by Vicky Jones
Shona left the kitchen to go into the bedroom to get David’s sun hat, closely followed by Chloe.
“Are you sure? I mean. I’d understand if you…”
“Look,” Shona replied, “as much as I wanna hate him, and I do, he’s your father, and David’s grandfather and he’s dying. And you’re right, he does seem different somehow. Maybe, in the time you guys have left, you can make peace. Perhaps he can even be a father for once.”
“When I was in my first week in jail, they paired me up in a cell with a black man. Oscar, his name was. Oscar Jefferson the Third.” Larry let out a chuckle. “At first I was surprised they’d put a man with my reputation in with a negro. I think they thought it’d be funny.” He sat forward and clasped his hands around his knees as he looked out onto the ocean. Up ahead on the shoreline, David and Shona were kicking a soccer ball to each other. “Oscar looked after me that week, when the others had an axe to grind with me. I’ll always be grateful for that.”
“Is he still in there?” Chloe asked, handing him another bottle of soda.
“Yeah. They had him on a charge for every crime in the area the local police couldn’t solve. I doubt he’ll ever get out. But he helped me when I got sick and brought me food when I couldn’t make the journey down to the food hall. He was a good man.” He took a long sip of his soda, then coughed.
“Have you seen a doctor recently?”
“Nothing they can do. It’s in my lungs. They’ll give out soon, so I gotta make every day count.” He looked at his daughter.
“What was that?” Shona breathed, rushing up to them, closely followed by Cooper and David.
“I was telling Chloe here that I’m a changed man. I don’t wanna fight anymore. I just wanna see out my days around the people I love.”
“You should stay here,” Shona said.
“Really?” Larry’s grey eyes beamed.
“Yeah. We got a spare room you can have until…” She paused. “If anyone in town wants to make an issue out of it, I’ll say I’m sleeping on the couch.”
“Thank you, Shona. I don’t deserve your generosity. But I’m very grateful for it.” Larry reached out his hand for Shona to shake.
“Everyone deserves a second chance at a family.” Shona’s eyes misted over for a moment. “We should go back in, it’s getting late. David will want food.”
They arrived back at the house. Shona’s grin slid off her face. Chloe pulled her arm. “What’s the matter?”
Shona stood frozen on the spot, her nose high in the air. “You smell that?”
Chloe sniffed and stared back in panic at Shona.
“Gasoline?”
Noticing the front door at the end of the hallway was ajar, Larry walked ahead of them, looking from side to side trying to find the cause of the smell. Reaching the door, he looked to his left and recoiled. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Chloe and Shona ran up behind him and looked into the room. There, sitting in an armchair in the farthest corner of the room, shrouded in the darkness created by the closed drapes, sat Kyle.
“Well now, isn’t this a cozy little reunion,” he drawled. “I must admit Larry is a bit of bonus. Must be my lucky day.” As he spoke, his eyes moved to the armrest of the chair on which he sat. There stood a tiny silver object.
A lighter.
“Chloe, you and Shona take the boy and go. Get in your truck, now,” Larry ordered, his breath almost abandoning him as he spoke.
“No,” Kyle barked. “Oh no you don’t.” He flicked open the top of his lighter. “One strike and boom. This whole room will light up.”
“What the hell do you want, Kyle?” Larry said, trying to keep calm for the sake of David, who was looking over at his father.
“Well, first I wanna know why I had to get my parents to pay thousands of dollars to get me out yet you, without a penny to your name anymore, and who did much worse than me, are standing as free as a bird right now.”
“You should have gone away for the rest of your life, Kyle. My evidence should have made that happen. Always were a spoiled little rich boy, weren’t you?” Larry stepped forward into the living room. Chloe and Shona didn’t dare move, with Kyle’s beady eyes darting between Larry and them. “Let the girls go. Your argument is with me, not them.”
“Oh, father of the year now, are we? From what Eleanor said last week, you’ll be dead soon anyway.”
“What? You’ve been to see my mother?” Chloe gasped, then rolled her eyes. “Of course you have. It all makes sense now.” She turned to Shona. “The allegations.”
