Watch What Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  Not after Tyler had left her alone. He would always be her biggest threat. He loved her with every part of his being, she knew that, but he could destroy her in one swift swoop, and right now, he had completely killed her.

  Thankful no one was here; she gave herself a moment to pull it together, waiting for her composure to restore itself. Laying in the stillness of her room, Austin allowed to her mind to wander towards thoughts of Grace and Natasha and what they could be up to right now. Closing her eyes against the bitter tears, Austin denied any thought that involved Natasha mistreating her daughter. It was incomprehensible. She found herself literally praying that Natasha was loving Grace so she wouldn’t be scared at not being home with her family. Hearing her cell ring, she immediately grabbed it. Hope igniting in her like a wildfire as her mind told her it was Gracie.

  “Gracie?” she answered the call, not even looking at the screen. “Is that you?”

  “Close enough,” Natasha’s voice sung down the phone in response. “Now, now, now, Austin, I’m just ringing to sa-”

  “Where is my daughter, you psychotic bitch?” Austin snapped back, wiping away her tears as she fought all the pains in her to sit up. The culmination of everything toppled and Austin found the part of her that she had thought was gone forever. “I swear to God, Natasha, if you don’t bring my little girl home I will make you regret the very day you were born. I won’t give you a chance to beg me for forgiveness. You’re well passed getting retribution.”

  Natasha’s laughter resonated back for a moment. “Now do you really want to be upsetting the woman that is currently staring at your tiny sleeping beauty?” Natasha asked back, the glee so clearly in her tone. “I mean you don’t want to upset the hand that feeds you right? Without me, Austin, how will you ever know what your little cherub is up to?”

  Closing her eyes in a bid to calm down, Austin couldn’t stop herself from agreeing with Natasha. After all, she was the one that had the final say in all of their fates. “What do you want?” Austin asked, her tone simmering down, her compliance beginning to heighten.

  “For you to forget about her,” Natasha replied with the simplest of requests.

  “Not possible,” Austin bit back, still keeping her tone calm. “You know I can’t ever do that, Natasha. You can’t expect me to do something that isn’t ever going to be possible. You cannot expect me to just forget about my daughter.”

  “I can love them both better than you ever can.” Natasha continued her torture of Austin. “I am already. Gracie loves me. Not you. She has barely asked to come home since I got her.”

  “Why are you doing this to me?” Austin asked, her eyes betraying her as they let tears slip free. “Please don’t take the two things I love most in the world, Natasha. Please, don’t do this. I have put up with a lot at the hands of you for years. Haven’t you done enough?”

  “I’ll be done when I have a free pass to a life with Tyler and Grace. Until then, I’ll await the final piece of the puzzle,” Natasha goaded Austin to a darker life. “I won’t be happy until you’re lonely, Austin. My life would have been perfect had you never existed.”

  “I tried to be your friend,” Austin retorted angrily. “I was always the one to see the good in you, and this is how you repay me? You killed my first child, killed my chance with Tyler the first time around, and then when I finally come home you tried to kill my place in my family, and then you tried to kill me. I have never done anything against you and this is how you treat me?”

  “I never wanted to be your friend, and I was sick and tired that everything seemed to fall so perfectly in your lap without you trying,” Natasha sneered back at Austin, not caring to use a less bitter tone. “You didn’t have to fight for a man to love you. You didn’t even need to fight much for your family. They just loved you. I will fight for the man I love.”

  “He loves me,” Austin murmured back as Natasha said her last sentence. “Why can’t you even be remorseful to him? If not me, what about Tyler? If you love him, why are you doing this?”

  “Because he has to notice me,” Natasha lashed back with a simple statement. “Now I know he realizes I’m here and I know he knows what I’m after.” There was a pause on the line before Natasha struck back with a new onslaught. “This would have been simpler if you had done what I had planned in the first place. I wanted you to die at the bottom of those stairs. You just don’t seem to die. Everything is still just perfect for you.”

  “It’s not,” Austin regrettably began to tell her enemy. “Tyler can no longer stand to look at me because of you, Natasha. You might well be getting what you want after all.” Closing her eyes, she bit her lip before striking back. “Now please, just give me my daughter back. You’ve tortured me for long enough. Please, stop using me as your victim.”

  There was another pause, and Austin felt like it was a calculating pause in the conversation.

  “I’m not quite done, but you might want to get to the station, Austin,” Natasha’s voice sneered down the phone. “There’s a little surprise waiting for you in Tyler’s office.”

  As the call ended, Austin looked around panicked at what she should do next. As her eyes landed on the door, she knew what she had to do. Kicking the starchy sheets from her body, Austin pushed off the bed, and propelled towards the bag that Tyler had brought from home. Awkwardly she changed into her own clothes, ignorant of the pains from the fall and bullet that began to scream in agony. She left the hospital gown on the floor where it fell and then turned to find a nurse standing in the doorway.

  “I want my discharge papers,” Austin stated, she wasn’t taking no for an answer. “I’m more than well enough to leave. I need to leave.”

  “I need to get a doctor to give you the once over,” the nurse replied, clearing her throat while she crossed her arms over her chest. “Then you can be allowed to leave.”

