Schism

Chapter 49 part 1

Chapter 49

It wasn't fair.

Harold looked back up the stairs.  This wasn't how anything was supposed to happen.  Jared had brought Jessica to him, like he said he would.  But she was angry.  She didn't want him.  She was supposed to want him.  How could Jared make that happen?  Who had ever wanted him?

It was all happening again.  The woman he wanted was in love with someone else.  And, it was the same man as last time.  Bryan Mickelson had kept him from Claire and now from Jessica.  But this time, he'd make sure the man died.  That was the only reason he was listening to Jared.

"Harold?"  It was Jared shouting at him again, from somewhere in the crates.  He looked around, felt the energy in the wood, in the bullets that were packed away.  There was so much fire waiting to come out.  "Harold.  Do you see him?"

He had to answer.  It was the only way to keep Jared from getting upset again.  "No," Harold said.  "I did, but he ran."

"Which way?"

Harold didn't care which way.  He could just go to the door and let the fire rise from everything in this building.  It would be easy, and it would feel wonderful.

But that hadn't worked last time.  Claire and that baby had died while Mickelson had lived through it.  Someone had saved him and now he had come back to ruin things for Harold again.  He had to make sure he killed Mickelson this time.  "Away from the windows." 

Jared's voice answered him.  "That's good.  We make a good team, Harold."  The sound of footsteps came from the direction of Jared's voice.

Friendship, teams.  None of that mattered to Harold.  The only thing that did was watching the fire grow inside Mickelson and that other man who had come up into the apartment; the man who didn't burn.  That man was different.  While Harold wanted to kill Mickelson, he had to kill that one, had to.  He was frightening.  Harold's smile grew at the thought of burning them both, but slipped away when he heard another voice.

"Jared Smith."  The voice was loud.  It was the other man.  Harold ducked down, brought his hands up over his head.  It was the man who didn't burn.  He had felt the fire begin to grow inside the man, back at the apartment building, and then again in the apartment upstairs.  The man had hit him with a chair and broken his concentration the first time upstairs, but after that, Harold had started the fire inside the man's heart, in his head.

And it had gone away.  How could it have gone away?  Had the man pushed the fire back down?  No one could do that.  Only Harold could feel the real fires inside everything.  He was the only one.

"Jared," the voice said again.  "I'm William Adams.  I'm the one who killed your men."

Harold looked up from under his hands and back toward Jared.  What if he killed this man now?  Jared had made Nadine want Harold, could he talk Jess into wanting him too?

"Harold."  It was the man's voice again.  Harold froze, listened.  "I was Jessica's fiancé."

It took a long moment for that to sink in.    Jessica was going to marry this man?  It wasn't just Mickelson keeping her from Harold, it was this man too.

Everything around him ached to burn.  That was what it all was meant for.  The man couldn’t push all the fires down, not the ones that Harold could feel growing.  He couldn't push them down if Harold made everything burn.  He stood and moved toward the man's voice.

*

Bryan saw Harold's head bob up over a crate twenty feet away and scurried around to stay out of sight.  He checked his back to make sure he hadn't moved any closer to Jared, then looked around the edge at the door.