The Burns Fire Read online

Tessa shook her head. “You can’t. You’re dead.”

  “Dead,” parroted the spirit, shocked. “What do you mean – dead?”

  “Opposite of alive?” mumbled Tessa.

  She approached Mr. Koval and put her hand on his glowing red arm. As soon as her hand came in contact with the spirit, the red glow started to dim down and a second later, the spirit of Mr. Koval was shining with a normal white light.

  “Thank you, kid,” whispered Mr. Koval. For the first time, Tessa saw this man smiling. His smile was tired and sad, but it was a genuine smile. “Your touch is like magic or something. It’s so calming…” He sighed and stilled for a second.

  The spirit shone brighter and then dissipated leaving a few bright sparks lingering in the air for a few moments. But as the spirit disappeared, Tessa felt the same cold and menacing presence in the room. A piercing shriek, infused with burning fury rang in her ears. She gasped, pressing her hands to her ears, unable to tolerate the pure evil of this sound. She didn’t know what it was, yet she was sure that it was this malignant evil presence that just killed Mr. Koval.

  As soon as the spirit was gone, the normal sounds came back flooding the room and her vision flickered back to normal. She inhaled sharply, getting back to reality. Ryan was still performing CPR on the absolutely dead body of Mr. Koval. Dr. Davis was quietly sobbing, standing by the wall.

  Ryan threw another look at Tessa and frowned. “Call 911, Tessa. What are you waiting for?”

  Mechanically, she punched the numbers on the cell phone, calling the emergency services and brought the phone to her ear. “We have a medical emergency,” she said as soon as she heard a voice on the other side. She gave them the address and hung up the phone.

  ~ Tessa ~

  Tessa ran out of the building and didn’t stop until she reached her car. She pressed the button, opened the door of her old Honda Civic and dropped into the driver’s seat. She didn’t start the car but put her shaking hands on the steering wheel and sat, silently staring straight into the dimming light of the evening sky.

  She kept thinking about everything that just happened in the dental office, but no matter how many times she ran through the events surrounding Mr. Koval’s death in her head, she couldn’t find a reasonable explanation. Nothing like this had ever happened to her, and she kept asking herself questions she had no answers to.

  What was this evil presence she felt in the office? She was sure that there was something in the room. Something invisible and malignant.

  Why did Mr. Koval die? Like he said it himself – he was healthy like a bull. There were other people in the office. Why him?

  Why was she able to see the spirit of Mr. Koval? She wasn’t sleeping. It wasn’t a dream.

  And the most important question of them all, the one she was asking herself since she was sixteen; the question that was always making her feel uneasy. What am I?

  It all started when Tessa just turned sixteen. A few days after her birthday, her mother got in a car accident. She passed away a few minutes after the paramedics arrived at the scene. No one could explain what happened that morning on the road. Her mother, a police detective, who was driving since she was sixteen, drove her vehicle into a concrete light post on the side of the road. The car was checked by the police department, but no malfunctions that could cause the accident were found. Medical examiners also didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

  A man who witnessed the accident said that he saw a vehicle crossing the intersection and then making a sharp turn to the side, slamming into the post at full speed. He said that there were no other cars on the road, no people or animals. There was nothing that the driver possibly was trying to avoid by running off the road.

  All Tessa remembered from that day was her Uncle Justin, her mom’s older brother, coming over to her school. She remembered him talking to her in the principal’s office, his voice soft and sympathetic, as he delivered the terrible news. She remembered everything spinning as her whole world crashed around her and her uncle’s arms supporting her. She kind of remembered him driving her to his house, but after that everything was a blur. Even her memories of the funeral were not clear. A ceremony at their church, a chain of faces, eyes gazing at her with sympathy and understanding, heartfelt words of condolences and encouragement – everything smudged into one nightmarish vision, that couldn’t be accepted or processed by her frazzled mind.

