Page 58 of The Outcast
“Nothing,” I said but he was already looking in the same direction as me.
He came to stand next to me and covered his eyes with a hand to see better. We were both silent for a long moment as the dot grew in size and then he cursed. “Damn those fuckers. Why can’t they just leave me alone?”
“I told you they would find us,” I said with relief.
Scrunching up his face in fury, Keith kicked at the ground and spun around. “Fucking fangs on a fiddle.”
“You could run and leave me here,” I suggested, hoping that he would try to escape and leave me alone.
The look of determination in his eyes was scary. “No. They’re not taking you away from me.”
I wriggled when he picked me up on his shoulders and ran back to the raft. Stepping across the burning snake of firewood along the edge of the raft, he stepped into the middle and set me down.
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” It was a rhetorical question, but I couldn’t believe he would place us in the middle of a budding fire.
“This is how I wanted it to end anyway. I just never imagined it would come this soon. We were supposed to have decades of joy together.” With a stick, Keith pushed the raft free of the bank and we floated out on the lake.
Staring at the fire around us I made an attempt to move but he tightened his strong grip on me and spoke in an ominous tone. “Remember Shiva’s wife who showed her loyalty to him by burning herself?”
“Let me go!”
“They are coming to steal you away from me, but this way our souls will be together in our next lives. Our bodies will melt into one.”
Freaking out, I sobbed when he forced me down. My right hand got burned and when he lay on top of me, I couldn’t breathe. I was hyperventilating and wriggling to get free.
“Shhh, Sparrow, look at me. We’ll exchange our vows now.”
My eyes were wet with tears and I didn’t listen to a word he said when he continued. My head was moving from side to side as the fire traveled up the narrow line on both sides of us. My head was in the middle on the heart-shaped pile of twigs and sticks. Soon the fire would travel all the way up and set my hair and face on fire.
Keith kept talking. “Don’t be afraid. The pain is temporary. I’ll be here with you and we’ll get through it together. Now you say your vows and we’ll die as husband and wife.”
This time, the rage I felt toward him came out like a dragon rising from the bottom of my core and while looking into his eyes, I roared, “Go to hell!”
My face was hot from the closeness of the fire. No matter which side I looked to, it was creeping closer. Then came the smell of burning hair making me scream as I realized it was my hair that was burning. With my hands and feet tied, and him on top of me, I couldn’t do anything but scream in sheer pain and panic.
Keith stared at me and raised his torso with horror on his face. The soul-ripping scream of terror that came from me made him blink and pull me up. Now, sitting, I kept screaming from the burning sensation on my scalp. “Make it stop, make it stop!”
With clumsy movements he patted my head and when he pulled his hand back, I saw chunks of my black hair on his hands
The fire was all around us now and the small flames were growing in size. My wet socks had protected my feet at first but now the fabric was burning me, and little sparks were blistering our skin. When Keith’s jacket caught fire, he tried to hammer on the side of his arm.
“Please, Keith, pleeease,” I cried as extreme pain shot up my leg. Looking down I saw that my right pajama pants leg had caught on fire.
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CHAPTER 20
Too Late
Banni
It was Aubri who spotted the smoke as we flew over vast landscapes of forest.
The drone was already flying at maximum speed and yet it felt like slow motion. Smoke meant fire and since there was no thunder and lightning at the moment, the fire had to be made by a person.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered as if I could make the drone go faster.
We were all fixated on the smoke rising between the treetops on the horizon.
