Playing with Fire

e p i s o d e | t w e n t y - n i n e (pt. 1)

I rush downstairs excitedly at the sound of the doorbell. Anna's here. After having seen her face throughout the morning and missing it all afternoon, I'd been eagerly anticipating her arrival again. I reach for the doorknob and yank it open with such enthusiasm that I'm afraid I might break the door. But when I look outside, there's ... nothing.

Well, that's not true. There's no one on my porch. I glance around in confusion, but then focus my eyes on a dark shadow of a figure coming around from the side of the house. It's hard to see at first, because of the darkening evening sky, but once I get a good look at the shape, my heart immediately stops and my blood begins to boil.

It's him. And Anna's in his arms.

My immediate reaction is to charge at him, but Anna's widened eyes tell me to do otherwise. She looks surprisingly calm for someone who's being strangled by a man's arm, but she isn't flailing or trying to scream. She's just looking at me, urging me to stay composed.

"It's been a while again, son," Kane says, the slightest evil smile appearing onto his face. "Is this your new girlfriend? I caught her visiting your house a couple of times now."

My hands ball into fists. "Let her go," I demand.

He nods compliantly. "Yes, of course. There's just one thing that I must ask in return." His head turns towards the other side of a street, where I finally notice a beat-up truck sitting. He must have stolen that from somewhere and ditched the police car he'd jacked during his escape. "I'm just asking you to come with me. All I want is my son back."

Anna gives me the smallest head-shake, her eyes fixated intently on me. Her hands grip the arm around her neck furiously.

"This little girl is very different from you." Kane snickers to himself in amusement. "She seems so like a child. But you've grown up a lot, haven't you, Rowan?"

"Don't speak to me as though you know me," I growl.

"I've been watching ... studying," Kane continues as he ignores me, his green eyes glistening with insanity. "And I saw something very interesting yesterday." He picks up a few strands of Anna's hair and lets them fall through his fingers. I aggressively fight the urge to sock him in the face. That would only harm Anna. "I saw this girl dragging you back home. And this is very curious, because, you see ..." His eyes squint thoughtfully. "I didn't understand how young'uns like yourself were already caring about each other that much. It just didn't add up. Do you know how long it usually takes to fall in love?"

"Just let Anna go," I snap at him, starting to lose my patience. "She didn't do anything to you."

Kane's eyes narrow. "Anna," he repeats, and the way he says her name makes me shudder. "Just like your mother." His eyes grow dark. "She was the love of my life, you know. She was everything. And then she tried to leave me."

I take a sharp step towards him as his voice suddenly grows more hostile, but stop when I notice him pushing the crook of his arm into Anna's throat, suffocating her. "Watch it, boy," he snaps at me.

"Don't talk about Mom like that," I retort.

"She thought she was better than me, didn't she?" I must have made a mistake in bringing her up again, because he looks even more furious. "Just because she had more money than I did. Just because she thought that she could support you more than I could. She thought that made her better than me."

I take another step, but Kane immediately puts a hand over Anna's forehead warningly. "Hey. Get into the car, and I'll let the girl go. It's a promise. I don't want anything to do with her. But if you keep stepping towards me like that without agreeing to my deal, then something bad is going to happen."

I hold out a hand in submission. "Okay. Just let her go," I say calmly.

Anna shakes her head at me again, unable to speak, but I ignore her this time. I promised myself that I'd protect you, I mentally remind her, though I'm sure she's already figured that out by now. Her gaze is filled with fear, though what it's aimed towards is unclear.

"That's it," Kane says gruffly, following me cautiously as I head towards his truck. "Just get into the car, and we'll leave."

I can see the distress in Anna's eyes intensifying as I continue to comply with Kane's demands. But there's nothing else I can do right now. I know from seeing his violence as a kid – if he wanted to, he could snap her neck right now. My priority is getting her out of his grip. And then I'll worry about my own safety.

I finally get into the passenger's side of the truck as Anna manages to choke out my name. Kane briskly moves around to the other side, Anna still in arm, and then drops her on the ground before getting in the car and locking the doors firmly. He starts the engine, and Anna run around the front of the car and starts tapping desperately on the window.

"Don't do this!" she yells at me. "I just got you back!"

I swallow back the lump in my throat and refuse to look over at her, simply too apologetic and too cowardly to see the expression on her face.

"Rowan!" she calls out to me, banging on the window again. "Please! I'll never be able to live with myself!"

"I'm going to run over the bitch," Kane mutters under his breath.

My head immediately swivels over to him, my hands tightening into fists. "Don't you dare say a thing about her," I snarl at him. "You don't deserve to even look at her." Now, there's nothing holding me back from getting physical with him.

He just smirks at me in response, and then presses on the gas so quickly that I'm jolted back into my seat. Anna's face disappears from my window and I quickly turn my head back to check that she's okay.

"That was fucking dangerous!" I nearly scream.

"We're on the run, kid. It's bound to be dangerous." Kane doesn't look distressed or anxious; on the contrary, he looks triumphant ... relaxed, almost. As if getting me to come with him was the last of his goals in life, and he can finally die in peace. Well, I sure as hell am not going to let that happen.

"It's finally time that we join your mother again," Kane says in a hushed voice. "We can be a family once more."

I frown at him. "What are you talking about?"

"As much as your mother was a disgusting, pathetic human being," he spits, "I just want to be with her again. I just want us to be together again. Do you understand, Rowan?"

Chills run through my spine when I realize what he means. He's not running away from the cops; he just wanted me, so that he could live out his fantasy of seeing our shattered family back together again. He's sick in the head. He'd broken our family in the first place, and now, he's trying to glue it back together in some revolting way.

I start to realize that the last Anna might have seen of me was the way I'd given up – given up on trying to preserve the two of us. Given up on ever seeing her again.