Thane, a young boy from a rough part of nowhere, catches himself in a wildfire bred for bleeding, until something in the inferno finds him, something that never intends to let him go.
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They found the body in the woods, burnt beyond recognition. It was a young woman, with broken legs and a few missing teeth. Jessie was called in immediately after it was first reported on the news, so he left Bear a note on the fridge that said, "DON'T FOLLOW ME".
Rookie mistake.
Bear often took care of this old lady across the street named Mrs. Garcia. Her husband had died years ago, and her children had abandoned her. The government kept sending her pamphlets to retirement homes, but she refused to go. Bear had been buying her groceries and checking in on her for years, even before his parents died, and she always laughed at his stupid jokes.
She also let him borrow her car.
"Gracias, Berto," she patted Bear on the back as he stepped into her car. "You are always a good boy. You have the list of groceries, yes?"
Mrs. Garcia had never understood that Bear's name was actually Bear. The first time he'd told her, she automatically thought he'd meant Alberto without the 'Al' and the 'to', and he didn't have the heart to correct her. He lifted the slip of paper she'd given him and smiled. "Thanks a lot, Mrs. Garcia. I'll get your groceries on the way back."
"Of course," Mrs. Garcia patted his head and gave him a lollipop from her pocket.
Bear really loved old people.
The crime scene was on the other side of town, cut off by a crowd of people held back by some flimsy police tape. Bear parked a few blocks down, knowing Jessie would recognize the car in a heartbeat, and approached the scene on foot. People were busy holding up signs to protest the fire. As if the fire cared. They screamed and sat on eachother's shoulders, the cops struggling to calm them down.
The fire roared in the distance, fire engines blaring from all parts of town at all times. Bear knew Thane's dad was likely hiding out at the fire station with Malcolm and Lucy and the others. He wondered if anyone was staying behind with him. It made him feel terrible that he hadn't gone to visit, but he couldn't bare telling Mr. De Angelo what had happened. He knew it would break him.
Besides, Bear had a better plan anyway, and it ended with Thane right beside him the second he faced Mr. De Angelo again.
"Everybody stay back!"
Bear recognized that voice immediately. He crab-walked over to a trash can and crouched down behind it, peering over the edge as his brother yelled for the crowd's attention. He couldn't hear what Jessie was saying, but he knew his brother was angry about something. Jessie always turned red when he was angry.
The scene was off into the woods, down a trail marked by police officers loitering and staring down the angry crowd over cups of coffee. In the crowd, Bear saw a group of people with microphones in front of cameras, and quickly recognized the lady he'd been watching report the museum case on the news, Vanessa Warner. A little distance behind her, a familiar cop was already staring at him.