  “I want to leave now,” Austin argued, not willing to stand around in the room.

  “After a doctor has seen to you,” the nurse replied, allowing Austin to understand the hospital rules.

  “Fine,” Austin relented easily, and went back to the bed and tore the sling from her arm. She didn’t need more hindrances than she already had. When the nurse was out of sight, she stood up and fled her room. She wasn’t going to wait for a doctor. There was too much at stake right now for her to wait around any longer.

  “Where are you going?” Tom asked from behind her. He was coming back to check up on his sister when he found her making a slow get away from her room. “Aus,” he called out, rushing to get in front of her. “Where are you going?

  “To the station,” Austin admitted without fault or hesitation. “I-I ne-need to be there, Tom. She told me someone’s waiting for me. I can’t sit around in here any longer.”

  “You’re going back to your room,” Tom told her, trying to force her back to her room.

  “I don’t have one,” Austin fought back with a lie, her argumentative tone resonating louder and louder with each new syllable. “I’ve discharged myself. I’m going to the station.”

  “Why?” Jane suddenly burst in, having come down from Sienna’s room. “You should be resting.”

  “I can’t stay here, mom. Tyler’s already left me. Natasha’s still taunting me, and I’m leaving this place,” Austin told her brother and mother. “I can’t sit around in here. I can’t stay here. I can’t continue to do nothing.” She said no more. She stepped around them and began to walk off absentmindedly.

  Tom could feel something was wrong and knew he had to follow her to make sure she was okay. He had watched her slip into a darker place over the past few days, now he knew she was basking in the darkness and trying to do whatever to find her way out of it.

  “I guess we can’t stop her,” Tom muttered at his mother unimpressed. He couldn’t fight her, but he could make sure to be right there with her until he knew she was safe.

  ***

  “You should be at the hospital,” Jane scolded her d
aughter as she drove. She hated to see her in pain and acting out like this, but there was nothing they could do. Austin was a woman driven by intent.

  “She told me something was waiting at the station for me. What if it’s Gracie, Mom? What if I can go and get my baby girl back now?” Austin asked and looked to her mother as she said that. “The pain is worth it for her.”

  “I’m going to call, Ty, and see if he’s actually at the station.” Tom stepped up to keep the peace and keep Austin calm. He knew that Austin was stressing, and he wished she could just go home and relax and get better; with Tyler and Grace by her side.

  No one said anything as Tom did as he said. Austin nervously fumbled her hands together and Jane just concentrated on the road ahead.

  “Hey Ty,” Tom said after Tyler answered the call. “No, we’re just coming to see if there’s anything we can offer, Aus, to calm her.” There was a pause, the muffled words of Tyler as he spoke back. “Yeah, she told us you left, but not much more. She’s a mess.” Another pause and Tom sighed. “We’re nearly there,” Tom commented. “I’ll see you in a moment.”

  “You didn’t tell him I was coming with you,” Austin commented, it wasn’t a question, more an accusatory remark. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because he would go ballistic,” Tom stated dryly. “He didn’t say anything about there being something waiting at the station.” He watched his sister turn back to face the front of the car. “Aus, please don’t get your hopes up too much. She could be playing you.”

  “I’m not,” she lied, trying to make herself believe what she was saying. She said no more on the matter, just watched as the journey drew to a close, and the station became clearer and closer into view.

  The moment her mother had the car parked in the parking lot, Austin climbed from the car and raced towards the station doors. She knew her husband was inside, knew he was working hard with both their fathers. It was the thought that Grace might be inside with her father that motivated her.

  “Do you really think it’s Gracie?” Tom asked, catching up with her. He didn’t want to be doubtful, but he didn’t want to push all his hopes into Austin’s adamant claims.

  “I do, I ju-” she began to say, but her summation was cut off when a loud explosion threw them back. The rush of hot air had Austin and Tom forced to the ground as heat swept through the air.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “NO, no,” Austin said as she painfully scrambled to her feet. “No!” she screamed as she ran towards the burning building. “Tyler! Oh God!” She began to sob, rushing forward. “Tyler!”

  “No!” Tom said, capturing his sister in his arms. He was stunned at what had happened, and if Tyler was inside, there was no chance he was going to walk out of there alive. No one would have survived the blast. He hated the force he had to use on Austin, and as she fought him to get out of his grasp, he tightened his arms around her. “Aus, you can’t go in there.”

  “I have to, Tom!” she screamed, digging her nails into his arms to force him away. “I have to get to him! He’s in there! We need to save him! Grace will need him! I need him!”

  “You can’t.” Tom fought her harder. This time his tone was calmer than before, but his grip on her was tighter than ever. He knew she would exhaust herself and as much as he hated that, he had to make her wear herself out. He looked to see their mother calling for help, people now starting to gather. “You can’t risk it, Aus.”

  Austin didn’t give up fighting against her brother. She fought harder than ever to get away from him. This was like the house all over again. Except, this time, no one was being saved from this fire. She was thrust back to that moment when she came to in the house nearly four years ago. She could feel the heat wrap around her, the flames wanting to catch her and ignite her entire body. She felt the familiarity of pain burst across the scar tissue on her body in remembrance. She found herself howling out in pain, the images cast into her mind were of Tyler suffering the same way she had and it only made her start to attack Tom.