  The only thing that Tessa remembered clearly was the first night she spent in her uncle’s house. She was lying down fully dressed on the queen-size bed of the spacious guest bedroom. She wasn’t asking why it happened to her or what would she do now. She wasn’t angry with her mom for leaving her or with the powers that be that took her mom away. She was just lying down on the giant empty bed, numb emotionally and exhausted physically, thinking of absolutely nothing.

  Her uncle told her that she should get some rest, but she couldn’t sleep, silent tears sliding from her wide-open eyes, running down her cheeks into an already soaked pillow. Even as a little child, she was never afraid of the dark, but that night, she left the light on. For the first time in her life, the darkness terrified her. She didn’t remember when she finally fell asleep. But she remembered the dream she had that night like it happened yesterday, with the tiniest details.

  In her dream, she woke up in her Uncle’s guest bedroom. Everything looked exactly like it was in real life. She was alone and the light in the room was still on. She sat up on the bed and at that moment her vision switched from light to dark, like she was looking at an old negative film. In the darkness of the negative, she saw the door into the bedroom open soundlessly and her mother walked inside the room. She looked just like Tessa remembered her, but her whole body was glowing with a soft white light.

  She smiled at Tessa and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her. “Tessa, my little darling, I’m so sorry it had to happen like this,” she whispered, her voice gentle like the sound of a light wind. She lifted her hand and caressed Tessa’s cheek, but Tessa didn’t feel her touch.

  “Mom, are you really here or am I sleeping?” croaked Tessa, her throat constricted with grief. She was happy to see her mom, but at the same time she felt a light twinge of fear.

  “Both. I’m really here, but you’re also asleep.” Her mom got up and sighed. “Tessa, I don’t have a lot of time, darling. I wanted to see you one more time before I…” Her voice trailed away.

  “Mom, don’t leave me, please,” begged Tessa.

  “I wish I could stay, my darling. I wish I could protect you from what’s coming,” said her mom stretching her arm toward Tessa. “I love you, Tessa. You must find out what you—"

  Tessa didn’t listen; she jumped off the bed and took her mother’s hand. As soon as she touched her, the image shone brighter and a moment later, the spirit of her mother vanished from the room.

  “Mom, no! Please, don’t go! What’s coming? What do I need to find out? Don’t leave me… Mommy…”

  Tessa screamed and woke up, her eyes overflowing with tears. Her vision switched back to normal and she found herself still on the bed, lonely and miserable. The light was on and there was no one in the room.

  After her mother’s death, Tessa had a few more similar dreams. Every time when someone she knew passed away, their spirits were visiting her in her dreams. She had a few minutes to talk to them, to say goodbye or to comfort them, but as soon as she would touch them, the spirits vanished.

  Tessa couldn’t explain what it was or why it was happening to her and she was terrified of her dreams. And now, for the first time, she communicated with a spirit while she was awake. She never told anyone about her dreams, but at this moment she had a burning need to speak to someone. She didn’t expect that anyone would have an explanation, she just didn’t want to deal with all this alone.

  “I’ll talk to Aidan,” she promised to herself, starting the car.

  Aidan was Tessa’s martial arts instructor, and he was the only person in her life w
hom she trusted fully, the only person whom she considered her friend. Now, that she made the decision to talk to him, she started to feel a little better. At the same time, her stomach spasmed, reminding her that she didn’t eat since breakfast.

  She glanced at her cell phone. She had only thirty minutes left before her Taekwondo lesson. That wasn’t enough time to go home and eat, so some fast food sounded like a quick and cheap enough solution to take care of the hunger. Golden Arches it is, she thought, directing her car from the parking lot toward the nearest McDonald’s.

  As soon as she pulled out on the street, her car dove into the deranged traffic of the evening rush hour. Not in a rush to join the world of the dead, Tessa had no choice but to forget about the spirits and focus on driving.

