Page 81 of Burn Me Down

I think it’s time we sat down and had our last session of group therapy together.

Don’t you?

Cheers Adam

“Son of a bitch, fucking wild goose chase.” I stomped out of the aquarium and hit the fire alarm as I left. I couldn’t help Crystal now, but I also didn’t want to leave her like that to be found in the morning by the kids who opened the aquarium.

Hopping in my truck, I started the engine and was pulling out of the parking lot when my phone rang. I was going to hit ignore, knowing that Asher would be as annoyed as Violet had been at dropping Beck off, but I decided to get this over with now.

“Hey, and yeah, I know it was a dick move to leave her with Violet. You don’t need to tell me,” I said.

“Where are you?”

“Just leaving the aquarium.”

“Do you have, Adam? Do you know where he is?”

“No, and yes,” I said. “He wants to go back to where all this started, so that’s where I’m going. I need to go, Asher.”

“Wait, there is something you need to know. Fuck.” There was a long pause. “Adam came to the house and took Beck.”

“What?” I growled at the phone.

“He must have been following you. Vi says the knock came no more than a minute after you left, and she thought it was you forgetting to tell her something. I think he would’ve done more to Vi, but she fought hard, and he ran out of time. He ended up just knocking her out. I want to kill this asshole, Derek.”

“Get in line, brother.” I floored the gas on the truck, so fucking pissed that I hadn’t seen this coming. “I’ll kill him for both of us.”

“Where are you going? I’ll come.”

“No, there can only be one murderer in this family, and I already have the insanity certificate and police warrant to prove it’s me. I’ll do this. Oh, and Asher, I love you, brother.”

I hit end and turned off my phone so he couldn’t harass me with more phone calls. The terror I was feeling only added to my rage, and I smacked my hand off the top of the steering wheel. All I could see was him writhing in pain as I killed him. He was mine.

My headlights flashed over the sign, Manor Hill Asylum. It was the only thing still standing after the fire. Nothing else had changed.

You’re not the same man that left this place, you’re stronger. Save her, kill him.

“I intend to,” I growled, at the voice not needing any encouragement.

No one had bothered to clean up the tall piles of rubble, and broken caution tape fluttered in the breeze, but that was it. How many had ventured up here since the fire to see if they could see the ghosts that now haunted this place? I believed in them. I’d seen them and talked to them. Now, more wandered this gravesite, bound by the traumatic death and fear. It would take years before people forgot, and one day, a developer would build homes here or maybe a school, and the voices would press in on someone else.

There was a single vehicle in the parking lot, and I knew who it had to be. Everything was open here except for the line of trees, and it was impossible to enter from the forest. He would’ve seen me coming up the road, and I hated that no matter what I did now, I was a sitting duck.

Jumping out of the truck, I slammed the door. There was no point in trying to be quiet. I took a deep breath, and the scent of the old fire still lingered in the air like a bad cologne. What I did had scarred the earth as clearly as the wound on my face, and it would taint everything in the surrounding area as my life had done. This place was a mirror of my past, and Adam knew that. He might have been nuttier than a squirrel on crack, but he also paid attention. He knew me, and at one point, coming back here would’ve broken me, but not anymore. The voice was right, I was a stronger version of myself, and I owed that to the woman Adam had taken. Only one of us would leave here tonight, but Beck would be safe. Of that, I was certain.

“I’m surprised you came alone,” Adam said.

I slowly turned in a circle until I found the man standing among the charred skeleton of the asylum. He looked both out of place and right at home. I marched across the parking lot, the sound of my boots loud in the otherwise tranquil night. I lost sight of him as I stomped up the rise to where the hospital once sat. My eyes swung from one pile to the other, looking for Beck. Where the hell was she?

Adam stood with his hands together like he was waiting in line at the fucking DMV. A little smile played across his lips, which only accentuated the crazy. The dark glimmer I knew was alive and well, and I swear the man never aged. It was like he planned on tormenting humanity forever.

“Where the fuck is she, Adam?”

“Ohh, so you know I have her….” He clucked, the sound annoying and grating on my nerves. “That’s actually disappointing. Another time I’ll cut the bitch’s throat instead of knocking her out. I was hoping for a dramatic reveal, but, oh well.” He stepped off to the side, and a growl rippled from my lips. “Don’t you like my re-enactment?”

Like fucking Vanna White, he held out his hand toward Beck, who was in an oil barrel, her mouth taped and eyes wide with tears. My heart leaped into my throat as I caught a whiff of gasoline. Her hair was wet, and I knew what he had planned before he lifted his hand and held up an exact copy of my lighter.

“Did he scream for you? Did my son scream as you burned him alive? Do you think she will scream the same way?”