  “Please, Aus,” Tom begged her, his voice getting frightfully high. “Stop!”

  “Why aren’t you saving him?” she asked suddenly weaker than before, falling limp in his arms. She continued to watch the station engulfed in red hot tendrils, the flames flicking and flying as it consumed the building. All of the fight which had resided within her suddenly dispersed and she was left feeling more broken than ever. There was nothing she could have done to save Tyler and she knew, mind, body soul, she couldn’t.

  There was nothing anyone could have done to save him.

  The low moan that escaped Austin imprinted itself into Tom’s memory and it forced Jane to fall beside them. He released Austin into their mother’s grasp and she fully broke down. Her howls increased with each new exhale that Austin struggled to make and she was close to collapsing into eternal defeat.

  As she cried against her mother, emergency services now in the distance, people trying to find a way to help, Austin could only think about everything had happened to get them to this point. Natasha wanted Tyler, and for a moment, Austin had speculated allowing her wish in order to protect their daughter, but she realized she was never going to live without Tyler or Grace. They were so far buried under her skin, they were part of her. She had no idea how she could survive without one or the other. She knew Tyler would only adhere to that plan in order to get Grace back, but now, without Tyler, she had no bargaining tools.

  “Austin!” A new voice pierced through the crackling of the fire. “Aussie!” It came again, but Austin didn’t move from the protection of her mother’s hold. She couldn’t move. She had no need to move ever again.

  “Tyler?” Tom gasped in absolute shock, pushing himself up. “Oh God,” Tom gasped again, the shock dissolving.

  Jane cooed at Austin to look up, trying to get her to listen and even though she was crying heavily, she tried in vain to get Austin to react. When she did, she loosened her hold and let Austin fall free for a moment.

  Looking up, Austin’s vision was blurry from the onslaught she had torn through. She watched as someone raced towards them. The inferno behind the figure and as it rushed forward, her vision focused. She slowly rose as if drawn to the person coming towards her. She was begging with her mind to not be conjuring up a hallucination of Tyler. When he didn’t disappear she ran forward, collapsing into his arms. It felt so good to have him back, like her world was beginning to spin again, the axis appropriately aligned once more.

  “I thought it was you,” Austin cried, her tears slipping incessantly down her face as she looked up at her husband. “I thought I had lost you.”

  “I’m here,” Tyler replied, his voice no more than a stolen whisper as he leaned in, taking her tighter in his arms and bringing her closer to his body. He had seen her on the ground, and his heart had plummeted to the floor. First he was confused as to why she was here, why she wasn’t in the hospital, and then he saw the grief on Tom and Jane and he saw the burning building and he realized what they thought. “I’m here, Aus. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “God, I thought I had lost you!” she howled as she collapsed against him, and dissolved into sobs full of utter devastation as the numbness and shock washed away from her. “I saw it explode and I thought I had lost you! I thought you were inside, Ty. I tho-thought-”

  “Shh,” he soothed her, trying to calm her. “I know, but I wasn’t. No one was inside. We were all out.”

  Austin said nothing; she just remained leaning on her husband. She was unable to comprehend any of this. Her mind was racing, her body was screaming in pain from the fall, and she wanted her daughter. The relief that flooded her when she realized Tyler hadn’t died was consuming, but it was short lived because their daughter was still nowhere in sight.

  She knew that being given a lucky chance at life with Tyler was given to her for a reason. She had to fight for her daughter. Tyler had fought alone for them for too long, it was time for her to relinquish the reigns
of her life and help get their daughter back. She could no longer live oppressed by the threat of Natasha.

  However, her body conspired against her. One moment she stood strongly on her legs, leaning against Tyler’s chest, finding her fighting spirit, and then Austin felt her legs give way as her entire world began to shut off from around her. She had no clue what was happening, but she could feel Tyler’s arms strengthen their hold, preventing her from falling and hitting the ground.

  “Austin!” Tyler exclaimed, he was horrified at his wife’s listless exterior, and he looked to Tom in panic as he began to lower her body. “What’s going on, Tom? What’s wrong with her?”

  “I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think it’s shock,” Tom said as Tyler lay Austin down on the ground. “We got caught in the throw back of the blast too. She literally fought so hard to get into the building to save you that I should’ve have known she was going to do this. The adrenaline rush must have died.” He didn’t care about the paramedics that rushed forward to help; he felt her neck for a pulse and relaxed as he found a steady and strong beat under his finger tips. He leaned down and noticed her breathing was fine too. He sat back up, looking to Tyler. “She’s fainted. I’m sure of it.”

  “What have we got?” One of the medics asked as he dropped to his knees with his bag.

  “I’m sure she’s fainted, but I need to check her blood pressure,” Tom stated professionally. The medic looked at him confused at his medical assertiveness. “I’m a doctor, she’s my sister. She was attacked and shot only a few days ago. She’s been stable since admittance to the hospital, but I think she’s fainted from the shock of thinking her husband was in the police station.”