“What I don’t understand is why he gets to see my son, but I don’t.” Kyle pointed his lighter precariously at them, his thumb grazing against the flint.
Chloe tried to keep her voice as even as possible. “Kyle. Please put down the lighter and we can ta—”
Shona, her mouth clenched, threw herself towards Kyle, but Larry held her back. Pressing his face into hers, he held her arms tight. “No, Shona. That’s exactly what he wants.”
“I’m gonna kill him, Larry. Get out of my way!” Shona shrieked, but stopped dead when she saw Kyle strike the flint.
“Let’s all calm down, shall we?” Kyle said, the lighter now glowing with a bright yellow flame.
“Momma, what’s that man doing with the fire?” David whispered up to Chloe.
“Nothing, baby, he’s just leaving.”
Kyle glared at her. “Hey David. Has your momma told you I’m your father?”
Chloe froze. Shona groaned and leaned against the doorframe. David tugged on Chloe’s arm again. “Momma?”
“I think it’s time we told him how the world works.” Kyle shifted his dark stare from Chloe and softened it towards his son as he leaned forward in his armchair. “You see, kids have a mommy and a daddy. Would you like that? Would you like a daddy?” Kyle clicked the lighter shut and kneeled in front of David, holding his forearms.
“I like Shona,” David replied. He wriggled out of Kyle’s grasp and snuggled into Shona’s open arms.
“You need to go, Kyle. Now. Your allegations didn’t work, and neither will this. It’s over,” Shona snarled.
Chloe, Shona and Larry formed a wall between Kyle and David, their faces stern and unwavering.
A grin spread across Kyle’s face. “I’ve poured gasoline where you’re all standing.” He clicked open the lighter. “If I can’t have my son, then none of you can and yes, I will do it.”
As if in slow motion, he ran his thumb over the flint wheel and threw the lighter on the ground. In an instant, a searing blue flame had engulfed the floorboards between them, the drapes now completely ablaze. Everybody jumped back in complete shock to avoid the fireball that had now brought the drapes, and the pole, crashing down.
Chapter 46
“Get out of here, now!” Larry yelled as the flames caught the bottom of the armchair nearest to the door.
“I can’t see anything,” Chloe spluttered, choking on the acrid black smoke. Blinded by the heat, she reached out to try and find Shona and David, but Larry grabbed her first and threw her towards the front door. “No, Larry, I need to find Shona.”
“I’m here,” Shona yelled back. Through the flames Chloe could just about make out Shona and David huddling together in the far corner of the room, their hands shielding their faces from the unbearable heat. “I’ll get David out, baby, you just go. Now.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Chloe bellowed back from the hallway, just as the first of the ceiling tiles melted and crashed to the ground, blocking the living room doorway between them.
“Go,” Shona ordered, then crouched to shield David from another tile falling on his head. “I’ll pass David through the window.”
“We gotta go, Chloe.” Larry yanked his daughter’s arm and threw her onto the veranda outside the front door.
“Shona! Where are you? I can’t see you!” Chloe screamed, but the flames licked without mercy around the door, stopping her from getting back
in. Seconds later, the door frame collapsed. In sheer desperation, Chloe banged her hands against the front window even though the glass was red hot and burning her palms. Tears streaming with utter panic for Shona and David, she looked around the veranda for something to smash the glass with, but Larry pulled her aside. He was struggling to breathe through the thick black smoke.
“Look out!” he roared.
The windows blew out above them and flames cascaded all around the peeling blue wooden frames. As the smoke cleared, Chloe looked through to see Shona huddled in the corner waiting for her opportunity to make a run for the window. David was wrapped tightly in her arms.
“Shona, now,” Chloe ordered, seeing a break in the flames.
Shona leaped over in one bound. “Quick, grab the boy.” She lifted David through the shattered window, avoiding the shards of melting glass.
“Momma,” David coughed, his little face black with soot.
“I got you, baby.” Chloe clutched on to David with one arm, her other not letting go of Shona’s forearm. Turning to her father, she passed David over to him, then looked back at Shona. “Now you, come on.”
