Broken [In Revision 2023]

Chapter 27 - Embers

Maddy's eyes were swollen with tears but she refused to allow her uncle to drive. She didn't want to go home. To have to explain the day's events to her mother would be too much for her to bear.

"They've torched the house," Jake whispered, "We need to keep moving."

"I can't pretend that this isn't happening, look at me Jake, Mum is going to know something is up and I can't lie to her." Maddy turned the key in the ignition. Ignoring her uncle's requests she carefully turned the truck around and headed back towards the ranch.

"What if they are still there Maddy? What if this is all a trap, a lure to bring us back here?" Jake was hyperventilating in the passenger seat. His fingers working furiously at the bloodied holes in his jeans. He hadn't noticed his knees were bleeding.

*****

Laura clutched her clothes to her chest as she checked her phone for the umpteenth time. Her eyes flicked up to the barricade preventing her from reaching her family home. She could taste the smoke that burned her eyes and nostrils. The fire was still roaring like a hungry dragon, its thick yellow flames lapping up the shell of her old house.

Her fingers were turning white from being crossed so tightly. She was praying to any deity that would listen for her brother to be safe, hoping desperately that he had not been inside the building when it went up.

The building groaned loudly, causing the firefighters to shout and scatter.

Laura gripped the top rail of the fence and leaned forward, unable to take her eyes off the building as the roof slowly collapsed into what had once been her kitchen. She wanted to wail, but no sound left her lips.

"Mom?" Maddy shouted above the noise of the fire engines and hoses. She passed her keys to Jake and ran towards her mother.

Laura snatched her daughter into a hug. Unable to hold back her emotions any further she let her tears fall into her daughter's hair.

Lost in the tangle of her mother's arms and thick black curls Maddy closed her eyes and inhaled her mother's delicate coconut and jasmine perfume. "Dezi's dead," she croaked, unsure if her mother could hear.

Laura didn't hear, her brain was trying to figure out if her eyes were lying to her. He was stood by Maddy's truck, a place he shouldn't have been, he had barely left the ranch in the past two years. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, but he remained stood there, apparently at a loss as to what to do about his house.

"Jake?" She relinquished her grip on her daughter and hurried towards him. She stopped as he baulked away from her embrace. "What the hell is going on?"

"I have no idea," Jake confessed.

"Why are you with Maddy? I thought you were in that house." There was an angry not to her voice.

"I thought she spoke to you, I was taking the new horse to the show with her, she said you would check in on Dezi," Jake's confusion wasn't helped by the acrid smoke that was now blowing their way.

Laura scrolled through her phone furiously, stopping with a start as she found her daughter's message buried under an avalanche of notifications about the fire and accusations as to the root cause.

"When did she send that?" she asked.

Jake shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, we were in a rush."

"Why? The show isn't until Thursday, even if you took the long route you'd still be a day too early." Laura looked at him quizzically, trying to find reason in his unusual answers. Everything he had done so far was out of character, she didn't want to believe he had anything to do with the fire, but the seeds of doubt had already germinated.

"Mom, I sent that text when we were already on the highway, just past the turn-off for Devil's Creek Pass." Maddy was trembling as she spoke, her hand sought out her mother's contact, only after she found it could she continue talking. "Jake wanted Sunny to get some experience in a show environment, there was room in the trailer so I agreed. We were coming home so I could grab my stuff before heading out. I wanted to get there early, I didn't want to be in the south barn, those stalls always flood. I'm sorry."

Laura pulled her daughter into another hug.

"Dezi's dead, Mom." Maddy felt her mother break away.

Laura looked from Maddy to Jake and back again. She then turned back towards the ranch and scanned the smoky haze for any sign of the small horse. "No..." was all she could say before collapsing to the floor in tears.

Jake watched the two women consoling each other, he felt hollow, empty as he stood there unable to heal the damage done. A part of him wanted to jump into the truck and take off, leaving all this mess, and his family behind.

"Jacob Smith." Officer Harris, a balding man with more girth than height, wildly gestured at Jake.

Jake had started walking without thinking, not towards the truck, but towards the burning wreckage that had been his home. He could feel the pull of the bodies that attempted to pull him back, but their voices fell on deaf ears.

"You need to go back...it's not safe...we'll arrest you if we have to..."

It was like waking up in one of his night terrors, he could taste the panic rising in his throat as his body became uncomfortably clammy. He couldn't believe that what he was witnessing was real. The heat felt impossibly hot against his skin and the smoke seemed to squeeze all the air out of his lungs.

He stopped dead, sending one of the policemen sprawling in surprise. The heat was unbearable against his exposed skin. He closed his eyes and begged to wake from this impossible nightmare. But when he opened his eyes the roof was still crumpled into the kitchen and the glass from the windows lay shattered on the ground amongst his mother's prized rose bushes.

The smell made him gag, the longer he looked the worse the sensation became. Defeated, he allowed the two men to hoist him up by his armpits and drag him back past the barricade. They dropped him on the ground, but he didn't care, he had lost everything.

Laura pulled him into her arms without a second thought. She encouraged him to his feet and guided him without words back to her car. There was a half-drunk bottle of water in one of the car doors which, once offered, he swallowed in a single effort.

"In the back of the truck there is an old cool-bag, it should be with a backpack, leave the backpack alone, but there are some old photos and trophies in the cooler." He whispered hoarsely, aware that Harris was circling ever closer to him.

"Did you have something to do with this?" she said through gritted teeth, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention in their direction.

"I...no...it's complicated," Jake stuttered.

"It always is with you." Laura was half tempted to throw him out of her vehicle.

"I've pissed a few people off recently, they've been making a few threats, but I never thought this would happen. I was going to lay low for a few days..." Jake tried to explain, but he could tell that she wasn't buying it.

"Just be glad my daughter wasn't hurt in this mess," she seethed, "this is the end of the line Jake, I'm done with your mess."