Chapter 14 Burning Houses
Kevin went over to the hospital to see Natasha. And reaching the room where she was admitted in, he stood by the window to gaze at her. He was elated to find her on her feet again.
Natasha, struggling to walk, was pacing the room. Stopped when she heard the door open, and quickly turned and saw standing there at the entrance, Kevin. She recoiled in shock, clearly not expecting to see him, for she had been waiting for her dad to come pick her.
Kevin stood by the door, unwilling to move a step further into the room. Their eyes locked on and for a long second, they stared awkwardly at each other. He didn’t know what to say to her.
“Hi.” the word was already out before he could stop it.
“Hi.” she answered almost immediately, smiles crossed her lips.
“It’s a relief to see that you are finally back on your feet again.” he took a few paces towards her. “How are you?”
“Like you, only better.”
He smiled when he picked up a note of sarcasm in her voice. “I guess we would see you in school pretty soon.”
“Yeah… I guess.” She leapt to the bed and sat at the corner. “I’m going to be discharged today—just waiting for my dad to come pick me up.”
He was alarmed. “But you aren’t fully recovered yet.”
“This place feels like a prison, it’s so lonely in here.” she slouched, “Hell, I won’t bear to spend another day in a place like this. I just want to go home. This is all a bad dream to me.”
Kevin wasn’t sure what to say. He released a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. An awkward silence slithered its way into their conversation. Then he took a chair from the corner and sat beside her, avoiding her gaze.
Natasha, wanting to keep the conversation going, thought of something to say to him, but they ended up speaking at the same time.
“I’m sorry for how I’d treated you the first day we met.” he tattled.
“Thanks for visiting yesterday.” she said.
Again, a stony silence slithered its way throughout the room. They stare at each other nervously.
“You go first.” he said—smiling calmly.
“There is really no need to apologize for what happened that day.” she let out a self-deprecating chuckle. “It was kind of my fault that I bumped into you, remember? I wasn’t seeing were I was going.”
“I still feel like I owe you an apology. Just can’t get the guilt off my chest. And the reason I didn’t want to come in yesterday was because I thought you were still mad at me, and that you wouldn’t want to see me.”
“Of course not.” she let out a laugh. “Dude, I have nothing against you.”
His smiles tightened. “Again, I’m really sorry about your phone.”
“It’s no big deal, besides it has already been fixed.”
He tried to reach for his wallet deep in his pocket. “Well, at least allow me to refund the money for the cost of repair.”
She pushed her hand forward to stop him, staring directly into his eyes. “Don’t, please.” In the silence that followed, she said—almost sarcastically. “Is it just me, or are you a completely different person from the guy I saw yesterday? Where’s the new attitude coming from?
Kevin only smiled calmly. Behind that smile—Natasha knew— was a story just waiting to be told. “Well, since our first meeting didn’t go so well, let’s start all over again.” he stretched his hand towards her for a handshake. “My name is Kevin Logan, really nice meeting you.”
She snorted at the gesture—a smile on her face, and took his hand. “Natasha Martinez, but my close friends call me Tasha.” The smile on her lips widened. “You can call me Tasha.”
Caressing her hands gently, he said. “Well Tasha, has anyone told you that you have the best smile? I bet you hear that a lot, huh?”
She chuckled, stifling an eye roll. “If you are trying to flirt with me, then you are doing a poor job.”
“Never been good at flirting,” he grimaced, “That’s a pickup line I learnt from a friend.”
And without his knowledge, they had accidentally become friends. He knew he had crossed his boundary with that move, and it was a costly mistake at that—one he’d have to pay for, eventually.
“We would work on your flirting skills…” she cupped her hands around his jaw and gently caresses his face—inspecting it. “The cuts and bruises…” Wrinkles creased her brows. “They are all gone.”
A line appeared between his brows. “What bruises?” he asked, feeling perplexed.
“I heard about the beat down you took.”
Kevin narrowed his eyes at her. “Wait… how did you know that?”
“Derik told me about the fight.” she revealed, “Seriously, what were you thinking, going to take on those thugs all by yourself?”
“You know Derik?” he asked, sounding a bit surprised.
Derik had mentioned that he knew Natasha, but he didn’t expect they would be this close for him to disclose to her the incidence that’d taken place last night.