  As her car crawled along the drive-through line at McDonald’s, she snickered, thinking about the look on Aidan’s face when he would see the brown McDonald’s bag in her hands. She didn’t doubt that the treat-your-body-like-the-temple lecture would follow immediately, but right now she couldn’t care less.

  A few minutes later, she drove into a parking lot of a small plaza. A few mom-and-pop shops, a cozy Italian restaurant and Aidan’s martial arts school were still open for business. Usually there was enough place to park, but today every single parking spot was occupied.

  Awesome! This day just can’t get any worse. Tessa sighed irritably and drove around. There was another small parking lot on the back of the school, but it was always dark, and she didn’t like the idea of leaving her car there in the evening. It’s not like she had extra money to buy another car if this one got butchered or stolen.

  Tessa parked the car in the back and walked out. Surrounded by a tall fence on two sides and shrubbery on the other side, the parking lot was dark and empty. Stormy clouds covered the sky, wiping out the last weak rays of sunset and throwing long slithering shadows on the cracked asphalt. She threw the sport bag with her uniform and equipment over her shoulder, grabbed the McDonald’s bag in her other hand and was ready to lock the car when she noticed a reflection of four dark silhouettes in the car window.

  She didn’t turn around right away. Staring into the window, she sharpened her senses and listened, her hand remaining on the door handle of the car. It wasn’t unusual for people to walk here. It was a convenient shortcut from the plaza to the Coral Grove housing development and people used it all the time. However, something didn’t feel right about these four. Tessa couldn’t explain it. It was something on the level of intuition, but these four people emitted some deadly vibe that set Tessa’s nerves on high alert.

  Still watching their reflections in the window, she noticed that they stopped a few feet away from her, talking among themselves quietly. For a moment, Tessa considered jumping back into her car and driving away. But she wasn’t sure that she had enough time to open the door, put the key into ignition and drive away before these people could reach her. Besides, running away from any danger wasn’t her style.

  Tessa put her sport bag and the brown paper bag with the food on the asphalt next to her car and slowly turned around. A short distance away, she saw four young men. While there was nothing special about their appearance, the wicked smirks on their faces and their body language were promising trouble.

  As soon as they saw Tessa turning around, they stopped talking and leisurely strolled toward her, separating farther apart to surround her. Now Tessa had no doubt of their intentions, but she didn’t feel fear. A slow uneven grin spread on her face. She knew exactly what they saw – a small skinny girl, easy prey. She loved when bullies underestimated her and these four were nothing but grown-up oversized bullies.

  “Bring it on, assholes,” she hissed through her clenched teeth, getting ready to fight her way to the backdoor of the school, praying that Aidan left it unlocked.

  The men obviously heard her because they hooted laughing. One of them approached Tessa, towering at least a foot over her. He was dressed in jeans and a shirt that didn’t conceal his athletic build. His thick dark hair was shaved closely on the sides, stylishly fading into a dark stubble. He stared down at Tessa, running his cold eyes up and down her body, and flashed his white teeth at her.

  “Little girl,” he said with a light accent that Tessa couldn’t quite place, “how is your math? There are four of us and only one of you. Let’s make this experience enjoyable for all of us.”

  The man put his left hand on Tessa’s shoulder and she noticed a colorful tattoo on his arm. A fire-breathing dragon was slithering from under the sleeve of his shirt, wrapping around his arm. Its scaly tail stretched all the way to the knuckles of his hand. But it wasn’t the tattoo that caught Tessa’s attention. His ring finger was decorated by a gold ring that without a doubt was a wedding band.

  “The more the merrier,” muttered Tessa, fearlessly meeting the man’s dark eyes.

  The man’s smile got wider and considerably brighter. He turned to his friends and flicked his eyebrow at them. “I think I’m going to like taming this one.” His friends replied with a second wave of laughter.

  Tessa blinked at the man a few times and cocked her head, studying his face with interest. “What would you prefer?” she asked calmly, taking his hand with her two fingers and throwing it off her shoulder. “A visit to a prosthodontist or to a plastic surgeon?”

