Page 32 of Fastlander Phoenix

He shook his head hard and stared out at the woods, stealing his flaming glare from her, but she didn’t miss it. His heart was in his eyes for a moment. He swallowed hard. “I’ll burn you.”

“Is this the part where you’re chasing me off?”

“I’ll be the end of you. I’ll be the end of all of these people.” He took another drink, and she watched his Adam’s apple work as he moved the burning liquor down his throat. He slapped his head hard three times and lowered his gaze to the porch floorboards between his knees.

“Keep going.”

Anger was in his gaze again as he looked up. “I said to go away.”

“Keep telling me all the bad stuff. Maybe then I’ll go away.”

“If I wanted to be with you, I would’ve come to your house tonight.”

It stung, but she’d seen this before—the lash-out.

She waited, hoping the tears that burned her eyes would stay put.

“I don’t want to be with you.”

“I’m not asking that of you,” she murmured. “I can be your friend.”

“I don’t want a fucking friend!” He threw the bottle of whiskey, and it shattered against the grille of his truck. “Timber! I’m trying! I’m fucking trying!”

“Trying to chase me away.”

He jammed a finger toward his truck. “My dad is standing there.”

Chills rippled up her spine. She dared a glance at his truck, but all she saw was the broken glass and whiskey dripping from the front end.

“I see him still. He haunts me. He tells me what will happen, what I will do. He tells me I’ll be just like him, and I know it’s true. I can feel it. He was losing control at the end, and I’m doing the same thing.”

“There’s no one there,” she whispered.

His smile was so empty. “To you, there is no one there, because you are normal, Timber. I’m haunted by the man I killed.”

She couldn’t contain her gasp, and placed her hands over her mouth at his awful admission.

“There it is. Now you’re starting to see me. That look in your eyes is how you should always see me, Timber.”

“What happened?”

“Age sixteen. I didn’t know I was like him. He had fire, and I didn’t fucking knowIdid. I prayed to be like my mom. I prayed I wouldn’t get it. He had to burn everything down. He hurt my mom, and he hurt me, and he kept burning fields. Crops. He set fire to the homes of people he had a problem with. It got bigger and bigger, and the police started showing up, asking questions, and then he got meaner, and louder. He got cocky. He got crazy. His mind started going, and I watched my mom take the brunt of it. And one day, I just…burned him alive. That’s how I figured out I have fire. I was angry. He’d burned my mom’s arm grabbing her, and I just…lost it. He fought back, andI got hurt, and we set fire to acres of land around us, but I burned that motherfucker to ashes. I burned him while my mother was screaming for us to stop—” his voice cracked, and he slammed his head back against the railing and covered his face with his hands. His hands caught fire, and it ignited his skin. He just sat there burning. “She was screaming for me to stop, and I burned him anyway. He couldn’t stop, and I couldn’t stop, and one of us was going to die that day. I didn’t want it to be me. I wanted my mom to be safe from him.” The last of his admission came so softly, she barely heard it over the sound of the flames that were lapping at his skin.

Nothing on the porch was catching fire but him.

He didn’t see it though. Where his foot touched her sneaker, the fire had changed colors.

The small flames there were green.

“Is that why you don’t see your mom?” she asked, heartbroken for him.

“She is what I have left. Look what I did to your arm, Timber. Same thing my father did, and I wasn’t even angry. I was trying to help you. I’m no better than him. I have the same shitty grasp on control he did. I couldn’t live with myself if I ever lost control around her again.” He crossed his arms over his knees, just…a man on fire. So bright, it hurt to look directly at him.

“What else?” she asked softly.

He shook his head back and forth slowly, face buried against his arms. He didn’t see the change in the woods. People had stopped working, stopped talking. They were drifting toward the outer edge of the firelight he created, and they didn’t look angry or frustrated anymore.

They looked…stunned.

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