“Of course. He works with my dad at the taskforce, and he’s my bodyguard.” she answered, shocking him even more. “He told me about how you were beaten up so badly that you were left with several cuts and bruises.”
He tried to deviate from the subject. “I only did what I did because I just couldn’t stand seeing you that way, while the people who did this to you walk free.”
It worked!
She blushed, “I don’t know if that’s the most romantic gesture I’ve ever had, or that was the most stupid thing a person could ever do. What if Derik hadn’t shown up? Those guys could have killed you.”
A phone buzzed, leaving the room in sheer silence. “Is that mine?” Tasha asked, looking around her bed.
“Those guys took your phone from you, remember?” he reminded, reaching for the phone buzzing in his pocket.
It was an unknown number which he hadn’t saved on his contact list.
“Hello?” he echoed, pressing the phone to his ear.
“Please…” a distressed feminine voice responded. “Help us!”
He immediately recognized the voice.
Mirabel’s mum.
His expression turned pensive. “Are you ok? What is wrong?”
“My daughter…” she lamented. “Mirabel just collapsed. Please come help us.”
Kevin’s eyes widened. “What happened?” But she had already hung up. “Hello? Hello?” he turned to Tasha, clearly disturbed.
A cloud of gloom had settled over Natasha’s feature. “Is everything alright?” she asked.
“I have to go now.” he said, then dashed out of the room.
“Wait… you haven’t told me how you healed so quickly.” she mumbled after he was gone.
When Kevin arrived at the park, he was horror-stricken at the sight of several houses that were engulfed in flames. He saw many people—women, children, all running about in scattered direction while their houses burn. Some were coming out of their houses with the fire burning behind their backs. Painful screams and plaintive cries washed across the crowd.
It was now coming back to him. The sight of the burning houses—the exact image he had seen in his dream was happening in reality right before his eyes. For a moment, he did not understand what was going on—how could this be?
Am I dreaming again? He thought with dread.
But then, he saw Derik, along with some men clad in a black suit and dark shades, throwing bottle explosives into each of the houses. Kevin became convinced that he wasn’t dreaming. It was really happening.
Each house Derik threw the bottle into went down in flames, the acrid smell of flames coating the melted furniture. Kevin quickly ran to him and stopped him.
He was shaking with barely restrained rage and fear. “What are you doing?” he taunted.
“Remember the animal-humans I talked to you about last night—the shape shifters? We found out that most of them live down here. I was giving order to get rid of them.” After saying this, he picked up another bottle of explosive and smashed it through the window of a bungalow and it was immediately set ablaze.
Kevin turned to look at the sight of the buildings burning all around him, children crying, women running in all directions. It was chaotic. He felt a prickle in his stomach when he saw a girl, a little older than Mirabel, running around and screaming painfully with fire burning behind her back.
A cloud of enormous smoke was rising from her burning dress, and it choked her. She let out a shrill after she fell to the ground, coughing helplessly while the flame engulfed her.
Kevin felt his knee grew weak as he watched the innocent girl screamed in the tormenting flames, and within seconds life left her body. He turned away in revulsion, the charred body causing a ball of fear and nausea to form in the pit of his stomach.
He sneered at Derik. “Does this look like a threat to you?” he gestured towards the little girl that’d been burnt to death. “She’d lost her life for something she knew nothing about.”
Just then, Kevin’s eyes fell on the Ambury Manor going up in flame. He hurried towards the building and rudely kicked the door open. Saw the helpless woman coughing at the plumes of soot.
“Where is Mirabel?” he blurted out.
She pointed to where Mirabel lay, unconscious and engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Hastily, Kevin dashed into her room and picked her up, then grabbed the woman by her arm. “Quick, we have to leave now. This building is going to come down any second.”
He carried them outside. Kevin dropped Mirabel carefully on the floor. Mirabel’s mum, choked by the immerse smoke which surrounded her, coughed uncontrollably. He gently tapped her back and turned to glare at Derik.
Derik was filled with regrets, his brows raising upward and his mouth ajar as he watched the woman weep beside her unconscious daughter. He then realised what he was doing and immediately ordered the men to stop.
His eyes widened in horror as he turned to look around the park at the enormous number of bodies lying dead on the floor. Many houses burned all around him. His jaw dropped as he stared, realizing the extent of the damage he had caused.
“We need to get them to a hospital!” Kevin snarled at him.