  “Excuse me?” he coughed out, choking on laughter.

  “I hope you have good dental insurance, jackass, because I’m about to rearrange your smile,” growled Tessa. She took a few quick steps to the side, giving herself some space to move and then threw her whole body forward, landing a perfect jump punch into the man’s teeth.

  ~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~

  Gunz spent all night going through the files and had no time to get any sleep. From Angelique’s office he opened the portal to his house where he took a hot shower, grabbed a quick breakfast and rushed to the medical examiner’s office to check out the bodies of the victims. As Jim promised, Noah, the medical examiner, was ready for his visit. He provided Gunz with all the information he needed and left him alone.

  As soon as Gunz approached the victims’ bodies, he knew that Angelique was right. Just like her, he couldn’t sense anything unnatural about them. He headed to the door and locked it to make sure that no one could walk in. Then he connected with his power and examined the bodies again, carefully scanning them with his magical sense. At first, he didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary, but when he touched the body of the young girl, he noticed something faint, almost undetectable. It felt like an extremely light residue of magical energy.

  He channeled more fire and his arms got engulfed in smoldering orange flames. Careful, not to set anything on fire, he closed his eyes and moved his burning hands over the corps relying only on his Fire Salamander sense. He detected the residual energy of magic right away and this time he had no doubt that it was dark magic. Evil intent and ill-wish that he sensed made his skin crawl.

  He checked all five victims and now that he knew what to look for, he found the residual dark energy right away. Jim was right – all five cases were paranormal. And now he knew that all these people were killed by the same supernatural being. However, Gunz had no idea what it was.

  From the medical examiner’s office, he drove to Parkland. He parked his car at the far end of the plaza, facing the martial arts school. For a while he sat in the car, observing the martial arts school. It was five in the afternoon and children with their parents were going in and out of the school. Nothing special. Gunz frowned, biting his lip. He couldn’t sense anything supernatural so far, but possibly he parked too far away.

  While sitting in the car, Gunz checked the school’s website again. The owner of the school was Master Aidan McGrath who held a few high-ranking black belts in different martial arts styles. He studied Aidan McGrath’s photo, wondering how he could achieve all these high-ranking black belts at such a young age. He didn’t look a day older than thirty.

  Gunz also thought that t
he name of the school and its logo was a little unusual – Elements Martial Arts. Instead of the usual permutation of yin and yang symbol or a kicking man, the logo of this school had stylized image of elements. But instead of four, it had only two elements, water and fire.

  According to the schedule that was posted on the website, the kids’ lessons were over by about 7 PM. Gunz decided to wait a couple of hours and come back to the school after most of the children were gone. He left his car at the plaza and walked around the residential neighborhoods to see if he could find anything unusual. But just like Angelique said – Parkland was a quiet city with minimal supernatural activity and Gunz didn’t meet any non-human residents in the area.

  After checking the Coral Grove, Gunz walked back to the plaza, approaching it from the back. The evening was rolling in, slowly wiping out the last traces of daylight and the sky got covered in dark clouds. With his heightened Salamander senses, Gunz could feel the approaching rain. The rain wasn’t dangerous to him, but he didn’t enjoy the feeling. Dwelling in the element of Fire, the touch of cold water to his skin was never pleasant. And the colder the water was, the more painful was its touch.

  Following a hardly visible trail in the grass, Gunz walked up to the small dark parking lot in the back of the school and halted. On the opposite site of the parking lot, he saw a group of people. Four men were surrounding a young woman, cutting all her ways out. From where he was standing, the men didn’t look like a friendly bunch and the focused moves of the woman were suggesting that she was getting ready to fight.

  But it wasn’t only the appearance of these men and their behavior that made Gunz take a second look. Even from this distance, he knew that neither of these men were human. They were oozing the dark, sinister energy that Gunz could recognize with his eyes closed. These men were demons. Or better to say, they were possessed by demons.