Chapter Eight

As Jess ran towards the burning building, a bolting figure from behind the barn caught his attention and he turned his head as his feet continued in the direction of the house, but the only detail he could make of the one that was fleeing was the gender and approximate height. The arsonist warning on Mort's desk seemed to tap him on the shoulder, but he put the cautionary thoughts in the back of his mind as the screams of Carol Hartley pulled him all the way to the front of the house, the blazing heat already reaching out in pulsating bursts touching his bare skin.

"Johnny!" Carol cried, her sobs muffling her repeated call to her husband as he tried to beat back the flames along the doorframe.

"I can't get inside!" Johnny dropped the blanket he'd been using as it had become part of the fire and ran backwards, nearly falling from the front steps as his wife threw her arms around him.

"Where's Mort?" Jess stepped close to the frantic couple, his eyes taking in the roaring mass of flames that devoured everything it touched.

Johnny and Carol stared wide-eyed at Jess, momentarily stunned they didn't say a word in response to Jess' question. Jess shouted a repeat and only then Johnny pointed towards the house, his jaw dropping open and then he found the necessary words. "He's inside … looking for you!"

"Me?" Jess murmured, stepping closer to the crumbling porch.

No one had known he'd fled the uncomfortable house a few hours earlier and now Mort was perhaps dying inside of the inferno because of him. Jess could hear the townspeople swarming, shouting, pumping water into buckets, but his eyes stayed locked on the hungry flames. He was jostled by an older man holding a bucket of water and as droplets splashed onto his leg, Jess grabbed the bucket from the man's hands and poured it over his head. Thrusting the bucket back into the puzzled man's direction, Jess jumped to the edge of the porch, the only part that hadn't been turned black and then he jumped through the shattered window, the shards of glass poking into his skin. He entered the blazing room, the image dangerously reminiscent of his worst nightmares.

"Mort!" Jess screamed, but the roaring flames muted his voice as the heat and choking smoke poured down his throat like he'd swallowed a chunk of burning debris.

Everything was on fire. The walls were a straight up line of flames and where it met the ceiling, they raced across like it was hungrily consuming its favorite fuel. The floor wasn't fully involved, only the carpeting that was bunched together in places had the highest flames. The furniture was bursting with bright color, only recognizable by the shape of the pulsating heat. Jess felt embers fall from above him, sizzling on his damp clothes and a small chunk of wood hit the rim of his hat, knocking the safety for his head aside, streaming a burn down the back of his neck. He put his hand over the smarting wound and looked up, seeing a familiar outline stagger from the top of the stairs.

"Mort!" Jess ran forward, his boots kicking the closest wad of smoldering carpet aside to give him a clearer path.

"Jess!" Mort's returned reply was raspy and choked with smoke, but it was a beautiful musical lyric in Jess' ears.

The bottom of the stairway was gone, only the top remained and that was quickly disappearing into the ominous tones of red and black. Mort took a shaky step, ready to jump to another hazard but suddenly the floor he stood upon collapsed, dropping his body into the middle of the flames. Mort thrust his arms protectively over his head, but the fabric that shielded him was soon afire. He heard Jess call his name but his own voice was silent with its reply. He closed his eyes as the burning on his skin felt like a hot knife searing into his flesh and then he dropped his head, gone were his senses of pain and smoke as the fire was ready to claim his life.

Jess tore through the fire, the stairwell falling around him in smoldering pieces, not caring that everything that touched him burned through to his skin. He saw a boot and grabbed it, pulling with all of his might until the unmoving body of his friend was fully extracted. Mort's clothes were burning, smoking, but it wasn't the sight that turned his stomach inside out, but the smell of burning flesh nearly made Jess retch. He didn't know if Mort was dead or alive, but Jess smothered the flames the best that he could on his friend's body and then hoisted Mort to his shoulder. Turning towards the front of the house, Jess gasped as there was nowhere to go. Even the window that he'd entered through had been obliterated. Jess saw the beams above him start to buckle and felt a scream tear through his chest as the vision of his youth assaulted him anew when he heard the faint sound of water splashing somewhere in front of him.

Even though the flames licked up at his boots as he walked, Jess aimed for where the doorway should have been and as he got closer, the shouts of Johnny's voice could be heard above the ever sickening din of the fire. Jess called out, uncertain if his smoke filled throat could make any sound but knew from the increasingly excited tones that poured from Johnny's mouth outside that he'd been heard. The buckets of water were hurtling at a rapid rate until Jess could finally see the outline of the doorway and freedom. He brushed through the dissolving doorway at the same time that the wall gave way, only surviving the flaming collapse by the crumbling building falling towards the flames instead of outwards.

Water hit him square in the face as every man holding a bucket doused the flames on his body and Mort's. When Jess put his foot on dirt, he literally felt the ground as the bottom of his boots had been seared away by the flames. Unknown hands took Mort's body away from his shoulder and Jess dropped to the ground, heaving as he pulled in more smoke into his lungs, but the cool night air mixed with the ashes brought him the necessary life into his chest. He felt female hands on his face and then a wet handkerchief was pressed to his neck, only then as the cold doused the heat did he remember he'd been burned there.

Hearing the worried tones beside him, Jess raised his body from the ground and searched for Mort, but his eyes were dry and his vision wasn't clear so he welcomed the same female hands that began to guide his arm to the tight cluster of bodies nearby. Jess heard the voice of Doc Sweeney and reached out a weary hand until he touched the physician, but his only response was a gentle, "I'll tend to you shortly."

"Is he?" Jess asked, but he couldn't tell if the sound from his throat was audible or not. He coughed and tried to walk but he staggered to the ground, only feeling relief when someone, perhaps the same female, applied more moisture to his face.

"I don't know, Jess," the voice was Carol's and then Jess wondered where Johnny was. As if she knew the imploring question in his head, Carol answered softly, "Johnny's helping them carry Mort to the doctor's office."

Jess opened his eyes, blinking them rapidly, but he felt as if they were full of burned debris. He took the wet handkerchief from Carol's hands and rubbed the corners of his eyes as they emitted tears that he had no control over until his vision began to clear. With the aid of Carol's hands, he stood and turned to view what remained of Mort's home. Nothing.

The men still fought back the fire even though the battle was already lost, but it was only to prevent the still leaping flames from spreading beyond the frame of the house. What once was a beautiful, well kept home was now a burning pile of unrecognizable belongings. Jess stared blankly at what was left, feeling like his body had been ripped into pieces. He was suddenly fifteen again. The eerie chills coursed through his body like the day of the Bannister raid as he had prepared to bury the dead. And now since he didn't know if Mort still held onto his life, Jess couldn't help but wonder if there would have to be another grave dug.