As Shona lifted her foot onto the window frame, a pair of strong hands pulled her back.
“Not so fast there,” Kyle growled, grabbing on to the bottom of Shona’s shirt.
“Get the fuck off me, you fucking animal!”
“Kyle, no. Shona!” Chloe tried to hold on to Shona’s hands, but the heat had made both hands too slick with sweat. “Oh God, Shona, no!” Chloe wailed as their fingertips slipped away from each other. “I’m so sorry.”
Shona was gone. The last glimpse Chloe had of her was her disappearing back into the living room, with Kyle’s forearm wrapped around her neck.
“No, Chloe, I forbid it. You are not going back in there—it’s too dangerous. Think about your son!” Larry bellowed over the noise of another batch of tiles melting away from the ceiling and smashing on the floor inside the house. Moments later, the gutter on one side of the roof crashed to the decking inches away from him and Chloe. David was now safely sitting in the truck parked twenty feet away from the house.
“I will not leave her to burn alive in there. I will never leave her!” Chloe screamed back, her soot-covered face a sweaty mess. Using her shirt to shield her eyes, she looked through the window and through the flames, which had eased off a little now that the direction of the breeze had changed. Squinting, she could just about make out the figure of Kyle lying on the floor with blood seeping from his forehead, a desk lamp smashed into pieces by his side. Three feet away in the corner, with smashed tiles burning at her feet, Shona lay slumped next to the couch.
“Shona, get up, goddamn it. Come on, baby, please hear me.”
Shona jerked her head and opened her eyes. She held her hand to her brow, the sight of Chloe reinvigorating her enough to drag herself to her feet using the armrest of the couch for leverage. She launched towards the window but was beaten back by another wave of flames reignited by a gust of ocean air.
Kyle started stirring on the ground by Shona’s feet as she tried to see a way she could get out. Encouraged by Chloe’s shouts, Shona staggered for the window.
“Shona, give me your arms,” Larry ordered, reaching out for her. But just as she did so, the towering figure of Kyle appeared behind her. He stood motionless, like he had risen from the dead, his bloodshot eyes murderous in his soot-covered face.
“Shona, quick!” Chloe screamed.
As Shona launched her body through the window towards Larry’s outstretched arms, Kyle shot out his hand and clamped it around her shoulder.
“You’re coming to hell with me, bitch,” he growled in her ear as Shona grabbed desperately for anything to stop her from being dragged backwards again.
Struggling to breathe through smoke and through the struggle that ensued, Larry held on to her hands as long as his depleting strength could manage it, but he lost his grip and she disappeared into the dark smoke again.
“No,” Chloe sobbed uncontrollably. She would have thrown herself through the window into the fire if Larry hadn’t wrapped his arms around her.
“No, Chloe. Go sit with the boy, comfort him. I’m going around the back to find a way in.”
Wiping the blood he’d coughed up on his shirt sleeve, Larry staggered off along the veranda and around the back of the house. There, he found Kyle lying on the ground. Shona was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is she, you bastard?” Larry growled, crouching down next to him and grabbing him by his jacket lapels. Shaking him until he came to, Larry repeated his question.
Kyle raised a limp arm. “In there. The bitch can burn.”
Larry threw him back down to the ground after punching him square in the face. He took in the biggest breath his failing lungs could manage and raced into the house, seconds later recoiling as a huge wall of flames pinned him back against the bannisters. While he waited for it to clear, he looked through the destroyed front door frame at Chloe outside, his heart breaking with regret at all the things he hadn’t had the chance to say.
“I’ll get her back for you. I promise,” he whispered to himself, then disappeared into the smoke.
An almighty crunch echoed through the air. Chloe watched in horror as the roof of their beautiful beach house completely gave way. She ran around to the back of the house, most of which still stood intact.
“Please. Please. Just a few seconds more,” she begged.
