt her—punch her right in the face for what she’s done, but now’s not the time. Flashing lights turn down the street along the pond, going in the direction of the old factory. I reach my car, unlock the doors and climb in without saying a word to her.
She flops into the seat beside me and adjusts her skirt. I stare through the windshield, unsure of what my next move may be. Do I kick her out of the car and let the cops pick her up? Do I pounce on her like a cat and gouge out her eyes?
“Let’s go, sister,” Maureen says, staring at me expectantly.
I turn the key, put the car in reverse and slam my foot on the gas, kicking up rocks. “Where’s Jayce?” I ask.
Her eyes drift to the side mirror and then to the rearview mirror. “I don’t know.”
Lie one.
“He went into the woods looking for you, I think. You didn’t see him?” I glance at her before focusing back on the road.
“No.”
Lie two.
“How long have you been fucking my boyfriend?” I ask as I enter the highway.
Her head snaps in my direction. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m not fucking your boyfriend.”
Lie three.
Three strikes.
“I was there,” I say, my foot pressing the gas to the floor. “I saw you in the warehouse.”
Her face goes blank, and she gawks at me with stunned silence before saying, “Fuck, Tessa. I’m so sorry. We didn’t mean for it to happen. We didn’t mean to hurt you.” She reaches for me, and I pull my arm away.
“How long?” I ask.
She doesn’t reply right away, as if she’s debating whether to lie or tell me the truth. Her phone pings in her cleavage, and she glances over at me as she removes it, her eyes welling with tears. “It’s Jayce.”
He sent her a text, not me. My phone is silent. He doesn’t care as much if I get caught, that’s clear to me now.
“Do you love each other?” I ask, my hands gripping the wheel tighter, my head starting to pound as my blood pressure rises.
The tension in the air grows even further. If I had a knife, I could slice it right down the middle, creating a larger divide than she and Jayce have already created.
“Yes,” she murmurs as she frantically types on her phone.
I snatch it from her hand and read the screen.
She knows.
She didn’t hit send yet. I delete the message, roll down the window and chuck her phone onto the highway.
“Hey,” she yells, glancing over her shoulder. “Do you know how much that cost?”
“How could you do this to me, Maureen?” I press the gas harder, the gauge surpassing eighty.
“Tessa, slow down.” Her hand grips the dashboard. “Please. I’m sorry. We’re sorry. We were going to tell you. I swear.”
I grit my teeth, forcing words through them. “I’m only going to ask you this one more time. How long?”
“Almost a year,” she blurts.
A single tear rolls down my cheek as my mind goes blank and emptiness fills the void where my heart should be.
I hate her. I hate them both, but I hate myself even more for being so blind to what was happening right under my nose. The bridge ahead has a fast-moving creek below, and I think about driving off it, killing us both.
“Tessa, I’m sorry. You know I love you like a sister.”
The car jerks to the right as I turn and scream in her face, making her tightly clutch the handle above her. “A sister wouldn’t have fucked my boyfriend, whom I love. A sister wouldn’t have betrayed me. A sister wouldn’t have lied. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you!”
Snot drains from her nose as she sobs. “Tessa, please slow down and watch the road.”
“Watch the road? Watch the fucking road? Fuck you, Maureen!” Her eyes widen as I swerve the car in the direction of the guardrail.
The sudden impact crumples the front end of the vehicle, and the sound, like that of cracking thunder, pierces my eardrums, making them ring as my head flies forward and then back.
The air bag strikes me in the face, breaking my nose with an audible crunch.
For a few confusing moments, there is no audible sound other than the throbbing and ringing in my ears. As the ringing grows quiet, the sound of metal popping and a strange hissing noise takes its place.
A stabbing pain sears through my thigh, and something warm and wet drips down my face.
Spots float before my eyes as I twist my neck and cry out.
Maureen’s head is embedded partially in the windshield, her face unrecognizable, her arms twitching.
Moisture seeps into my pants, and I gaze down at a piece of metal lodged in my leg, blood squirting around it.
Smoke rises from beneath the hood, and my legs heat up as a small fire ignites. I cover the hole in my leg with my fingers the best I can to slow the bleeding, but it’s coming so fast. I glance left and realize I’m staring partly at the sky.
