Chapter 14-Breaking Point

I did my best to keep Castor's threats at the back of my mind, at the moment however I knew there was nothing I could do about them so I kept my guard up and went about my business which included caring for Byron, school, and work. I figured it was just another empty threat like the one he had made when he first returned to town, but I could never be sure at least we were with my mother and not at the yellow house in the housing unit.

The other shoe dropped on a Tuesday afternoon just as I was getting off work. I was just getting into my car when my phone rang, glancing at the caller ID I saw it was Sophia.

"Hey what's going on? I'm just leaving work now I should be home pretty soon, hopefully we'll all get home at the same time today."

"Taylor, we have a problem." Sophia's voice was flat and tense.

I wedged my cell phone between my ear and my shoulder as I dug around in my purse for my keys.

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"I just got a call from my mom, she just called 911, there was a fire in the housing unit… It was our house."

At first, I was unsure how to respond, but then my brain spurred into action.

"I'll be right there," I said hurriedly, "call Megan, ask her if she can keep Byron for another half hour… I'll be right there." I reiterated before jumping into my car and driving off.

Even before I drove into the housing unit I could see the smoke, gray and black and as I got closer I could see the flames leaping out of the roof and windows. The porch was almost inaccessible and I knew as soon as more oxygen was available it would be the first thing to go.

As Sophia and I parked our car is a few blocks away we ran towards the house. The fire department was already on the scene spraying the fire with their large hoses their black and yellow coats billowing.

The firefighters on the ground were waving their arms trying to keep the people that had gathered nearby back.

"What's going on? Do you know what started the fire?" I asked one of the firefighters who was supervising the proceedings.

"We can't be sure yet, we'll have to get in there and take a look around… It could be anything."

Sophia and I watched as the fire was extinguished, our once beautiful yellow house was now charred and blackened, the beautiful porch where Byron had loved to play now a blackened crumbling mass of wood.

Some hours later, when Sophia and I had returned to the scene (after we had both made sure Byron was in good hands) a firefighter and a police officer were standing in front of what remained of the house looking at some pictures on a digital camera shaking their heads. As soon as they saw Sophia and I they waved us over.

"Do you have any enemies? Is there anyone that has made threats to you recently?" The police officer asked, he was a young man a few years older than I was with sandy blond hair.

"I get threats on a daily basis." Sophia muttered, "people have had it out for me since I was in high school, being the unwanted species on a planet will do that to you."

The officer gave a wry smile, but he didn't say anything."

"Her uncle," I gestured to Sophia, "has threatened us twice since he returned to town. He's become the primary leader of the Atrian resistance."

The firefighter and police officer looked at each other and nodded before turning their attention back to us.

"Do these messages mean anything to either of you?" The officer asked and he finally showed us what he and the firefighter had been studying.

In the pictures, on the walls of what had once been our living room were a series of crude messages, among them one that said: "LEAVE TOWN; TAKE YOUR MUTTS WITH YOU", and that was the nicest one. If the messages weren't about our cross species children they were about our sexual orientation, but no crude remark was any worse than another; it still made my stomach sink.

"We would like your information so we can update you as we investigate this." The officer said, "if this resistance group is involved, it may be more serious than we thought."

So Sophia and I gave the police and fire department are information and informed them we were currently staying at my mother's residence if they needed us. We went home, hoping that was the last of it.

Unfortunately, we were wrong.

A few days later we got a call from someone at the fire department.

"Ms. Holland, we have an update for you."

"Do you know who set the fire?" I asked trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice.

"No, but according to the county fire marshal, he thinks it's arson, according to what we found out, it's too well done to have been any sort of accident."

…

This chapter ended up being slightly shorter than I anticipated. I know this Segway seems a bit abrupt, but it was the best way I can think of to tie my plot points together and motivate my characters, there's more coming you'll see how the fire is connected to the rest of the story in the coming chapters.