As she heard a splintering sound, Chloe’s eyes were drawn up to the center of the roof where she saw it had started to sag. Time seemed to stand still, all sounds around her muffled, but the inevitable happened moments later. As the roof collapsed inward, a huge plume of fire, smoke and dust flew up. It was hopeless. Sinking to the ground in agony, Chloe screamed Shona’s name over and over again.
“Momma, Momma!” David appeared by her side, pulling on her arm to get her off the ground. Cooper barked and nudged her until she came to her senses.
“Baby, why are you out of the truck? I told you to stay in the truck,” Chloe barked at David.
“I wanted to help. Where’s Shona?” David’s question made Chloe break out into fresh sobs. She grabbed hold of him and hugged him tight.
“Baby, I’m so sorry. Shona’s gone. I couldn’t save her.”
David looked over her shoulder and pointed. “No, but Grandpa did.”
Chloe turned around to see the back door wide open and her father staggering towards them carrying Shona’s motionless body.
“Shona!” Chloe cried, running over to catch her father before he slumped to the ground, his energy all but gone. He dropped to his knees and laid Shona as gently as he could on the ground. She wasn’t breathing.
“Come on, baby, please. Wake up.” Chloe shook her and breathed into her mouth over and over again until finally Shona coughed and rolled into her arms. She opened her eyes, the blueness of them contrasted starkly with the red rawness of the whites.
“David. Where’s…?” Shona croaked.
“Shhhh… It’s OK, it’s OK. Don’t try to talk. David’s safe, thanks to you. You saved him.” Chloe stroked her hair to fully rouse her. Shona lifted her head to see David sitting with Cooper at the far end of the yard next to the little fishing boat.
“Thank God,” Shona breathed before sitting up and wrapping herself in the safety of Chloe’s arms.
“Get down,” Larry cried out and pushed them both back down to the ground. Before Shona and Chloe realized what was happening, a bullet had whizzed through the air and struck Larry on the right side of his chest, sending him crashing to the ground next to them with blood seeping out onto his blue shirt. Chloe looked over to where the shot had come from and saw Kyle drop the gun, almost dead himself. She watched as he staggered forward a few steps and collapsed. His usually neat hair was a matted mess, his handsome face grimy from the smoke.
“You bastard, Kyle!” Chloe screamed, jumping up and running over to him. She kicked the
gun he had just fired out of his hand. It landed with a thud in the grass five feet away. He grabbed her ankle as she leaped to retrieve the gun.
“Oh no you don’t. Come here,” Kyle growled.
Crawling her way along towards them, inch by inch, Shona kept her eyes fixed on Chloe and Kyle wrestling on the ground. Chloe’s fingertips were agonizingly close to reaching the gun and with one swift kick to his groin she managed to free her ankle from his cloying grip. Standing tall, gun in hand, Chloe aimed it down to him.
“No, Chloe, don’t. He’s not worth it, he’s not worth it,” Shona spluttered before coughing up a globule of blood.
“You won’t shoot that thing. You don’t know how to,” Kyle mocked, his stare piercing.
Looking once at Shona out of the corner of her eye, then at her father who wasn’t moving, Chloe returned her attention to Kyle.
Without flinching, Chloe cocked the gun and fired into his ankle. He let out a screech of agony, then smirked. “Go on then, do it. Finish me off. And when they prove you killed me, you’ll go away for a long, long time. David won’t have a mother or a father, and Shona won’t have you either. I win. Do it. Go on, I dare you to fucking do it.” He rolled over, his resolve melting into blistering pain as he clutched his shattered ankle.
Still aiming the gun at Kyle, Chloe paced backwards over to her father. After kneeling down next to him, she began to sob, her free hand trying to staunch the flow of blood from his chest. “Don’t leave me now. Please. We’ve got so much to still talk over.” Chloe’s face screwed up with the agony of losing her father right in front of her.
Larry opened his weary eyes and looked up at his daughter, a sad smile on his ashen face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a movement that made him push Chloe back. Kyle had reached into his inside pocket and taken out a knife. He rolled on to his other side, and aimed towards Shona instead, who was almost lifeless and only feet away, but it was too far for Chloe to reach her in time.