"Mrs. West," Nathan ordered "I need to talk to your daughter."
"Haven't you ruined this family enough?" she hissed "Leave my daughter alone!"
"Laura was very close to Matt, wasn't she," demanded Nathan "close enough to demand revenge over those who she though killed him, right?"
"Stop shouting at my Mum!" a girly voice screamed. Nathan turned to see the same girl he has seen a few hours before, only her face was bright red with anger.
"You must be Laura," Nathan turned to look her in the face. She was furious. Now was the time to be careful "I know about the fires. I know you caused them." She didn't even bother to hide it, or deny it.
"I am far more powerful than you, or my stupid brother. He went out and got himself killed! I am so much stronger than that!" she glared at the little table by the front door for a second and it burst into flames, then died back down again, revealing a destroyed table. Mrs. West screamed and sobbed, cowering back fearfully.
"Laura, Laura sweetheart, we can get through this," she cried "just don't do anything silly and we can sort this out!"
"No!" she shouted "Ever since I got my Gift, you've been lecturing me over and over again! 'Don't do anything silly, Laura'," she mimed whiningly "'Don't do what your brother did, Laura' – well I'm sick of it! GO TO HELL!" and with that, she looked straight at her mother. With a scream, Mrs. Dean erupted in flames and within seconds she was nothing but blackened bones and ashes on the floor. Nathan kept his face composed – it seems the hunger for power also ran in the family, because Matt had done pretty much the exact same thing.
"I get why you would want revenge," Nathan started, but Laura interrupted.
"Revenge? That's only the half of it. I am not going to live in my brother's death-ridden shadow forever – no way. I'm going to put my name on the map!" she grinned, but Nathan saw a manic glint in her eyes.
"As what? A terrorist?" Nathan snorted.
"You think anyone's gunna say no to me with this power – this gift? I could be anything I want – I could be the President of the United States, or the Queen of England!" Nathan choked back a laugh.
"You think this is a gift? This 'gift' killed your brother, and you're heading the same way. And there's one thing I don't understand – almost all the victims of the fire have ended up in comas. There's no way you could have done that – so how did it happen?" Nathan was very conscious of the time. Audrey had only two hours to wake up now – he had wasted too much time moping and crying over her and not enough time solving the crime!
"Please," she snorted this time "when have you ever heard of a bad guy working alone? I have allies." She was bragging, and in her showing off, she had disclosed a massive secret. She was not alone.
"Jason Barnes." Gasped Nathan "He's Troubled too." He took one glance at Laura's smug face and knew he was right. He was causing all of this – the comas. They were working together to slowly take over the town, starting with the main points; first the police station, then the school. And Nathan knew what was going to be next.
The Hospital.
