Chapter 38

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Chapter 38

Harold shoved the security bar under the door knob and kicked it tight on the floor.  He started to pace, but his small space was cut in half by the man's dead body.  He had forgotten the man's name again.

It was just like last time.  And the same man was taking the woman he loved away again.  It wasn't fair.  Jared had promised that he would bring Jess to him.  He hadn't and now that detective had taken her, just like he had two years ago.

Harold glared at the door.  That time, when he had let the fires out two years ago, it had been almost an accident.  He hadn't been careful enough or thorough enough and now he was paying the price.  He had meant to kill the man and their child, so he could have Claire all to himself.  Instead, the detective had lived.

But tonight he would be thorough.  He put his hands on the door and leaned against it.  He jumped back as someone pounded into it from the other side.

There had been someone else with the detective.  It was the man that Jared had wanted killed at the warehouse.  What did he have to do with Mickelson?  Was that man after Jessica too?

The door shuddered again. 

It didn't matter why the man was here or why Jared wanted him dead.  He and Mickelson would be dead in a matter of minutes.  Harold couldn't see them, didn't know exactly where they were on the other side of the door, so he couldn't encourage the fires within them to burn, but he did know this building.  He knew every piece of glass, every ounce of mortar and brick.  He didn't need to see the building.  He could already feel the fire inside it.

He would trap the men first, then let them burn.

Dr. Westen saw the first figure run down the stairs toward the basement as she touched the door handle.  She hardly saw him as he scrambled down the stairs away from her, but she didn't recognize him.  Two seconds later, she saw William Adams run after him.

She stopped, halfway through the door.  She took a deep breath to steady herself.  She had come here to take him back.  The syringe in her pocket was filled with more than enough sedatives to subdue him.  She had filled it with enough to easily kill a man his size, though she had told herself she wouldn't use it all.

She stepped in, let the door close behind her and reached into her pocket for the syringe.  Before she could follow William, she heard someone else running down the hall.

It was Mickelson.  He stopped for a moment and yelled something unintelligible at her before he followed William.

Her jaw tightened.  Now, after all this time, the detective had finally decided to do his job.  But it wasn't enough.  If the detective caught him, William might talk about what he'd seen her do to Mary Gingerich.  He might talk about why he had crushed her hand.  She couldn't let that happen.  She didn't have to stay back.  She could follow them and sedate William after Mickelson had captured him.

And if he had a negative reaction to the sedative, that wasn't her fault.  She was only trying to help him.

She stepped toward the stairs and felt a sudden warmth on her back.  She turned and saw the glass and steel of the outer doors shimmer and sprout flame.  Her hands came up to protect her face and the bandages caught fire.

The pain from the broken hand had been nothing.  As the flame sank through the gauze and tape to her skin, she screamed and fell back.

Westen fought for control.  The bandages were burning, her hand was burning, but she could control it.  She had controlled herself for as long as she could remember. 

She rolled to her knees, and couldn't stop another cry as her hand hit the floor.  Then, she tucked it into her chest and pulled her coat around it.  The flame was smothered, but the pain in her hand only grew worse.

Control.  She could control it.  But as she tried to climb to her feet, she failed.  She inched herself back to the wall as the flames grew.

*

Bryan stopped as William threw a side kick into the door to Harold's room.  The frame creaked, but the door didn't budge.  He saw the burn on William's support leg and caught sight of a grimace as the kick landed.  He hadn't seen William in pain before.  How long had he been hurting?

"Want me to shoot it?" Bryan asked.

He watched William step back, slam another kick into the door.  "You and the shooting tonight.  Yeesh."  The door groaned as William kicked again.

Bryan heard the scream from upstairs, then a rush of heat and light from the stairway.  William's eyes stayed on the door, but he stopped kicking.  "Get him," Bryan said as he ran.

He saw the flames ahead as he turned up the stairs.  The glass and steel door frame looked to be intact, but seemed to be warping and melting from the heat.  He kept low beneath the spreading smoke and tried to understand how the glass itself could be on fire as he crawled up the stairs.

When he hit the entry landing, his wondering stopped.  She was there on the floor, her clothing singed, red hair tangled.  The scorched white bundle of bandages held tightly to her chest.  It was Westen.  He knew it was Westen, but it didn't matter.  He could only see Claire, holding the baby in her arms as they burned.

He stopped, unable to move.

*

The security bar bent as the door shook and Harold stepped back.  The door and frame were steel, as was the bar.  He couldn't understand what could hit it so hard.  He didn't want to find out.

He scrambled over his bed and the body to the far wall.  The room had originally been larger, made of concrete blocks, but the building's owner had put in a plywood wall to separate Harold's room from the HVAC equipment on the other side.  He grabbed at the cardboard boxes that covered the small door he had cut into the wooden wall.  If he wanted, he could burn the whole area outside his main door, but he'd still have a way out for himself.  His fingers cleared another box away and found the covered hole just above the floor.

The steel door shuddered again and Harold stopped.  This man was trying to keep him from Jessica.  They all were.

It was all about her.

He thought of her apartment, her windows, her front door.  There was so much fire waiting there.

He let it surge to life.

*

(Author’s note:  Worried?  I am!  Bryan is lost in a flashback, the building is burning and Jared is on the way to join Harold.  Could things get worse for William?  Read on and see!  Thank you for the votes and comments!  Please tell your friends about Schism and leave a review on Amazon.com if you can.  Thank you!)

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