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“Every time there was a new family, every time there was an accident, reporters and stupid internet ghost hunters would dredge all of it back up causing my dad to spiral yet again. The last time he took his life…and my mom’s and sister’s as well. Too bad he didn’t do it before he put us through years of beatings and abuse!”
The guy moves in the circle of light bending down in front of Rory.
“Oh, does that make you sad? Well, it should. I made it my personal goal to make sure this house never sees another owner. Never sees life in it again! This house…it haunts people. It sinks into their minds and does things to them. It made my whole family murderers!”
“If anything, I’m saving you. I’m making it so you don’t have to worry about someone you love killing you violently one night when you least expect it! It’s better this way.”
She mumbles something but can’t be understood because she has a strip of cloth shoved in her mouth and tied.
“Don’t think I didn’t see you and the cop flirting with one another! I mean, come on! A fucking cop! That’s like asking for a bullet in your brain as you sleep!”
She starts getting louder and louder and moving the chair she’s strapped to in her need to make him understand and release her.
I see him walk to a small bag and come back with several lighters and boxes of matches.
“Snodgrass! Stop! Put the matches and lighter down!”
The man wheels around with a startled look on his face. “Who…who’s there?”
He's looking into the dark but can't see me. Something ricochets through my mind, and I run with it. “Snodgrass, my boy, don’t you recognize your grandfather’s voice?”
“Gramps?” The man practically falls to his knees and looks into the inky blackness as if he is seeing the ghost of his Grandfather.
“Why are you doing this, son? Why are you trying to set our house on fire?”
“Why did you kill my grandmother and leave my father? Why did YOU start all of this? Why Gramps? Why?”
Instead of answering him, I move so I am at his and Rory’s back. I chance him seeing me to get Rory out of the house. When I come up to her, she whips her head around and I bring my finger to my lips in a silent request for her to be as quiet as possible. The look in her eyes when she realizes it is me is everything. She literally looks like I’m a fucking knight here to rescue her.
Her face is streaked with tears and there’s a scuffed place under her eye that looks like she might have been smacked. I breathe through the hate and anger I have roiling inside of meand focus instead on getting her out of her. I cut her legs free and then work on her wrists.
“Gramps? Gramps, are you still with us? Gramps? Where the hell did you go, old man?”
I can tell by the edge of fury in the man’s voice that I am running out of time.
“You’ll never say another word, you cancerous old buffoon!”
He turns and sees me working to release Rory and his face blanches. “No!!”
He takes out the lighter and drops it before I can go for my gun or think of another way to stop him.
“I won’t be stopped!”
The trail of gas ignites, and a circle of flames erupts around us. Rory screams through her gag and brings her eyes to mine. I finally work the bands off her wrists and start unknotting the rope around her middle he used to tie her to the chair. As soon as there is enough slack, she pushes it over her head and ducks underneath, pulling the gag from her mouth.
Her arms come up to warp around my neck before I take her mouth in a rushed kiss full of promise and urgency. “We have to get out of here, baby.”
She gives me a nod before I lift her in my arms and walk us through the fire quickly. Once on the other side of the ring of fire, we rush to the basement stairs. The flames are quick and are racing to every corner of the basement. We barely make it to the stairs before the fire does and rush up them and through the door. My only goal is to get the woman I love out of this fuckingpit of hell. Once we reach the first floor we run right into the psycho.
Behind me, Rory coughs and has smudges on her face and clothes because of the fire. Now, we have to put up with this asshole.
“I can’t let you two leave. I can’t let this house -and any part of it- survive! I’m doing this for the greater good!”
I would just mow past him if he didn’t have a gun in his hand. I make damn sure to put my body in front of Rory’s. If this guy shoots, he’s going to have to go through me and my vest to get to her.
The floor starts creaking under our feet and the sense of urgency rises. If I don’t get us out of here…we’re going to be back in the basement surrounded by flames. The window next to the guy shatters and I take the opportunity to pull my gun and shoot. The guy goes down and the fall knocks the gun from his hand. My partner sticks his head in the broken window.
“Come on, man! The house is smoking!”