What the heck?
I turn my head right and look around Maureen’s dangling body. The creek rages below, the water white and foamy as it speeds under the bridge. We’re dangling sideways over the edge, a part of the car hung up on something, keeping us from falling.
Metal crunches and grinds, and we shift down slightly.
I grab the roof with trembling hands, tears streaming down my face as the fire under the hood grows.
Sweat beads on every inch of my body as the car becomes an oven.
Maureen’s arm twitches again, followed by her hand, then nothing. She stops moving—stops twitching.
My throat clenches, and a violent cough escapes me. The smoke thickens around us, and I can’t stop coughing, the air growing thin and unbreathable.
A flame rises beside Maureen’s open doorway. It moves in rhythm, and I wonder if I’m hallucinating as I sit trapped between the airbag and the steering wheel, suffocating and bleeding.
Dying.
Without warning, the flame forms into a human-like entity that dives into Maureen’s body. Her head shifts side to side, fracturing the rest of the windshield before sitting back in her seat. My bottom lip quivers as I reach for her and touch her hand. “Maureen?”
Her mangled face rotates toward me, and I flinch away as flames rise in her eyes and her bloody mouth opens wide.
“Siiiiiinnnner,” a voice roars from deep within.
I thrash in my seat, trying frantically to get away from her as her face melts slowly before her entire body falls in slow motion from the car, plunging into the fast-moving water below.
The flaming entity curls into the seat and manifests into a half-man, half-creature. His upper body is fit with rippled abs and a devious smile on playful lips. The wavy black hair on his head is as smooth as silk, and his sharp features make him handsome in a cruel sort of way.
Black irises pierce into my soul beneath long lashes. The lower part of him is completely naked and on fire. His cock is long, thick, and swollen beneath the inferno, and his legs are hairy, too hairy, as if they belong to a goat. Instead of feet, he has charred hooves.
Flames lick at my toes, burning them. I stomp my feet, trying to put the fire out as I cry out. “Please,” I shout out of the window beside me, my voice hoarse and dry. “Help me!”
“Still a virgin, my Little Sinner,” the creature beside me says with a sadistic cackle.
How could he know that? How could he know something I’ve only told Jayce and Maureen?
“I can read your thoughts,” it says as I turn to face it.
He looks different now, more man than creature. His clawed hand reaches for me and touches my cheek with a sharp nail that drags gently down to my chin, before tearing the airbag away from the steering wheel, making me gasp.
“Little Sinner, do you want me to save you?”
Fire swoops into the car’s cabin, filtering through every nook and cranny.
I shriek and nod my head, saying anything to stop the burning.
“Yes!” I shout, coughing hard as smoke chokes its way into my lungs, burning them.
“Save me.” A burnt-hair smell fills my nostrils as the hair on my arm singes.
I glance at the man now sitting beside me and wheeze. “Please. I’ll do anything.”
His hand wraps around my throat, and his long tongue glides over my face before traveling down between my legs, stopping just inside my upper thigh before returning to his mouth.
“Anything?” he asks as his tail lashes back the flames crowding my legs, sending them back under the hood.
The car stops moving, and the smoke vacates the cabin, suddenly swirling on the hood like a tornado, waiting for the creature’s command to reenter.
A smoldering piece of paper, blackened around its edges, floats into the car. He snatches it and places it in front of my fluttering eyes, weakness overwhelming me. “Sign it in blood.”
“What does it say?” I whisper, staring at the unfamiliar language, my mind growing foggy.
“Does it matter if it saves your life?” he asks.
My head bobbles as my blood continues oozing out of me.
“You’re running out of time, Little Sinner. Make your choice. Die here, and I’ll take your soul to hell, or sign here,” he points to the bottom of the page. “And stay among the living and be mine.”
I push my fingertip into my bloody wound and smear a crimson signature across the page.
The man-creature chuckles, sending a chill down my spine. He slides the paper away from me with two fingers, rolls it, and throws it into the fire before turning to me. “Now, you belong to me, my Little Sinner.”